How to Pick Parts When Building Your Computer

Building a computer can be complicated. If you are looking to build your own computer and need a little help, here's a beginners guide.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. You will need to buy the parts for your computer. Here is a list of computer parts you will need when building a computer.
   -Tower case
   -Power Supply
   -Motherboard
   -Processor
   -Fans
   -Hard drive
   -CD/DVD drives
   -RAM
   -Video card
   -Sound card
   -Monitor
   -Keyboard and mouse

2. 

   This list can be a little bit long and daunting. So let's start by picking your processor. The processor is the central part of your computer and will determine a great deal how your computer functions. You'll first need to make the choice between AMD and Intel. Processors now come in dual and quad core, and so I'd recommend at least a dual core processor. Check out benchmarks and online reviews to help you select the best processor for you.
   Check the slot. For AMD it will probably be a AM2/AM3 slot processor. For Intel it will probably be LGA 775 or LGA 1366. Pick a slot that will be compatible with your motherboard.

3. 

   Choose the motherboard. Since you've already decided on either a AMD or Intel processor you've narrowed your possibilities down. Then read on about more of the components to know what other features you want on your motherboard. Pick a motherboard that will support all of your needed functions.
   Motherboards also come in different sizes. So pick one that fits in your tower. Most of what you pick will depend on what motherboard you choose.

4. Pick a power supply. You will want at least 300 watts. If you are building a system with higher power demands (a workstation or gaming machine) pick a 400W or 500W power supply. Power supplies come with 20 and 24 pin connectors. Make sure you match up then pin connector with your chosen motherboard.

5. Pick RAM. Again this depends on the type of motherboard you choose. Your motherboard will designate which type of RAM it will take. Make sure it's compatible or it won't work, or even fit into the motherboard. RAM comes in many many varieties. Consider buying at least 1 GB and probably more. RAM can greatly affect the performance of your computer.

6. Pick a hard drive. Hard drives have a couple specifications you'll want to look at. The first is capacity. You'll want one big enough to hold all your data. 250 GB is pretty standard these days. Next look at the RPM's. The faster it spins the faster you can access your data, so we recommend one that runs at 7200 rpms. Next look at the type of connection it offers. It can be IDE/SATA etc, but SATA is a good standard to go with. Pick one that again is going to be compatible with your motherboard.

7. Pick a graphics card. There are so many types of video cards that it would be impossible to cover them all. Find one with at least 256 MB of RAM. Also, again pay attention to the type of motherboard you have. It will have either an AGP/PCI/PCI-E type video card, so choose accordingly.

8. Add a CD/DVD Rom drive. These have connectors pretty similar to the hard drive. SATA or IDE. Pick one that has higher burn and read speeds.

9. Pick your monitor. This will depend on your video card and what it outputs. Your ouputs may include: VGA, HDMI, S-Video, Composite, Component, DVI. There's lots of options so make sure your monitor and video card are compatible. HDMI is the newest and highest quality standard.

10. Add a sound card. Most sound cards plug right into the PCI slot, so you don't have to worry about compatiblity too much. For this you'll want to pick it depending on what you want and how many channels you want for your surround sound.