Building Your Own Computer – Save And Be Happy

Building your own computer can be fun but before you do begin, the one question you must answer is what is the machine going to be used for? You will need to buy the parts selected on that need, the size of the motherboard, the CPU requirements, power supply, hard drive capacity and so on.

Anything that is a memory hog such as graphics, movies,will need more expensive cards and chip sets. If on the other hand your computer will be for more basic tasks such as word processing your computer design will require much less powerful chip sets.

Design work, animation graphics and sound file manipulation with MIDI controllers are advanced applications that would be more for the very experienced computer user who is familiar with the technical savvy to put it all together.

Basic parts mean less money and you can build a really good computer for much less than you would pay for a commercial version.

Should You Use Salvaged Parts?

Should I use the motherboard from my old computer? In a word no. Computer technology is advancing so fast you want to install the latest upgrades that are part of your initial design including The CPU, memory chips and power supplies. Your old computer could find a new home in schools which will take them or some charities will accept them.

Another reason is that parts from your old computer are not usually a good idea to consider due to the simple fact they are old. With lots of use these parts become weak with a much shorter service life and may not be compatible with your new computer design. Computers aren’t known to have a long service life so just avoid a problem in the first place.

If your computer is less than say 2 years old you could salvage the hard drive and place it as a backup or secondary drive to your C drive. If the CD drive and your DVD players are still good and will meet future needs you can save a little money and install in your new machine.

Getting The Parts You Need

Your parts list will be determined by the design you decided on in step one. This where you select the type of motherboard, CPU, sound cards, graphics, DVD players or CD players that you want. The first two items mentioned will be the primary decision for power and memory all the rest are add on to the basic design which make up the total. If your old CD and DVD players are compatible this is where you add them to your list.

Which particular brand of CPU you use such as an Intel or an AMD unit is one of personal choice either one has no advantage over the other.

There you have the basics to build your computer the next step is to install and hook everything up and with a little luck it should all come together.