Master the Most Effective Way to Build Your Own Computer

January 5th 2008  

It’s time to build your own computer. First things first: Have you gathered all the necessary parts? Let’s do a check:

  • Case with power supply
  • CPU with heatsink and fan
  • Motherboard
  • Memory RAM
  • Hard Drive
  • Graphics Card
  • Sound Card (Optional)
  • CD Drive
  • Monitor
  • Keyboard & Mouse
  • Power cord, IDE cable, SATA interface cable

You might want to have the following tools with you when you build your own computer. They will come in handy later on.

  • Thermal paste
  • A set of screwdrivers (small, large, slot, Phillips), or a PC Tool Kit
  • An anti-static wrist strap
  • Needle-nosed pliers

Before we start,

Find yourself plenty of working space and make sure you have a few hours to proceed with minimal interruption. You do not want to be disturbed when you are building your own computer.

Choose a space with a bare floor. Avoid carpeted areas as a carpeted surface has the potential to create static electricity, which can damage your computer parts. Remember, a bare floor is always the best place to build your system.

Caution: Our body carries a small voltage of static electricity. To prevent this static electricity from damaging your parts, always wear an anti-static wrist strap before you handle any computer parts.

layout of a motherboard


The above picture shows a typical layout of a motherboard. Take out your motherboard out of the packaging and put it on top of the anti-static bag it came in. (Remember, you always want to safeguard your components from potentially hazardous static electricity). Locate the CPU socket, memory slot, power supply connection, PCI slot, AGP slot, SATA connector and IDE slot.

nce you have located all the connection slot, you can start to install the various parts.

Barebone Computer Kit:

If you find it too troublesome to build your own computer, I would strongly recommend you to get a barebone computer kit. It consists of a computer case, the motherboard, CPU and memory RAM.

The main advantage of getting a barebone computer is the cheap price and the flexibility to customize the computer to suit your needs. You can easily get a barebone computer for under $100. In addition, you can save the hassle of assembling all the computer parts and at the same way choose the parts that you want to install.

There are various types of barebone computer around, each specially designed for your needs. For frequent word processing users, you can get a cheap barebone computer for under $100, whereas for heavy multimedia users and gamers, the multimedia barebone kit will be very suitable for you.

Check out these great deals on barebone computers.