Building your Own PC - Know your Needs First!
This post is the first part of the series, Building your Own PC.
Understanding your own Needs builds the best foundation!
When deciding which parts you will need to build a computer, ask yourself what the computer will be used for. If you like to store tons of files on your computer, you would want to look for a hard drive with a lot of storage space. If you like watching movies and playing games, a good video card is a must. If you use a lot of resource-intensive programs, a good processor and RAM, or Random Access Memory, is what’s right for you.
A hard disk drive, or HDD, is essentially a storage center for your whole computer. Every single file is stored on the hard drive, even your operating system. Nearly everything you want to do with your computer will revolve around hard drive space. If you like playing games, or downloading movies and music, you will need one with tons of storage space. You never want to run out of space on your hard drive or you will have to begin deleting your files or storing them elsewhere.
A video card will take care of everything you see on your screen. A dedicated graphics card will be very helpful with video playback, playing games, and web design. To make sure you are getting a video card that will support your needs, be sure to know the specifications of the card. The main thing to check for is the amount of RAM on the video card. Always go for a card with the newer technology, and at least 512mb RAM.
When you have a lot of applications opened at once, your computer may begin to slow down. To avoid this, you will need a good processor and a lot of RAM to accompany it. Processors run on cores at different frequencies. The most ideal processors out right now are dual-core and quad-core processors. With multiple cores, processors can split up the work and get it done quicker. As for RAM, you can get 2 gigabytes of high performance DDR2 for around $40, the cheapest it’s ever been. In most cases 2 gigabytes should be enough, but if you want faster performance overall, 4 gigabytes will be the most you will need.
Over the next week or two, we will look into every aspect of building your own PC, and ultimately, end up with the perfect system, designed for your exact needs!
