Part 1: start here
Building your own personal computer can be done, and it's not hard. I did it in a weekend. PCs are designed to be built as modular units, with standardised components and connections that fit together, assuming the parts are all of the right mix. The result should be a computer where you understand every nut and bolt, taking away the mystery of what's sitting inside that metallic box.
Having said that, two words of warning. First, don't assume that building your own computer will be hugely cheaper than buying one off the shelf. Retail hardware prices are more expensive than the bulk discounts that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) can command. If you want to build a computer to the same specifications as an off-the-shelf OEM package, then you'll end up paying only a little less - maybe £200 or £300 - for the components alone, and may then end up paying the difference in buying software.
On the other hand you'll get better quality components, with better warranties. OEM machines usually have a clause voiding the warranty if you so much as open the PC case. Your home-made PC will have manufacturers' warranties on the components themselves, usually for the standard three years, and the retailers may also have their own warranty, so your cover is more robust.
What you won't get is all the extras that OEMs often throw in to their packages: speakers, microphones, cameras, printers. Whether you want those is another issue, and they tend to be cheap enough anyway. Anyone who already has a PC will have peripherals such as speakers, keyboards and CD drives already, and if you are building a replacement system you can cannibalise your old one and save money that way (as well as recycling). The second warning is that building a PC is not the best place to start.
If you've never taken the cover off a PC, and haven't done basic PC hardware upgrading such as adding a sound card or new memory, then building a PC from scratch may be biting off too much. Either get help from someone who knows their way around a PC's innards, or start on a more gentle path by upgrading your current PC. Adding extra random-access memory (Ram) is a good place to begin, and probably the best performance boost you can give a PC anyway.
Part 2: what do you want?
The first decision you'll need to make is what sort of PC you want to build, and that depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to surf the net, send email and do basic word processing then you don't need a high-end machine. In that case you can get away with paying between £300 and £400 for a do-it-yourself PC - that's not including the cost of peripherals such as a monitor or software.
If you want to use your new PC for more intensive tasks, for playing serious games or working with digital photography, then you may need to spend at least between £500-£700.
Of course, with PC hardware there really is no upper limit on what you can spend, as the bleeding edge hardware is always more expensive, and there's always something new coming out that's even better and costs even more. As a rule of thumb, there's generally a steep price drop between the cutting edge stuff and the previous generation, which may be six to 12 months older than the latest thing. By stepping back a notch or two in terms of performance, you can save much more in cash than you're giving up in marginal performance gains. The just-off-the-leading-edge kit tends to be more reliable, since any bugs have probably been identified.
The beauty of building your own system is that you can always upgrade later to that cutting edge when it inevitably moves into the second row and your bank balance recovers. (There are some caveats to this, in that some new hardware will need capacities that your PC doesn't have.)
You'll also have to consider that, unlike those shiny machines bought off the shelf, your DIY PC won't come with any software.
But again, if all you want to do is email and surf, then why pay for more? You'd be better off getting cheaper kit and spending the money on a broadband internet connection, since that's what dictates the pace of your web surfing, rather than the size of your processor.
Part 3: what do you need?
To build your own PC you'll need the following hardware:
· Motherboard · Processor (CPU) · Hard drive · Case · Memory, or Ram (random access memory) · CD or DVD drive
There is bewildering variety of all of these available, in terms of size, speed and specification. Many of these differences are marginal in terms of performance. These items are explained in part 4. Good places to get a handle on what is available are in magazines such as PC Pro, but they do tend to be "gee whiz" over the latest hardware. There's also a variety of hardware review websites, such as Tom's Hardware, Ars Technica, and Anand Tech.
Optional hardware:
· Sound card (PCI card) · Graphics card (AGP card) · Floppy disk drive · Network card/modem (PCI card/external)
These are explained in part five.
You'll also need the following: monitor, keyboard, mouse, operating system software - for example Microsoft Windows or Linux. You may have these already from a previous PC, in which case they'll all work. At some point you'll want a modem to connect to the net.
You'll need a toolkit, or at least a few screwdrivers, including a small Philips screwdriver. A torch is also extremely useful for examining inside the case. Outlets such as PC World or Maplins sell toolkits for around £10-£15 with a variety of appropriate screwdrivers and other bits.
You can also cannibalise your old PC, if you have one, for a floppy disk drive, internal CD drive or similar, modem, or even hard drive. Also keep any spare power leads and internal and external cables, they may come in handy. My advice, though, is not to pull apart your old PC until your new one is safely up and running - just in case something goes wrong. Keyboards, monitors and mice can be plugged and unplugged between PCs easily, though.
Also highly recommended, although not essential, is a copy of PC Hardware In A Nutshell, by Robert and Barbara Thompson, published by O'Reilly. Get the latest edition (currently the 3rd edition, July 2003), it has more detail on every aspect of modern PC hardware, and useful advice on building a PC, making it well worth the £20 cover price.
Part 4: what to buy?
Motherboard
The motherboard is the base that all the components plug into, and so dictates what hardware you can and cannot use. The best advice is not to buy a cheap motherboard brand, because it's such an important component, and could limit any future upgrades.
Your choice of motherboard determines your choice of processor type. An Intel Pentium 4 processor, for example, can only be used in a motherboard that is compatible with it - one with a Socket 478 (or S478). The choices are generally between motherboards compatible with Intel CPUs and ones compatible with AMD brand CPUs - see processors, below.
Also, top-line motherboards can come with good on-board graphic and (more often) sound cards, saving you from having to buy separate cards for these. Some well regarded motherboard brands are Asus (or Asustek) and Epox, as well as MSI and Shuttle. A good motherboard will cost around £100 (including vat).
Processors
This is the bit that does most of the work. For most PC users, the choice is between an AMD chip or an Intel chip, in particular currently between AMD's Athlon XP and Intel's Pentium 4 ranges. The AMD processors plug into motherboards with Socket A (or SoA) fittings, while Intel uses something called Socket 478.
The choice between Intel or AMD chips is an open one. In a very general sense, AMD processors tend to be better value for money, while Intel chips are marginally easier to install. Current thinking in the extreme PC user community tends to favour Intel Pentium 4's for performance reasons. (Both AMD and Intel are now rolling out their latest ranges of high performance 64-bit processors, the Opteron and the Xeon respectively, but they will be significantly more expensive for the time being.)
What you choose will be up to you and your wallet, but again, a rule of thumb is that around £60-£100 (including Vat) retail will get you a lively CPU without blowing the bank balance. The important thing is to make sure the CPU is compatible with your choice of motherboard, or vice-versa.
When buying a processor, it's probably best to buy what are called retail box sets - meaning that they come with cooling heatsinks and fans. If you buy a cheaper "OEM" model you will have to buy a heatsink and fan separately, as an additional complication. Be careful if buying online to make sure you are getting a retail version, if that's what you want.
(This goes for most components and peripherals - retail versions come with instruction manuals, installation CDs, cables and so on, while OEM models typically come in brown cardboard boxes with nothing but the component - which is fine if that's what you want, and in some cases it will be.)
Case
Don't overlook the PC case and go for a cheap option - it's a false economy. Working on a cheap case isn't much fun: it tends to be cramped and flimsy. Typically, OEM off-the-shelf cases are rubbish. A good case is more expensive but is better made, easier to install in, and comes with useful extras. Size is also important. Motherboards come in certain sizes, but most of them now are what's called ATX forms. As long as your case takes ATX, you're fine.
There's also the question of what capacity case you want, with the usual choices being desktop, midi-tower and full tower sizes. A full tower is probably not worth it unless you're planning to really load up your PC, while a desktop case isn't much fun to work on and limited in its scope.
Make life easier by buying a case with a power supply installed, with at least 350 watts output, or if not then remember to buy a power supply. Power supplies are easy to install but very tricky if something goes wrong, for obvious reasons. Also keep an eye out for cases with cooling fans, which is a good thing, especially for AMD processors, which generally run hotter than Intel ones.
A good quality midi-tower case is going to cost between £50 and £120, but it is well worth it - the case, after all, may be useful for much longer than the components inside it. There are some good case brands out there. Lian-Li cases are particularly gorgeous to look at as well as easy to work on, while Antec cases are very highly regarded by PC builders, especially the popular Sonata model, which operates at low noise, for those who want a quiet environment.
Hard drives This is the big memory storage carrier, the 3.5 inch internal disk drive. Hard drives are now relatively cheap so that 60 gigabyte (GB), 80 GB and 120 GB disks are reasonably priced.
Hard drives come in different types and speeds: these days 7200 RPM is the standard disk rotation speed, although 5400 RPM models are available and cheaper. Most hard drives are connected to the motherboard through an interface called (confusingly) ATA (AT Attachment) and IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), which mean the same thing. Again, what type of motherboard you choose will determine what mode and speed of hard drive can be supported. This can be confusing, since manufacturers use lots of different descriptions and numbers to push their products. The differences, though, are often marginal.
There is also a Serial ATA interface (also called SATA) that requires compatible motherboards and different leads; the extra speed may not yet justify the higher price, but one day soon will be the hard drive standard.
A good sized drive from a reputable manufacturer should cost between £60 to £90. IBM/Hitachi Deskstar and Seagate Barracuda models are well regarded, Samsung now makes some reasonably-priced quality drives, while Western Digital's special edition drives are also good (although some Western Digital models have a slightly wobbly reputation).
Memory (Ram)
Random access memory comes in sticks that plug into the motherboard, and allows instant access to running programs and processes. This is one area where it's easy to add extra capacity later if needed. Again, your motherboard choice will determine what type and speed of Ram you can use. Price-wise, the standard starting size is 256 megabytes (MB) for around £30, and 512MB is affordable, at around £70. The memory manufacturer Crucial has an excellent reputation.
CD or DVD drive
You'll need a drive of some kind to load an operating system and software onto your newly-built system. The best bet is an internal CD or DVD drive, connected directly to the motherboard, installed at the same time as everything else. It doesn't matter whether it's a CD-Rom or CD-writer. Personally I'd start off with a DVD drive (as more and more software is coming on DVDs, it's now almost standard). Pioneer, Sony, Lite-On, Plextor and many others make all of these, and they are now cheap indeed, going for £25-£50, or less.
Part 5: optional extras
Sound card Good quality motherboards these days tend to have very good on-board sound, certainly adequate for playing music, but add a PCI-format card if you want higher quality audio for some reason. This is one component that can be skipped on budget grounds if your motherboard allows it. Otherwise a cheap sound card can cost £15.
Graphics (or video) card
Again, some motherboards have on-board of video of such good quality that only someone wanting something extra will need a separate card, which plugs into the motherboard's AGP advanced graphic slot. If your motherboard doesn't have on-board graphics then you will need a card to use your monitor. ATI Radeon based cards are highly regarded by gamers wanting 3D graphics but can cost £200 or more; the rest of us can make do with much cheaper Geforce4 based cards starting at £30-£40.
Floppy disk drive
Hard to believe that this is optional, but floppies are slowly fading away, killed off primarily by email, but also by CD-writers, USB keyring drives, and the increasing size of files that can't fit onto a standard 1.44mb 3.5 inch floppy. Do you need this? The answer is ... perhaps. Firstly, floppy drives, even good brands like Teac or Sony, are dirt cheap - £15 at PC World, and that's paying through the nose. Secondly, they are still useful for transporting and backing up small files, for occasions when it's not worth burning a CD and when it can't be emailed. Thirdly, they still have some useful functions in fixing dud operating systems as boot disks. But you can now live without one.
Network card/modem
This option is all about what you are connecting to. Quality motherboards will have in-built network capacity and appropriate outlets, but otherwise, if you want an ethernet connection, perhaps to a broadband modem, you'll need to buy a network PCI card or similar, at around £15. If you want dial-up internet access then you'll need either a 56k internal PCI card modem or external modem. There's a million of these on the market, all much the same, although US Robotics or Elsa modems are generally OK. (Those wanting to run Linux operating system should avoid internal PCI modems, because of the difficulty in configuring them.)
Part 5: where to buy?
The most obvious places are retail chains such as PC World, but they do tend to be more expensive, and their stock is often patchy. Buying retail does have the advantage of seeing what you are buying, and there's no worry about delivery times.
The best place, for range and price, is online. For service and ease of use it is hard to beat Dabs, the Bolton-based online supplier, but its prices are always slightly flabby compared with its online rival, Simply Computers. For example, this week Dabs was selling an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ retail boxed processor for £71.51 including VAT, while Simply had the same product for £64.61.
Simply also has a wider range, but unfortunately has a website that's hard to navigate around and use, and for some reason insists on hiding its motherboards, processors, PC cases and memory under an obscure section named "PC Enhancement". Finding where Simply keeps its hard drives is even more difficult.
For memory, the best choice is Crucial Technology, widely regarded as a manufacturer of top quality Ram, and has excellent customer service through its website. The site has a useful memory selector function: just type in the model of motherboard and it will automatically tell you what types of memory it can handle.
Those PC buyers lucky enough to live in or around London have access to the Tottenham Court Road suite of small computer shops, which offer competitive prices and the opportunity to haggle for even lower ones.
Then there's the weekly computer fair held on Saturdays in the University of London building on Huntley Street, WC1. More like a souk than a fair, it has market stalls selling hardware, with haggling and cash payment discounts all part of the scene. The range of motherboards and graphics cards is wide, but the prices are not necessarily bargain basement. However, the fair is an excellent place to buy cheap peripherals and extras such as cables. New DVD drives can be had for £15 and floppy disk drives for £6.
Next week: putting it all together.