by C.C.Mcinnes

Created on: May 04, 2008   Last Updated: April 13, 2009

So, you want to take the plunge and build your own computer. Great, there is no better feeling than putting your own box together and having it fire up correctly the first time. (IT'S ALIVE! ALIVE!)

The first thing you should ask yourself is "What am I going to use this computer for?"
The answer to this question will help you in deciding which components you will be installing.

A gaming computer will have different requirements from a computer used only to run business applications, and knowing ahead of time what you are going to do with it can save you some coin.

Power supplies:
My motto on this subject is "go big or go home". When I build computers I always put a minimum of 450 watts or more of name brand power supply. This way later on, if you decide to add more gizmos like external drives, cameras, bigger video cards etcetera, you have the power. I've been using the Optimax 450's and 550's in the industrial boxes I build, and have been pretty happy with performance and price so far. There are many sites out there that rate power supplies, or you can call up your local computer shop and see what they recommend.

Motherboard / CPU
Things can get a might confusing when it comes to motherboard and CPU combo's. Do you go with Intel or AMD? ASUS or SuperMicro? There are just so many out there. The best bet is to try to find a site that gives unbiased reviews of the different motherboards and cpu's.
http://www.techspot.com is a good place to start.
My personal rule of thumb is go as high as you can afford. The Motherboard/CPU combination is the "engine" of your computer, and you don't want to put a VW motor in your corvette.

Ram
How much ram you have dictates how fast your computer will run applications .Vista likes to have 2 gigs + to operate well, and most major software applications like Photoshop are memory hogs.
The thing to watch out for here is what type of Ram does the motherboard require.There is a ton of different types of Ram out there and most is not compatible with the other.

Most motherboards use what is known as DDR type.(double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory) There is DDR, DDR2 (same thing but twice as fast) and DDR3, (twice as fast but less power consumption). These are not mix and match, they are all "keyed" differently DDR2 will not fit on a DDR motherboard. Take it from me, I've tried and no matter how much you beg, plead or swear, it just won't work. So double check what type of Ram you need when you choose your motherboard.

Hard drives
I'm

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