A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Building your own PC

A friend of mine asked me if the people that read my blog would be interested in seeing someone build a pc from start to finish.  I know I would and hope that you guys do too.  What I will do is break this up into various sections.  This section will cover the Introduction, an overview of PC components, Erik's current PC and his build plan.  A special thanks goes out to Erik Schaefer for taking the time and documenting his process and sending it off to me to share with all of you.  As always, please feel free to make comments throughout these posts.  I look forward to what everyone thinks. 

Introduction 

Building your own PC can be intimidating.  I remember the first time I cracked open a PC to replace a hard drive.  Once I found how easy it was behind that clutter of wires, I never looked back.  I’m going to have a series of blogs that walks you through the PC build I’m doing, and I hope it can teach users some basic things about PC building and repair. 

The first question you are probably asking is “why would I want to build my own PC”?  The answer really depends on what you want from your PC.  These days, manufacturers offer specialized computers for different purposes such as: “Gamers”, “Multimedia” (photo/video/music), and “Workstations” (for data crunching).  If you are a basic user in one of these categories, a manufacturer’s PC may be right for you.  These companies get tremendous bulk discounts on parts and software so they are able to build them cheaper than you are I in most cases.   Perhaps the biggest benefit of manufacturer PCs is the warranty and technical support that comes with them.  If you do not have the patience to research and troubleshoot issues, then having the peace of mind of a technical support person in your back pocket may be what pushes you into a retail store for a purchase. 

Keep in mind, cheaper is not always better.  My frustration with the PC industry reached its breaking point several years ago when my low-end, store bought computer had the video driver go out.  It was integrated into the motherboard, which meant there was no replacing it.  Due to the cheap nature of the unit, there were no expansion slots (PCI or AGP at the time) that I could use for an aftermarket video card.    To compound the issue, even if I bought a new motherboard, I would not be able to reinstall windows, because the manufacturer unit came with a “restore disk” that has their version of windows (and many useless programs that take up hard drive space) which would not work with a new motherboard.  This was the time I decided to cut myself free from the pc manufacturer’s clutches.  

Building your own PC gives you the customization to build it for the purposes you need.  It also gives you the flexibility of upgrading or changing its purpose.  It is also rewarding if you are a “do it yourself” type person, or you enjoy learning new things. 

What you need to get started: 

1. Decide what you want your PC to do.  Will it be for surfing the internet and basic tasks?  Will it be a gaming machine?  Will it be for multimedia (video and photo editing)?  Will it be a data cruncher?   
2. What is your budget?  There will always be a better PC component just around the corner.  If you wait just another month, or spend just another $50 you can get something just a little bit better.  Set a budget, and stick with it (with a few exceptions I can get into later). 
3. Make a list of what you need.  It is possible you can reuse parts from your old PC, but you need to know if they are compatible and if they work properly.   

Quick overview of PC components 

Here are the basic parts of a PC and what they do: 

1. CPU (aka “Processor”) –  The part of the PC which performs all of the calculations.  If the computer was a body, this is the brain.  They key to performance is with the CPU. Intel and AMD are the two companies that make CPUs. 
2. Motherboard  – The main board of a PC.  If the CPU is the brains, this is the spine and nerves.  It connects all components together and allows everything to communicate.  Motherboards can have various things like audio and video integrated into it, or not.  Everything plugs into the motherboard in some manner.  There are a number of motherboard manufacturers but some of the more popular ones today are Gigabyte, Biostar, Asus, and MSI. 
3. Memory (aka “RAM”) – Stores data temporarily from your hard drive for the CPU to use in calculations.  It’s much faster than a hard drive, so the more memory you have, the fewer times your CPU has to reach out to your slow hard drive for data.   
4. Power supply unit (aka “PSU”)– Self explanatory.  Power supplies take power from your wall and can have a number of different adapters.  At least one adapter goes to your motherboard (usually 2) and each of your peripherals (hard drives, disk drives, and fans) require power too.  It’s important to make sure you have more than enough power to your computer, and the right kinds of connections you will need. 
5. A case – Self explanatory.  You need something to house your computer and keep the dust out.  A good aftermarket case will have many fans.  Heat is the enemy of electronics, and fans help push the heat away from the delicate parts and out of the case.   
6. Drives - hard drives (HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs), floppy drives, DVD and CD drives – These all mount to your case and require two connections: a power source to your power supply, and a data connection to your motherboard. 
7. PCI components – motherboards have PCI slots on them.  Common sizes are PCI x16 and PCI x1.  These slots are where you can plug in aftermarket video cards, wireless internet, video capture cards, or a number of other things.  More PCI slots means more flexibility, but it’s also important to look at the speed of the PCI slot.  There are currently PCI x16, PCI 2.0 x16, and PCI 3.0 x16 for example. 

My current PC (What I’m starting with) 

I created my current PC about 4 years ago.  I was using this PC as a DVR to record TV shows, and I also needed it to record and edit lots of family videos with a new child on the way.  I needed a PC with lots of memory (RAM) and lots of PCI slots for extra components (Video card, Video capture Card/TV tuner, and my wireless internet dictated that I needed at least 3 PCI card slots on my motherboard.  When I started this build, PC manufacturers were just starting to branch into “multimedia” PCs.  They were expensive and didn’t quite have the features I wanted.   

So when designing my PC years ago, keeping in mind a small budget and a required 3 PCI slots, I selected the motherboard first.  Not the best move, but I learned from this mistake and more on that later.  I went with an EPoX EP-MF4 Ultra, which admittedly was a quirky choice, but it was the only one I could find that met my requirements and budget.  

Choosing a motherboard locked me into the processor.  A motherboard will have a specific “Socket” on it and that socket will only work with one manufacturer’s type of CPU socket.  So for example the motherboard I had would only work with a socket called “AM2” from the company AMD.    

Within the AMD family of AM2 sockets, I selected a middle of the road CPU.  My plan was to use it for a few years until prices came down, and then I’d upgrade to a faster one.  Currently the AMD processor I have is a 3.0GHz dual core processor (dual core meaning it has two processors that can perform calculations at the same time.  This helps if you are doing two different tasks like editing video and listening to music). 

I have 4 slots for memory and I have 2GB of memory in each slot for 8GB total.  My motherboard supports up to 16GB of memory which was an incredible amount at the time!  For my memory I have 4 sticks of OCZ gold DDR2 memory (I don’t remember which speed).  OCZ Gold has a lifetime warranty, it runs fast and it’s reliable.  It was among the best DDR2 memory at the time. 

The rest of my setup has evolved over the past four years.  I have swapped out my Power supply, added DVD drives, removed several PCI cards and in general my computing needs changed.  I will be reusing these components in my new build so I will go into details later on: 

Power supply:  Corsair 1050X  

Hard drive: 120GB Intel SSD for boot disk, and 600GB Seagate for data storage 

Case:  Thermaltake Tsunami Dream 

Graphics: Asus ENGTX560 

Drives: A DVD burner, a CD burner and a floppy drive.  I rarely even use these. 

Build Plan 

Going back to the first blog, I listed three things you need to do before you begin a build, and this is how I decided my direction: 

1. What do you want your PC to do?   

• I want my PC to be able to play newer games.  It does not need to be top of the line fast, but enough to meet game demands over the next 3-5 years.  
• I need it to be good with video editing, as I still do this on occasion.  
• I want the ability to add on to it later.  There is nothing worse than being locked into a dead-end component and having to upgrade your entire system prematurely. 
• I want to do some basic overclocking (more on overclocking later) 

2. What is your budget? 

My budget is $500-$600.  I have recently upgraded several components so I am going to reuse much of my setup.  I plan on taking these old components and assembling them into an old case I have, and trying to resell it for $200-$300 to recoup some of this cost. 

3. What components do you need? 

• A motherboard, 
• a CPU 
• New memory 

I will use the rest from my current setup.

More to come in a few days.....