So You Want to Build a PC

Once you have made the decision to build a PC, you have some important decisions facing you. We will discuss what you will need and help you make these decisions, approximate cost, and the amount of time required.

Building your own PC can be a very rewarding experience. Wile it is not that complicated, it does involve making decisions.

You must decide just how you will use the PC. Is it going to be for gaming? Will you use it to edit video? Will it just be for school and surfing the internet. These are the types of decision you must be made.

What A Gaming PC Needs

A gaming PCs first priority must be a high performance graphics card. In gaming, the graphics card does most of the work. (This is also true for video editing.) The graphics chip or processor handles the processing as the game unfolds.

A gaming PC must have a CPU processor or main processor that is fast enough to support the graphics card, otherwise the game will bog down. I would recommend a high performance graphics card from either ATI Radeon or nVidia. A graphics processor on the motherboard just will not have the power to handle the load.

In addition to the graphics and the CPU chip, you must have sufficient RAM or memory to accommodate the processor load. Look at memory as your work bench, the larger the work bench, the more work can be done and in gaming, there is a lot of work to be done.

A fourth major concern would be a power supply for the system. A high performance graphics card requires a high wattage supply. My suggestion would be at least a 750 watt supply. This is not an expensive component to don't try to save here.

A high performance gaming using the best components will cost around $2,000.

Video Editing PC

A video editing PC has many of the same needs as does a gaming PC. It must have a high performance graphics card since much of the processing load will be shunted to it. Again, nVidia or ATI Radeon is the recommendation.

An absolute must is a firewire or IEEE1394 connection. This is the means whereby you connect a camcorder to a system and transfer your captured video to the PC.

A lot of memory is a necessity. I would recommend at least 2GB with 4GB a better choice.

A fast processor is also necessary in that again, there is a lot to be done, especially if you are using chromakey.

The third requirement is disk space and plenty of it. A good rule of thumb for video is that 10 minutes of uncompressed video has a requirement for about 2GB disk space. Fortunately, disk drives have dropped significantly in price over the past two years. I currently have 1TB (terabyte) of hard drive on my system. A terabyte is a 1 followed by 12 zeros!!

A good PC suitable for video editing will run between $1200 and $1500.

PC for schoolwork

Despite what your children tell you, it is not necessary to have the all powerful PC for them to do school work. A hard drive with a capacity of about 200GB will suffice. I would recommend at least 1GB memory and suggest 2GB. The system should have at least 2 USB ports and a modem or network interface card (If you have a home network.) Many schools require assignments be submitted online and provide grading feedback via the same method.

A PC for school can be built for around $500.

Surfing The Internet

Internet surfing does not put a big demand on the PC. Of course you must have a means of connecting to the internet. Usually, this is done by a cable modem or a dialup modem. The dialup modem will require a phoneline but it does not have to be a dedicated phoneline. However, you need to keep in mind that when you are online your telephone is unavailable.

A cable modem is the faster way to connect to the internet. It does not tie up your telephone and is about 100 times as fast as dialup, depending on the provider.

A basic PC can be built for $400-$600.

Tools Required

Generally, you will not need many tools to build your PC. They are very inexpensive and readily available.

You will need a small screwdriver, or two. You should have a Phillips head screwdriver as well as a blade screwdriver.

Another tool necessary is a wrist grounding strap. Anytime you are working on the unit, you should be wearing a grounding strap. They cost about $4 and can be found at Best Buy. They are needed to ground you to the PC case to prevent static electricity from damaging the sensitive components on the graphics card or the motherboard.

The last requirement is space. I built mine on the kitchen table but I have an understanding wife and we are empty nesters. Not much space is needed but it should be where little fingers can't get to it.

Component Acquisition

Getting the components will require research on your part. The web is an excellent resource here. You must have the following:

Case I would suggest an aluminum case for heat dissipation. My case is a Lian-Li. It has 4 fans.

Power Supply..I recommend 750 watt supply

Motherboard.. My personal choice is Intel but AMD boards are fine. Shopping wisely can save you money here. Remember your requirements(Gaming, video processing,etc.)

Memory You need to match your memory to the specifications of the motherboard. This will be in the packaging material.

Graphics Card Again, shopping wisely can save you money here. The internet is your best bet for good price. Just make sure you select a reputable seller.

You will need 1 or 2 hard drives. My personal recommendation is SeaGate drives and you should opt for 7200RPM drives.

You will also need to purchase Windows. I am partial to WinXP but that is just me. You cannot use an existing Windows disk. It will get by the Microsoft verification process.

Putting Your PC Together

This is the fun part and probably the easiest. You will need to be gentle with the installation of the motherboard into the case and the insertion of the graphics card and memory cards onto the motherboard. Again, not a difficult process. The Lian-Li case I mentioned makes assembly easier than most cases. The component chassis slides out for easy access for installation of the motherboard, graphics card, memory and the hard drive.

Now, you have identified your needs and decided what you need. Acquire your parts (after due research), get your screwdriver and wrist grounding strap and have at it. It can be done in one day but I took it very slowly.

Do all of this and prepare for a most rewarding experience. This comes when you power it up and the splash screen shows that everything is ok.