Most companies build their brand name PCs out of parts from lowest bidding subcontractor on automatic gathering lines and provide them more bells and whistles than you want to pay for. However potentially challenging, building own PC will avoid many drawbacks, not to mention making it easier for you to fix if something goes wrong.

Instructions

Choose Your Parts

Step 1

Buy motherboard, RAM, CPU and case at local PC store. Always buy these four parts jointly, as motherboard will decide which of other three you can buy. Not all motherboards support all CPUs or RAM, and many won't fit into all cases. Have a store worker help you select these parts, and never buy most costly, which generally translates to new parts to market, usually buggy and a poor value.

Step 2

Buy remaining three parts at PC store or online. Find hard drive with most storage ability you can give; good performance needs a drive less than half full. As you are building a simple PC, buy a cheap DVD-ROM drive and monitor.

Step 3

Buy your OS. If looking to buy utilized, ensure you are buying from US, software comes with a Windows key and user is no longer using software, and will take it back if it does not work for any reason.

Build Your Computer

Step 1

Mount CPU, processor fan and memory on motherboard. Check instruction booklet earlier than do this, but generally it fit only in one way. Clip fan to top of motherboard, and connect fan into fan power slot. Memory chip install in one way, because of groove on bottom of chip.

Step 2

Build up motherboard into case using screws. Face every port on board out back of PC.

Step 3

Build up DVD-ROM and hard drive in case. Insert DVD-ROM in top bay generally close to top of PC itself and one of bigger ones. Build up hard drive as far away from DVD-ROM as likely generally one of smaller ones. Utilize screws that came with parts themselves.

Connect It Up and Fire It Up

Step 1

Attach all parts to power supply, which usually comes installed in case with different sizes of cords with white plastic ends. Utilize trial and error to fit hard drive and DVD-ROM; if it fits, it works. Check motherboard's diagram for which ports you want to attach to power supply; you will generally see one long connector, and occasionally a support.

Step 2

Attach hard drive and DVD-ROM to IDE ports. Using flat gray wires that convoy these parts, attach back of hard drive to primary master IDE port. Attach DVD-ROM to primary slave IDE port. See IDE ports on drives; they are long and thin, generally with two rows of perhaps two dozen pins, though actual number of pins can differ. Check motherboard's documentation for their precise place on board, though they generally sit near edge.

Step 3

Attach different tiny wires in case to motherboard. These control different features of case, like power button and lights on front. Check motherboard manual as to how precisely to do this; it differs outrageously by motherboards.

Step 4

Attach monitor to VGA port, generally shaped like a trapezoid. Attach power to both parts, and turn on PC.

Step 5

Put in Windows disc into DVD-ROM, and follow instructions; Windows guide will take you through total installation of OS.