My New Computer

My New Computer

If I had the opportunity to build my own computer I would add the following components:

1. Mother Board - $134.99

2. Processor - $78.99

3. RAM - $209.99

4. Power Supply - $96.96

5. Case - $49.99

6. CPU Cooler - N/A

7. Video Card - $74.99

8. Music Card - $85.47

9. Speakers - $48.67

10. Hard Drive - $168.90

11. CD вЂ" RW and DVD-RW вЂ" 49.99

12. Modem - $99.99

13. Keyboard & Mouse вЂ" $64.99 (before $20.00 rebate)

14. Monitor - $169.99

15. Software - $88.00

I would follow the format presented by Rob Williams, to build my own computer because he has already done the homework and offers several tutorials for the not so gifted and not quite computer literate. Williams, R (2006/11/26), MY SUPER PC. Retrieved November 27, 2006, Web site: Http://www.mysuperpc.com/ . Mr. Williams offers this advice to anyone who is planning to build their own computer, the first rule of building your own PC is called the “six month rule of delayed acquisition”. He suggests that any hardware or software be at least six months old before you purchase it. He cites three very good reasons for following this six month rule the first being that the price will drop drastically in the first six months. Secondly, the bugs in the product will be worked out in this time period. But a third and very important reason to follow the six month rule is that in six months there will be “volumes” of information about an item and how it performs.

Item one on my list is a Mother Board. The Mother Board is the main circuit board of a microcomputer. It acts as the connector for attaching additional boards. Typically, the motherboard contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such as the display screen, keyboard, and disk drive. Collectively, all these chips that reside on the motherboard are known as the motherboard's chipset. I have chosen to purchase the “GIGABYTE M57SLI-S4” Motherboard. My reason for this is the following review retrieved from Sun, A (2006/6/20). motherboard.org. Retrieved December 2, 2006, Web site: http://www.motherboards.org.reviews/motherboards.html, “AMD recently launched their AM2 platform and along with that new CPUs and motherboard chipsets to support those CPUs. The AM2 platform is based upon the Socket 940 interface, with support for DDR2 memory making the platform the choice for the hard core enthusiast at the moment. Differing chipset manufacturers have announced chipsets to support the new standard and in a few months there should be many chipsets supporting AM2.

NVIDIA is the number one supplier of motherboard chipsets for the AMD platform with over 40% of the market share in their corner. They first entered the motherboard chipset market in 2001 with the release of the nForce line. Subsequent chipsets have included the nForce2, the nForce 3, the nForce4 etc. Last week they announced three new chips, the nForce 590 SLI, the nForce 570 SLI, the nForce 570 Ultra and the nForce 550. GIGABYTE manufactures motherboards based virtually on every chipset announced from practically every company making motherboard chipsets in the world. GIGABYTE is considered a Tier-1 motherboard manufacturer around the world.” Following the six month rule, this motherboard was launched approximately six months ago and still has a rating of 92. It offers everything I feel necessary to create the computer that I want. The price for this item is competitive as well on different sites. You may purchase this component at Tigerdirect.com for $154.99. However if you go to The Nerds.net you may purchase the same component for only $142.08. Further research will show that this same component may be purchased at Newegg.com for a mere $134.99. Needless to say, I would purchase at Newegg.com.

The second item on my list is a Processor. While I referred to Mr. Williams (My Super PC) list of items he recommended, I chose not to follow his advice explicitly with this unit. He chose the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 +AM2 with Fan. I chose to go with the AMD Athlon64 X2 5000 +FX 62 simply because their design was found to be even more efficient and performance oriented than anything the competition currently has to offer. This CPU cornered the gamers market as well. (Unfortunately, upon further research I found that this CPU was no longer available and therefore chose to go with the CPU preferred by Mr. Williams.) This component may be purchased at TigerDirect.com for a retail price of $78.99. The processor I had chosen, when available was available at Compuplus .com for $107.90.

The third item on my list was RAM. There is a lot to learn about memory. (Glossary of terms for RAM & Memory Upgrades)

• RAM Type

• Bus Speed

• Access Time

• Form Factor

RAM Type

Refers to the type of RAM compatible with the motherboard.

DRAM: (dynamic RAM) Most common type of RAM with an access time of 30ns or more.

SDRAM: (Synchronous DRAM) Considerably faster than DRAM, access time or 10ns.

DDR: Is high speed SDRAM

Bus Speed

The speed measure in mHz that data travels from one place to another. Bus speed of RAM should typically equal that of the motherboards.

Access Time

Measured in nanoseconds, how long it takes memory to transfer to the CPU.

Form Factor

SIMM: (Single Inline Memory Module) RAM mainly use in older computers using EDO Memory.