| There is nothing like building your computer, not only do you discover how each piece of hardware relates to the others, you also learn what each component does. It is increasingly popular to build your own computer. In most cases, it will save money, and will guarantee that you get what you want. It also assures you avoid proprietary designs many companies use to keep you coming to them for new parts. Best of all, if you build the system yourself, you'll become very familiar with that system and with computers in general, so will be easier to do your own repairs and upgrades. |  |
 | The first step is to decide what you will use your new computer for, because it will effect the hardware you buy to build your computer. We are not going to talk about that in this guide, because their are a lot of different options to choose from with the hardware you use. We will just explore the basics in putting a computer system together is this guide, explain what not to do, and discuss common mistakes. We will just say the most important parts in your computer are the motherboard and power supply. If you don't skimp on those two items, you should have a pretty good system when you are done. The processor you install really is a matter of preference and amount of money you want to spend. AMD processor's cost less than the Intel processor's. Both processor's have their advantages, but I myself am a Intel man. I feel nice and warm and fuzzy inside, when I know there's an Intel processor in my computer, and would rather pay the extra money for an Intel processor. |
| The basic parts you will need to build a computer are a case, motherboard, processor with fan, memory, hard drive, CDRW/DVDRW drive, video card, Ethernet card or modem, sound card, and floppy drive. Most motherboards have sound and LAN (Ethernet card) built in, which eliminate two components. If you are building an budget computer, you can use a micro ATX motherboard, which also has video on board the motherboard and shares memory from the memory you install. Micro ATX boards are fine for most computing, but are limited in expansion. They usually have only 3 pci slots, and a lot of the newer boards are 8x Agp slot or PCI-E to upgrade your video. The full size motherboards have 5 to 6 slots so you can add more goodies. |   |
 | Putting a computer together is pretty easy these days. Everything is plug and play, and all the components are auto detected by the motherboard. The better motherboards have good manuals which explains what plugs into where with pictures. You just need to follow a couple of simple rules. Try to work in an non carpeted area like your kitchen , so you won't zap your parts with static electricity. They make static straps for grounding yourself ( which I have never have used), but you just need to touch your case to release any static before handling parts. You should never touch any chips (the little black parts) on the cards or memory you install. Static electricity kills electronic components. As long as you these simple rules you should be fine. Now lets go on to putting your Xtreme machine together. |
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