Wow- if you do it first time and have some asset of time in your disposition – then go ahead and purchase motherboard, your favorite processor, memory, video card (probably it is better to purchase it external for advanced quality). You will also need computer case – first computer should probably go to the cheap one – with USB 2 ports from the front side – the only question – you might want to replace noisy cheap power supply with $50 dollars one. Processor fan – nowadays you will see the variety for all the tastes – get the one with adjustable spinning speed to regulate noise (if you could not place it into the basement of your house – I guess you live in apartment or student dormitory). Let’s go to details:

• Ahead of Generation. It is not a secret that when you build your own computer – you might overpay – in considering to what is available in the stores.. However you usually get ahead of technology. For example – it is still common when Dell/Compaq/IBM computers use PC2700 standard of memory. If you bought PC3200 – you have two years of being ahead of the competition

• Processor. If you build your computer from scratches – you should look into 64-bits processor from the beginning. Get AMD Athlon 64 3400+ at least

• Video Card. For $100 you can get maximum of memory and performance. This is why we recommend to get external videocard

• DVD Writer. RW+/- unfortunately Japanese manufacturers are in the process of decision making on winning standards plus DVD of high density. Get both supported.

• Hard Drive. Decent motherboards support IDE raid and you could experiment with striping (raid 0). Then if you purchase two IDE disks 400 GB each – you will get 800 GB – unbelievable for supercomputers – but you are on your own and cosmopolitan individual – step forward and be ahead of competition.

• Troubleshooting. Understood and respected. First listen your mother board beeps and refer to its documentation. It might not see memory, graphical card, etc. When you are installing memory – be very careful to static electricity issue. When you are attaching your mother board to computer case – the most typical issue is motherboard shorting – so do not be surprised to try your motherboard first outside the case

Andrew is Lead Software Developer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, Denver, UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com )

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