Now before we get into the how-to part of building your own computer let’s first consider the “why.” For most of you, this decision is a no brainer, but for those of who haven’t had the time to have the main reasons explained to us – or taken the time to compare for yourself – the why is simple: it is really very simple and can save you hundreds of dollars! I don’t think I need to explain the mind set of the bargain shopper, but why pay hundreds of dollars more just to have someone stamp their brand name on your machine? Maybe you are running out of hard drive space – why pay for a new machine when you can upgrade to a larger/faster hard drive and install it yourself? Perhaps you can not have more than 2 applications open at once, because your machine runs like a car with no gas. Now wouldn’t it be nice to install it yourself instead of having to wait weeks for your local computer store to install more memory?

Regardless, you no longer have to be eligible for the Genius IQ Club (Mensa) in order to build a computer. Today’s computer manufacturers have made it much easier for the enterprising do-it-yourselfer to create a great system.
First thing is first. What do you need to build a computer? First, you will need a case. The variety is mind numbing. Get the best case you can afford, we recommend you opt for "tool-less" case design, which enables you to click---open, click---closed. Most cases and motherboards use the ATX Formfactor, standardizing the sizes of the components and all of the power connections. Next, choose a power supply (if your case already came with a power supply, be sure that it will meet your power needs). How do you know if it meets your needs? Here is a quick power usage guide:

Component Wattage Required
Motherboard 15-30
Low-End CPU 20-50
Mid To High-End CPU 40-100
RAM 7 per 128MB
PCI Add-In Card 5
Low To Mid-Range Graphics 20-60
High-End Graphics 60-100
IDE Hard Drive 10-30
Optical Drives 10-25

Once you have selected both the case and power supply, be sure you have the following items:

• A set of screwdrivers (small, large, slot, Phillips), or a PC Tool Kit
• An anti-static wrist strap
• Needle-nosed pliers
• CPU (processor)
• CPU cooling fan and heat sink
• Sound Card
• Motherboard
• One or more hard drives
• Graphics card
• One or more RAM DIMMs (Memory modules)
• An operating system

Make sure you determine which parts to use – and making sure they are the right parts – these two things are critical to building your new dream PC.