My first PC build

This is something I have always wanted to do but never had the confidence. Having messed about with PCs for many years BUT only as a user from a strictly non technical point of view I have found that it will nearly always do something that is unexpected. What next? is the first question I ask myself after the screen goes black or sometimes blue and the sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach reaches my knees.

Anyway I did it and if there is enough space I will tell you how in a few short sections.

My very first self build Computer.

Something I've always wanted to try but, up until now, have thought that the best way was to buy a retail package.

Well my last purchase was 18 months ago. It works really well but has been hijacked by my kids. This gave me the impetuous to realise an ambition and I thought I would go the self build route instead.

As I said, the last PC was retail and one of the most annoying things has been the mass of software that is preloaded onto the machine. I know this is all down to marketing but quite frankly there were so many that I had no interest in using that would randomly appear on screen whilst trying to do something else that I got pretty fed up.

I'm not a total novice but on the other hand I'm certainly no expert. Things happen that make me cringe sometimes, an icy chill always creeps up my spine, especially when one of the boys wanders into the room and starts,”Dad,... something has happened....

So all in all I think I can get by with the basic knowledge at my disposal. The main factor being a valuable lesson.

1. Unless you are totally ham fisted and actually drop, hit, kick, throw (I've wanted to do all of these at sometime or the other) you cannot physically break the computer just by using it.

2. It is very easy to stop your computer working when you are asked a Yes or No question and you answer without thinking. Usually when loading software that wants to make changes.

3. It is very difficult (sometimes) to know what to answer. Then again I won't insult or patranise anyone by saying you should know what you are doing at all times.

So what did I do first?

Read, read, read.

There are so many magazines that you can buy. Not all will help you buy and build a PC. Many will have ads for buying a ready made PC and many ads for components. The trick to building your own is to get all the components together and that will work together.

This is why it is so important to really push those brain cells and get learning.

Go to the library and borrow or better still visit the web sites that sell books and manual. Amazon Play.com are but two of the sites I use.

Having done your research you should by now know that the first question asked is, “What are you going to use your computer for?”

Well I kind of think that although an intelligent question, one that you will have to think about for a while, I can almost guarantee you will get it wrong.

My theory is that once you have had your PC for a while and you've written a few letters you will be asking yourself just what is the facination for those web based games I've heard about or been reading about in the mags (second life, W.O.W)etc. How can I make my own web site? How can I design my garden or new house.

Don't restrict yourself and in the long run don't waste money by putting together a machine that can only be used to type letters. Buy a pen for that and revive the tradition of letter writing. ”E-mails you cry.” yes indeed.

Step 1

Choose your processor . The heart of the machine. Athlete or tortoise. The choice is yours but I would go for athlete. Warning not all athletes are Olympic material. There are some new processors that would leave scorch marks down the track. Leave them alone. These will be cutting edge and these will have teething troubles, let the real experts play with them for a while and keep your headaches to a minimum.

I chose the Intel E6750 @ £119

If you buy this as a retail package you will get a cooling fan to fit it. I didn't know this at the time so bought a seperate one.

I chose the Akasa AK-961@ £18.60 because it had a nice blue fan on the top. No I didn't really I bought it 'cos I read good reports and it is made to fit the chosen processor socket.

DIRE WARNING

DO NOT EVER ,EVER, EVER RUN YOUR PC WITHOUT THIS OR THE CPU WILL MELT .

Step 2

The MOBO (in laymans term the motherboard)

There are many types, makes, sizes of these. All designated by a bewildering aray of letters. AT, ATX, mini ATX, microATX, BTX and a few others that I won't bother with because this is a first build and to keep it simple I went for an ATX, the commonest of all.

These vary fantastically in price from 2 to 4 figure sums. I want to be practical and not being a lottery winner need to keep an eye on the spend. I set out to a budget of £600 for the complete PC and made it, just.

I chose the ASUS P5K @ £70

Step 3

The Memory .

With the latest Operating system and, whilst some debate still rages, I would hazard a guess at the most used on new PCs. Windows Vista. 2Gb seems to be about right for the majority of uses. It is also very easy to add extra memory after building, up to 8Gb on the chosen MOBO.

( Windows 32bit OS will only recognise 3.5Gb, Windows 64bit will recognise it all.) Just thought I'd throw that in to keep you doing your research.

I chose Kingston HyperX, 2 of 1Gb memory sticks, modules or however they are called. @ £50

Step 4

A case to put it in .

Here is where you can make mistakes very easily. Remember I have chosen an ATX MOBO, well don't make the same mistake as me and get one that won't fit the thing. Humble pie and apologies later I got it replaced, some outlets ask for a restocking fee, others are much nicer and are run by humans who make mistakes as well.

I chose the Antec 900 @ £68

You can get very cheap ones at around £20 or so. Be careful, 'cos blood will flow, there can be some wicked sharp edges inside one of these.

My choice was not without its little problems, I'll tell all later.

Step 5

The power supply.

Some cases come with this already fitted. Mine didn't.

Don't skimp but don't go mad. 500-600Watts is a good middle of the road level to aim for. 300Watts would struggle if you chose a reasonably quick Graphics card ( I'll get to that in a minute) 1000Watts is overkill unless you really want to push the boat out and set up a home multiplex cinema or Game big time.

I chose the Akasa 500W Ultra quiet. @ £55

Step 6

Graphics card.

So you can see what the heck is going on when you run your machine.

Once again there are hundreds to chose from at all sorts of prices. I have seen them from less than £40 to more than £3000.

Well tried too cutting edge. I like a game now and then but am not an avid player so I went for a middle of the road but up to date model.

The thing to look out for here is how it fits onto the MOBO

PCI-E will be the four letters you will see most. This is the socket the card fits into.

I chose the Sapphire HD 2600 XT @ £72

I am sure that some of you will be thinking that you will need a monitor to see what is going on. Absolutely right but I cannot build them so I have left that off the list of items. Hundreds of shapes and sizes and a whole host of makes.

Step 7

We need somewhere to store all of our data, pictures, files, letters to Father Christmas etc

The HDD or Hard Disc Drive .

Once a weary gain so many to choose from, makes,models, speed, capacity, type.

Back to your reading and research.

Look for one that will fit your requirements and double it.

I don't know if I am being paranoid but I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket so the largest HDD I have ever bought was 250Gb. With 1terrabyte now available I feel we are getting to unreal figures. I personally would rather have 4 x 250Gb .

There are ways of connecting them all together to make them 1Tb but that is outside my building box at the moment.

There are 2 common ways to connect to the MOBO known as IDE or SATA. When you read about these I just know that you will get confused because the experts like to be pedantic and spray letters around saying this is really that and we should call that this. Forget it, the difference is IDE has a WIDE cable and SATA has a NARROW cable. Please feel free to learn more at your leisure. It doesn't have to be boring being technical.

I chose the Western Digital Caviar 250Gb. SATA @£44

I will most likely add a couple more as I go on to bigger things. Very easy Plug and Play fitting with SATA

Step 8

How an earth are we going to get any data onto the PC. In days gone by we got by very well on floppy discs but with these wonderful programs we can run today we find there is not a lot of space on a Floppy. We need much much more space, CD's were OK as well but now we are moving up to DVD's so our next item will be the machine to run them.

CD/DVD Drive

Yep! there are loads. Take your pick but remember the budget. Fortunately they can be cheap as chips (Chinese Chips)

I chose the Sony/NEC AD-7170S DVD Dual Layer SATA 18x DVD±RW, 8xDVD±R DL, 48x CD-RW

whatever that all means, @£21

Step 9

Two gadgets you cannot do without just yet

Keyboard and Mouse

Take your pick from many. They sell for ridiculous sums like £5.99 or get a decent one.

I still chose cheap but went for the Logitech EX-110 because the mouse came with it and I can sit with it on my lap if I want without pulling the wires out when I cross my legs because there aren't any. @ £18

Well that just about covers all the pieces you will need. Our next task is putting them all together.