The main components you’ll need to purchase include the motherboard, processor, fans, hard drive, memory, video and sound cards, the tower in which to assemble these components and a PSU to power them with. Usually the tower case and PSU come together and this should be perfectly adequate as long as you check the total power required by the PC against the PSU’s output.
Depending on the intended use for your computer you may be able to buy a motherboard with integrated graphics and sounds chips. If you will not be using graphics intensive applications, such as video editing or gaming, this is probably the wisest option. The other issue when choosing a motherboard is its capacity for upgrades. You should ensure that the motherboard you are buying has plenty of extra slots so you can expand your system when necessary.
If you are building the computer primarily as a gaming machine the video card will be one of the most important factors in its graphics performance, and therefore will be one of the most expensive components. The main competitors in the graphics card market are currently Nvidia and ATI so it would be worth researching the latest video cards to find the price-performance balance appropriate for you. There are a number of benchmarks available for processor, RAM and graphics performance so this is definitely worth investigating.
If you are going to use the PC for accessing the Internet, listening to music and watching videos, your task will be slightly simpler. For these purposes the main factors will be the processor speed, amount of memory and hard drive speed. Additionally, an Ethernet card is a must for connecting to the Internet, and either a CD/DVD or Bluray drive should be bought depending on your needs and budget.
Another vital thing to remember when building a PC is to make sure all of your components will work together. This is easily verifiable by researching all your purchases thoroughly, and buying from reputable companies with experts on hand to offer advice. You should be aware that manufacturers sometimes produce specific models that work best together, so you may want to buy your parts from just one manufacturer.
I have mentioned a couple of sites above that are likely to offer decent prices and a wide range. You can obviously also add Amazon.co.uk to this list. eBay may also be a good resource, but you will need to be more vigilant in ensuring that the items are exactly as described and compatible. I would advise any buyer to ask the seller relevant questions before purchasing and refrain from buying products with inconsistent or potentially misleading information.
Having bought all of your components your computer just needs to be put together. The next section will help you to do so.
