Open Source Society

Build Your Own PC

Hi folks. It’s been a while since we had an update. I’ve been pretty busy trying to line up interviews with interesting people and researching new things to help users get acquainted with open-source software. I’ve got quite a few things coming down the pike I think you’ll enjoy, but for now read on for the skinny on how to put together your own computer and save a ton of cash doing it.

I assumed there were already a billion guides on the internet about how to put together a computer from individual parts, and I wasn’t wrong. What surprised me however was the overall low quality of all these guides. On the few sites where I wasn’t lambasted with popup ads, the guides themselves either assumed too much prior knowledge on the part of the reader, or didn’t offer enough detail about the entire process. I was also surprised by how few pictures there were accompanying most of the guides I found.

That all being said, I did find a very informative video that goes through the entire process step by step with clear instructions and visuals. It is lacking a few details about how to actually get the parts and what to look for doing so, however I plan to fill in some of those gaps here. If you already know how to get parts and what parts to get, you can jump straight to the video here.

First lets look at some reasons you might choose to build your own computer in the first place:

• It’s often much cheaper to build a PC than to buy one pre-built with comparative features. Stories of home builders saving over $1,000 are not uncommon.
• You get exactly the features you want and none of the ones you don’t. PC makers have gotten into the habit of loading their machines with all sorts of bells and whistles that do nothing useful while skimping on the real meat and potatoes components that have an impact on your computer’s performance.
• When people ask you where you got your awesome dream machine, you can proudly proclaim “I built it myself!”
• It’s not nearly as hard as you think. I’ve known old men and small children alike who were able to put together incredible PCs with little if any prior experience.
• It’s good for the environment. Unless you really want to and have the budget, you don’t have to replace most of your existing hardware like keyboard, mouse, monitor, case, and power supply. Unless your current machine is extremely old, these parts will still work. You can use them with your new computer and save some cash and the environment at the same time by not throwing away perfectly good, albeit extremely toxic, used hardware.

The first thing you’ll need to do is get the parts you’ll need. If you’re going to upgrade an existing computer, the only parts you’ll most likely need are a new motherboard, memory, processor (also called a CPU), and hard drive. You will need to make sure the motherboard you get will fit in the case you already have. If you have a case that is large, such as a mid- or full-tower, most any size will work except the extremely small sizes. However if you have a mini-tower or other small case, you may need to research it and find out what “form-factor” or size motherboard you’ll need. If nothing else get out your tape ruler and measure the size of you existing motherboard. Most retailers will list the physical dimensions of their motherboards, and anything within 2 or 3 inches should fit just fine. You also need to pick out a processor that will fit your new motherboard. The easiest way to do this is to get a bundled package, where the processor and motherboard are packaged together and you are assured they will fit one another. Otherwise, you need to pick a processor you like first, and then take note of the “slot” type it uses and make sure the motherboard you pick has the same type of slot. Stay away from cheaper CPUs, they’re cheap for a reason. I personally prefer to use AMD brand chips, as they have a demonstrable edge in performance over Intel chips, however that edge has been getting slimmer lately. Don’t forget the CPU fan too!

Once you have a motherboard and CPU picked out, you’ll need to pick out some memory that will fit your new motherboard. The motherboard specifications will list which type of memory it can use. Most modern motherboards use DDR2 RAM, which is fast. There are two things you need to look for when choosing RAM, size and speed. Most people only look at the size, and as a result they end up with an enormous bank of slow memory, which can cause performance bottlenecks. As of this writing, the fastest RAM you can purchase is around 800MHz, which is plenty good. Don’t get less than 1 gigabyte, and the more you can afford the better. A common mistake people make is in assuming that because they shell out extra cash for a super fast processor, they can get a couple hundred megs of RAM and be fine. However, the speed and size of the memory, as well as the speed of the hard drive and graphics card also have a huge impact on speed. Spend as much on RAM as you can afford, and get the fastest kind possible.

With motherboard, cpu, and RAM out of the way, the next step is choosing a hard drive. Everyone knows bigger is better when it comes to hard drives, however there a couple of details you’ll be wise not to overlook. Newer hard drives have what is called a “cache”, which is a small amount of onboard memory that stores data that has been most frequently accessed recently. This saves wear and tear on the hard drive and makes for quicker data access, since the computer won’t have to search for the same data over and over on the hard drive. Average cache size is around 8MB, but go as high as 16MB or higher, the bigger the better. Then there is the speed of the drive to consider. There are hard drives on the market that can go as fast as 10,000 or even 15,000 RPM, however the thing to be wary of with these drives is that the faster they are, the louder they usually are as well. What good is being able to load cut-scenes blazing fast if your drive is whirring so loud that you can’t hear them? Balance your need for speed against your tolerance for noise. You also need to consider what type of connecting hardware to use. The newest technology is called SATA, which is a few orders of magnitude faster than the previous front-runner which was IDE. You can still find motherboards that support IDE, if you want to reuse your existing IDE hard drive or don’t want to shell out for an upgrade. However, IDE compatible drives and motherboards are getting harder and harder to find, so it’s a much better investment to upgrade to SATA if you can.

The final step is to choose a video card. Most new motherboards come with an on-board video system, however these are never, repeat never suitable for more than internet browsing and word processing. If you plan to do any sort of gaming, or watch movies and DVDs on your computer, you are definitely going to need something with a bit more power. The good news is that decent video cards are pretty cheap. I recently bought a great video card that had DVI and VGA outputs, 128MB on on-board memory, and plays 3D games and movies really well, for $30. It also came with a $20 rebate, so I ended up spending $10 and shipping for an excellent card. You can spend as much as $3,000 for a video card, but consider what you really need and realize that you’re not always getting a better card just because you’re spending extra money. I personally prefer Nvidia brand cards for their wide-ranging support and stability, but despite my personal experiences other users do recommend ATI brand cards as well.

Now you can go on to choose a new case and peripherals if you like, however these items are pretty self-explanatory. They key with these is reading user reviews as much as possible. I’ve come across a lot of cases that looked great, but users reported problems with noise, build quality, cooling issues, and so on.

Now that you’ve got all your components together, its time for the fun part, putting things together. In case you missed the link before, here is the video I found that details the remaining steps very well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVJ5ZEbf6F4

It may seem intimidating at first glance, but building a computer is much easier than it seems. The added bonus is that once you’ve done it, you’ll never forget, and you’ll have something to be proud of that you can actually use or even sell to someone else. Happy building, and don’t forget to send in your questions and comments!