Anyone needing a new computer faces a tough choice: you can either go for a complete system, or you can build your own PC. As most complete systems are cheaper than the sum of their parts, when is it really worth it to build your own?

Under the hood of a midrange PC
Imagine you want to build a new PC and want to use a few remnants from your old system. If you were satisfied with the performance of your CD-ROM drive, hard drive, printer or monitor, then it could be worth it to simply buy the remaining components - you might not even need a new case.
We also hope that this article will reach the individualists among you, i.e., users who know exactly which processor, motherboard and graphics card they want to install, but who just don't know how to fit it all together. The third group of users we want to reach are those people who only want to swap out a component, whether a graphics card or a CPU.
Many are intimidated by hardware. Some people won't even put in a new card on their own if they can help it. Yet the computer is now a mass-market product that, thankfully, has also brought about broad standardization.
This article will guide you unerringly through each step of successfully building your own PC. Of course, this article assumes that you know how to properly handle electronic components, that you know how to use tools, and, perhaps most importantly, that you take pleasure in this kind of tinkering. As we are going to introduce a large spectrum of PC components, users who only want to upgrade individual parts can skip certain sections in this guide.
- Building A PC System
- Standard Components Of A PC System
- Standard Components Of A PC System, Continued
- Case And Power Supply
- Cases: More Questions For The Salesman
- This And That: Screws, Spacers & Jumpers
- Motherboard Overview
- Basic Motherboard Configuration
- Setting The Clock Speed
- Connecting The Floppy Drives
- Connecting Hard Drives And CD-ROM/DVD
- SCSI Drives - The Exception
- Safety Notice: The Destructive Potential Of Electrostatic
Create a new thread in the Reviews comments forum about this subject
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1 HideAnonymous , September 20, 2008 7:55 PMthanks,i hope my mum approves of my £700+ setup that i want lol
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1 HideMarco925 , May 6, 2010 3:44 PMSo Different compared to today's build it yourself article
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0 HideAnonymous , December 13, 2010 5:36 PMy is this so hard
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0 HideAnonymous , December 13, 2010 5:38 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0 HideAnonymous , December 13, 2010 5:43 PMThis is is so similar compared to today's build it yourself article
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0 HideAnonymous , March 31, 2011 7:45 AMThis is a pretty in depth guide on how to build a computer. I found How to Build a Computer pretty useful too.
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0 HideAnonymous , March 31, 2011 7:46 AMHow to Build a Computer is a pretty good guide too.
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0 HideAnonymous , August 11, 2011 12:57 AMMy son and his friend bought the components for a gaming pc. They had XP to put on the computer but it wont load. It has Linux on it. I don't know much about this sort of thing but could it be bc the XP is already been loaded on another computer? If I can find one of our op systems software that has an extra load on it will it load on the gaming pc with no problems? Just want to be sure in case I have to drop the money for the operating system.
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0 Hidejoeman99 , January 30, 2012 7:05 AMI always use this manual when building PCs, I never touch or buy any computer without it http://howtofixstuff.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-build-computer.html