PC Building 101

 

     I know most of you are well in the know about the basics of PC building, as well as modification. But, there are always beginners out there who are just starting in the world of computer tinkering, so I thought I would write a brief article on the basics of PC building.

     I am going to assume that you know nothing about the components and what they do, and will provide a very short description and as many links to detailed info as I can. I have been doing this for quite some time, so I can at least tell you that while this guide will help you to put together a basic PC and get it running, the best way to learn how to do it, and do it well, is to just tinker, experiment, and tinker some more.

    I can honestly say that 90% of what I know today I learned from screwing up. If you don’t screw up once in a while, you’re doing something wrong. With that said, here is the basic list of components you will need to build a PC.

 

Basic Components:

1.     Case and power supply

2.     Motherboard

3.     CPU

4.     RAM

5.     Hard drive

6.     Video card

7.     Sound card

8.     Modem and/or Network Interface Card (NIC)

9.     Floppy and or ZIP drive

10.  CD, CD-RW, DVD drives

 

 

Case – Houses everything listed below #1. Your choice of case will depend on how you intend on using the PC, your own personal taste, and of coarse, money. If you are building a server, you would be wise to select a case with lots of drive bays (i.e.; full tower) and plenty of room inside, and of course, lots of fannage.

          If you are building a LAN box, you would want to select something more compact and fairly portable. As far as the power supply is concerned, most modern CPUs require at least a 300-watt PSU (Power Supply Unit), and in most cases will come preinstalled.

 

Motherboard – sometimes referred to as a “mainboard” is the foundation of any PC, and controls all the components in your PC. The motherboard is the most important part of your system – if it isn’t functioning properly all of your other components won’t matter because the motherboard controls everything else. So chosing a good, solid motherboard is crucial in the success or failure of putting together a PC.

 

CPU – or Central Processing Unit is the next most important part of the PC, after the motherboard. Most modern CPUs are relatively inexpensive and powerful. They pack more “bang-per-buck” than anytime in history, and continue to be more powerful and less expensive as time progresses. The 2 main CPU manufacturers at the time of this writing are AMD (www.amd.com) and Intel (www.intel.com).  Both make great CPUs, and have their advantages and disadvantages. It’s really up to you to decide on which platform you would like to build on.

 

RAM – or Random Access Memory is the memory that your computer uses to store short-term information for quick access. The amount and type of RAM your computer uses will determine its performance to a large extent. Modern RAM types include SDRAM (PC66, PC100, PC133), DDR SDRAM (PC1600 – PC3000), and RDRAM (Rambus).

          Right now, SDRAM is quickly becoming obsolete in favor of DDR. RDRAM is only used in Intel systems, namely the Pentium4 and offers enormous bandwidth, but has higher latency than DDR (I will go into this more later).

 

Hard drive – this is where all your programs and data are permanently stored (until you delete them, get a bad virus, get hacked, or take a lightening strike!). Think of it as your computers long-term memory. When you turn the computer off your programs and files will remain here, whereas the data and programs loaded in RAM will be erased. Hard drives come with different interfaces (how they connect to your computer), and SCSI and IDE are the main types.

          The hard drive plays a larger role in your PCs overall performance than you might think. These days IDE drives are almost as fast (faster in some cases) as SCSI drives. I am only going to recommend IDE drives for beginners, because they are far more simple to set up, and are less expensive. IDE drives currently come in 5400RPM and 7200RPM models. With the minimal cost difference, I suggest buying a 7200RPM model. Fortunately, the 5400RPM drives are becoming less popular, and their numbers are decreasing.

 

Video card – this is what controls what you see on your monitor. There are many motherboards with integrated (built-in) video. For the most part, these are low quality and you want to avoid using them. There is currently one exception to this rule – nVidia’s nForce with integrated GeForce2 video. It is decent quality, and is powerful enough to play most 3D games. For hardcore gamers, 3D artists, or you amateur filmmakers out there, you will need a more powerful AGP card with at least 32MB of VRAM. Just from my own experience, you can’t go wrong with any card that says “GeForce3” (made by nVidia). Right now, these cards offer superb performance for about ½ the price you will pay for a GeForce4 or ATI Radeon8500 (Top of the line cards at time of writing).

 

Sound card – pretty self-explanatory. This produces sound output for your speakers. Again, select a card (and they are sometimes integrated in the motherboard as well) that meets or exceeds (room for upgrades) your needs. If you only have 2 speakers, just about any soundcard will do. If you have more than 2, you will need something like the Creative SoundBlaster Live, or Audigy. If you are not a musician or hardcore audiophile, then go with the SB Live. It's less expensive than the Audigy.

 

Modem/NIC – these will connect you to the outside world and other computers on your LAN if you have one. If you are going to be connecting to the Internet via dialup connection, you will need a modem. 56K v.92 is the current standard. If you have DSL or cable modem, you will need a NIC (Network Interface Card). Don’t waste your time on a 10Mbit version, get a 100Mbit card. I have had the best luck with Linksys, SMC and 3Com brands.

              
Another type of network card that is quickly taking hold is the Wireless network card. If you subscribe to a wireless Internet service they will usually provide these to you. I currently have a Cisco Aironet that provides me with an 11Mbit wireless connection.

 

Floppy and ZIP drives – the floppy disk is quickly going the way of the Doe-Doe. I can’t tell you the last time I actually used mine. ZIP drives are floppy-like disks that hold 100 or 250 MB of data. I don’t recommend these to anyone anymore because a CD-RW drive is less expensive and the media is also less expensive.

 

CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD-R – Most people these days want a CD-RW or DVD or both. The plain vanilla CD drive is only an option if you just cant afford CD-RW, and it that case I would opt for a DVD drive because there are only a few bucks more if that. That being said, we have the hierarchy of optical drives;

          CD Rom – skip it unless its all ya got.

          DVD drive – use this if you cant afford a CD-RW.

          CD-RW – this will allow you to create your own CDs, which seems to be all the rage these days.

          DVD-R and DVD+RW – these are the new kids on the block. They allow you to record your own DVDs (no, you cant copy your commercial DVDs because they are encrypted and DVD-Rs and DVD+RWs wont read the encryption tracks).

 

 

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