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If you are going to use your computer for word processing, web surfing, keeping household recipes and address books, go buy a computer off the shelf. Better yet, get a refurbished computer from a reputable dealer and plug it into your old monitor. On the other hand, if you want the technology to perform for you, then you want a Ferrari and driving a Pinto will never satisfy your need for speed.

Two very popular uses for computers today are gaming and media machines. There are few uses the home user can use a computer for that will push the capabilities of your computer like gaming will. Because of this, there are companies that build and sell gaming machines, but you can easily spend $2000 to $3000 for a fast, state of the art gaming machine, and when you take this into consideration, building a computer does actually become a money saving hobby, and it is fun and educational at the same time. Media machines are great also, they can run the largest and latest plasma and LCD TV sets, they can power your surround sound home theater system, and fast media machines are essential for crunching and editing movies and videos. So many store bought machines boast video editing, but in reality if you have a two hour video in DVD format and are trying to make changes in the middle of the movie, you might want to go out to dinner while it tries to find and update your changes.

A smart home builder can take advantage of most of the newest technology in a way that allows keeping up with the times much less expensive. most store bought computers are mini ATX format with video drivers built into the motherboard, there are few expansion slots, and many of them even have proprietary equipment like specially sized power supplies, so when you need to upgrade, a standard ATX power supply may not fit. I've built and upgraded 3 computers for my own use over the past several years, and can still upgrade the same box with today's technology as I did several years ago when I first started. The box is only one component, many other components can also be reused and upgraded with time and technology. This not only creates an upgradable and versatile machine, it can save money down the road, and learning how and what to do are not that difficult if you just take the time to research.

Today, you can take an older machine, maybe an Athlon XP 1800 based machine using the old 133 MHz Memory, and for around $100 you can replace the motherboard with a socket 939, XP 3800+ dual

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