Is The Case Clean

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Building your own pc ... step 1: purchase/collect the components ( part 1) - let' s get down to business. Then get ready, brew some coffee and let' s get started.

The first thing you' re going to have to do is open the wallet/ purse/ credit card to make some purchases. - building your own pc. Often this is the one step that takes the most time and consideration. STEP 1: Purchase/ Collect the Components - Part 1. Which parts do I buy? There are many good places to buy computer parts. Which are best?

You can go to a computer retail store in your area. - sometimes you pay a lot more. Although they often provide good warranties, the trade off may be that you will pay a little more than you would in other places. Also, due to the sheer volume of people they see every day, some of the" support specialists" don' t always listen to your concerns and start jumping to conclusions on what you need or what the problem is. If you walk in and say your computer keeps crashing and he insists you need a new motherboard and CPU to fix it, start running to the door. Some of them take pride that they can give you a technical answer in two seconds and make themselves look smart, even though what they just said is probably wrong.

Most towns have smaller stores that sell and repair computer equipment. - regardless of location, such stores are often cheaper and can provide individual attention. These may be an office suite in a strip mall. The hardware they sell is often retail packaged from the manufacturer. You will need to be the judge on this type of hardware. They may also sell OEM hardware, which usually comes wrapped in nothing but a static bag and is accompanied with very little documentation.

If you feel you need the documentation, you should not buy OEM hardware. - this is not always the case, but since they are a smaller business and don' t have the large sale volumes of the larger retail stores, they are often under more pressure to make the sale just to stay solvent. Also, not to stereotype certain businesses, but I have to tell you this so you' ll be informed: the smaller mom - and - pop computer stores are sometimes a little more questionable as to their knowledge base. Be aware of this when you walk in. The bottom line here is to know your stuff. Do your research.

The PC sales industry is occupied by many who WILL take advantage of your lack of knowledge to make a sale. - this is where you decide between a desktop or a tower case. Now, let us go through each type of hardware: Case: Make sure you buy a case which will fit into the space you intend to place it. Allow room for expandability. Make sure it has a power supply. Spare drive bays, ample room to work inside. Is the case clean?

All newer motherboards are using the ATX form factor, so if you have an old case lying around, chances are a new board won' t fit in it. - pay attention to the form factor: at or atx. If you do a lot of upgrading, you should get a case that is designed with this in mind, such as easily removed motherboard mounting plates, etc, drive racks. Try to have the buttons such as power and reset recessed, so that if you keep the case under the desk you won' t accidentally kick the thing and reset it. Things like the turbo switch and key lock are ancient technology, so pay no mind to having them. Also, check the sturdiness of the case.

Pay attention to how the case comes apart. - some cheaper cases are actually quite flimsy inside. Depending on the design, the screw less type is very user friendly. If you will be running a high - end processor in the case. It' s easier to work with a case that does not come apart in multiple pieces. Then pay attention to the cooling aspects of the box. You should have an unobstructed air hole in the front of the case for a front - mounted case fan, with some method of air flow from the rear of the case as well.

It' s nice when cases come with case fans included, but if they do not, you should make sure the case is designed to allow them. - many power supplies also aid in cooling by having bottom - mounted fans that suck air from the inside of the case and blow it out the back through the power unit. Fans are your best friend fighting heat. Don' t go cheap on your fans either. You get what you pay for. If you will be running either a large amount of hardware or fairly high - end hardware in this case, get a good strong power supply with good wattage ratings. And, pay attention to, along this line the wattage rating of the power supply included with the case.

As far as brands go, there are many good manufacturers out there. - if you don' t mind spending a little more, you may want to take a look at the quality cases made by antec. All aluminum cases are now started to catch on. If you' re into modified cases, you can get them pre - modified with viewing holes and everything. For some reason, though, I' ve never been keen on tearing huge holes into my PCs, but maybe it' s just me. Or, if you' re so inclined, you can grab a nice case and do your own mods to it.

Motherboard: Almost everyone knows that the motherboard is the most important component of your computer. - keep in mind that your motherboard choice controls your future upgrade paths. At one point or another, every other component connects to the motherboard. Want to upgrade you RAM? Want that new video card? You first have to check and see what type your motherboard will take, and how much it will support.

Your motherboard will need a PCI express slot. - if you choose the wrong motherboard in the beginning, you may find yourself having to buy a different one down the road to support some other upgrade. Get the point? Today' s motherboards are a lot more sophisticated than the one' s in the 486 days. Where you once needed an IDE controller card, the connectors are now built right on the motherboard. If you are used to these older systems, you will need to come up to speed on the latest boards.

USB was once an option - now it is integrated on every board. - buying a motherboard is a tradeoff - you need to know what you want and then pick that board which has the best combination of features for you. Some boards go all the way, offering built on SCSI or Sata controllers, 10/ 100/ 1000 Ethernet support, onboard video and sound, etc. Bear in mind the old adage - sometimes it is better to buy what you will eventually end up with anyway. Of course this is a generalization, but it' s accurate enough. Bare - bone boards. There are really three levels of motherboards.

These are the types of boards you usually get if you are not into PC hardware and don' t want to deal with frustrations. - these boards have built in sound and video, and sometimes other features too. You just want to build it and turn it on. They don' t usually over clock well and don' t have a wide range of CPU support. Many times, pre - built PCs come with these types of boards, and this is one of the reasons you should be following this tutorial. These boards are comparatively inexpensive.

If you' re going to bother building your own PC, get a board that' s worth your time. - these boards come with a single cpu slot, eide or sata controller, etc. This isn' t it. Secondly, we have the level of board most commonly used. Most don' t have built in video, although more of them have built - in sound. They support a wide range of processors, and with more voltage and multiplier settings, they are more over clocking friendly. This is fine, as long as it is easily disabled.

Some of these boards offer RAID capability. - these are the dual processor boards, often with built on nic, scsi, sata, a bunch load of pci slots. With the proper amount of PCI slots, these boards are great. Thirdly, you have the best which most of us cannot afford. PCI slots are a necessity because if you add additional cards to your system most of them will be PCI cards. Is there a big capacitor right near the CPU slot, blocking where your CPU fan will go? Some things you want to bear in mind: Board Layout: A lot of people don' t consider where everything is placed on the motherboard, but it is important. Is there a bunch of crap that will block your full - length PCI card from fitting?

You need to know roughly what you will be plugging into this board and know if anything will get in the way. - are the memory slows in a position where you' d need to remove the floppy drive to get at i them? This also depends to a degree on the size of the case you are using. Unfortunately, this doesn' t exist. Trying to cram a larger board, like an Asus or Gigabyte board, into a mini - tower is asking for trouble. Slots - If we had our way, we' d have a motherboard with 20 PCI slots so we could run everything in the world. So, you need to pay attention to how many PCI slots a motherboard has. Be careful, you can easily fill all your slots.

For most of us the standard 3 to 5 PCI slots will be fine. - make sure the board has an agp or pci express slot for video card upgrades. My following article will complete your PC shopping list. Due to the length of this particle article I thought it best to split it up into manageable chunks.