Home-Built Computers: More power! Less money.

The first step is to decide what your personal needs are. Do you only surf the web once in awhile? Do you watch Videos? Play video games? Write documents? Do all of these things at the same time?

The more demanding the programs you use, the more powerfull components your going to need. Internet exploror, excel, word ect are not demanding at all.

Lets say you only surf the web and you want to focus on the web browser speed along with chat programs that may be running simutanously. For this instance your build should only cost around 300-600$. The exact same computer if bought from Best Buy or Circuit City would be about 1500-2000$

Ok ok, calm down. The next step is the most difficult and time consuming. You must choose all the parts to get and ensure they are compatable.

Here is a complete list of the types of parts you will need to obtain and a short description of each:

1. Case - This is the box where all the parts will go into there are thousands of different designs to choose from making the appearance of your new computer highly customizable.

2. Motherboard - The first thing you will install into the case. Its what everything else plugs into allowing the components to work together. It should have several screw holes that will align with the case and come with its own screws, very simple installation.

3. Hard Drive - This is what holds all the information on your computer usually measured in gigabites. I recommend a 100-150 gb hard drive for casual PC users. If you want to download entire movies onto your computer regularly you're going to want alot more than that. For gamers I recommend 200-1000 gbs (1000 gigabytes is then considered 1 terabyte). A hard drive is also easy to install, one plug goes into the power source and one into the motherboard.

4. Power source - This is what will connect your computer to the wall power outlet and give power to your entire system. 350-400W should be good for casual users 850W would be overkill for most 6-700W for gamers is fine. Many of the computer's components plug into the powersource.

5. CDRW/CD/DVD Drive - If you like to burn CDs your going to want a CDRW (Compact disk re-writable)drive this will also run cds normally. A DVD drive not only plays DVDs it also runs faster than a normal CD drive which means faster software installations. The more you plan to use the drive the faster it should be. This also plugs into the powersource and motherboard and most cases have room for about 4 different drives.

6. Processor/CPU(Central processing unit) - One of the most important parts within a computer which has a direct relationship with your computer's overall speed. You must ensure the processor is compatable with the motherboard. They greatly vary in price from 30$-1500$. CPUs are measured in GHz the higher the better. There are duo core and quad core processores which mean the amount of GHz is doubled or quadrupled so if you get a 2.00 GHz Duo Core processor your getting about the same speed as a 4.00 GHz regular one. A Duo is reccommended for gamers and 2.5-3 GHz regular one for a casual user. These are usually very easy to install, you just align it up with its place on the motherboard and press it in.

7. Memory/RAM - Another very important part, this is what temporarily stores and accesses the information your currently using. 2 Gigabyte (1000 megabytes is a gigabyte) seems to be the standard these days and is fine for most users, gamers may want to go as high as 4 or 8. These are sticks that slip right into 2 or more slots on the motherboard. As with the CPU they require a compatability check with your motherboard type.

8. Video Card - This is what your monitor plugs into aside from the wall outlet to show the computer's information on your screen. For casual users you do not have to worry about going over 100$ with this gamers may want to head towards the 250+ range though its not always necessary. This will slip into a slot inside your computer and must be secured with a single screw, an external place to plug in your monitor should show through the back of the case when installation is complete. Inside it should also connect to the power source. Again, make sure it is compatable with your motherboard most have at least one PCIe slot reserved for the purpose of holding video card but a few other types of slots do exist.

9. Extra fans - Depending on the description of the processor you're getting you may need to buy a fan separatly so that the CPU does'nt overheat. These are cheap and should screw in directly on top of the processor.

10. OS (Operating system) - Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux ect. You may already have the cd to one of these if so there is no need to buy one, it is the first thing that needs to be installed once the build is complete. If you have Windows XP I do highly recommend getting some form of Windows Vista, it runs alot more smoothly. This will come with installation instructions and a very good technical support line if you get lost.

Computer shows are a great place to collect parts the're like a giant yard sale for this kind of stuff plus you can talk to the vendors one on one and get all the information you need. You can find these in your local newspapers.

I personally order all my parts online, I've built 3 computers now the first when I was 14 and always used www.tigerdirect.com to order parts. I know alot of sites like this but tiger direct is my absolute favorite. Everything is as cheap as you can get, they have everything you could possibly need, they ship very fast and I've been ordering of them for about 9 years now and never had any problems.

Yes thats it, I sincerely hope you give this a try, you get a true sence of accomplishment after finishing your first home-built pc. Its easier than you think! Usually all the parts come with thier own set of installation instructions so you should'nt have too many problems and there are plently of resourses accross the web available if you get stuck. Thank you for reading and good luck!