Build

by Shinichi

Created on: April 10, 2008   Last Updated: January 15, 2012

Building your computer will give you many advantages over a bought one. The built computer will be exactly what you will be needing; not to forget the money you will save by building it yourself.

• Building is easy

The computer might seem like a hard complex being; however, there is not many things easier than to built a computer from a scratch. The hardest part on building a computer is going to be the huge amount of computer parts you can choose from.

First of all you will need to figure what kind of computer will you be needing. The use of the computer has the biggest effect on the price of a computer; a computer meant for normal computer usage is different from a computer made for gaming.

Each computer part will have their advantages; the choice will be hard for a beginner, so looking for reviews about certain computer parts is wise. After a while you will craps the idea behind which part are reasonable, which are waste of money. The first computer build should be an easy one; no need for extra super strange cooling systems or computer cases.

• Choice of the right kind of computer

What is the main use for the computer? Do you need high graphical performance? Is all you do read your E-mail? You have to ask yourself questions about the use the computer will have when you have built it. Ask yourself simple questions about how you use the computer.

When you know what kind of a computer you will need; it is time for you to choose a budget for the computer. If you want to, you can take a price from a ready built one or make up a budget on your own. The amount of money does not matter; the more money you will have to use the better the computer will become.

• Cost

Generally a self built computer will be cheaper than a ready built one. Adding a hard disk or two will not cause a problem to the computer neither when you have the need for more space. The biggest advantage of a self built computer is definitely the price. The parts can be cheap if the computer is not used for anything else than the average computer use. Gaming computer are always better to be built yourself because the market computers usually have bad processing power compared to a self built one.

• Skill needed

The amount of skill for building a computer is very little. If you can read the manual, that will be more than enough to built a computer. All the steps needed to connect the cables, where to put screws are clearly told via an installation manual. Getting the CPU cooler right for the first time is probably the hardest part you will ever have with building a computer. It can be very hard.

Everything else will be more than easy. Just put the device in the right place and screw the screws in. After everything has been screwed in you just need to connect all the cables inside the case correctly.

The final step would be to install a operation system on the computer. The installation process might take over an hour, so be prepared for the waiting; there is not much to do while waiting for the operation system to be installed.

• Why not buy a computer?

The reason not to buy a computer is easy; the only thing that is easy with a computer bought from a store is that you only need to plug in the cables outside the case and start the computer. As long as everything is going fine there should be no problems with a computer from the store; however, the moment something starts to get wrong the problems start. The computers from the store have usually the minimal power supply they can; other parts are not the best neither. The manufacturer tries to save as much money as possible by using the cheapest parts in the computer possible; the quality of the computer will not be that great compared to one you can built at home.

Some of the computers from the store seem to have a nice set up; thus they seem like something you would want to buy. The problem is that for some of these computer the warranty only exists if the computer case will never be opened; not even cleaning up the case from dust is allowed. Other problems that might occur are the bad temperature control; not enough fans to bring fresh air inside or the CPU cooler might not be the best possible. The weakest link is always the graphic card, rarely you will have enjoyable time to use it for playing games.

In short, the computers from the stores seem to have good offers; however, they have more than enough problems coming with them. With just a little time investment you will be able to build a way better computer for less money instead of buying a computer from the store. You will also gain very valuable experience through the process of building a computer for yourself.

Learn more about this author, Shinichi.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.