Build your own PC: Dictionary
July 4, 2007 – 5:24 pm | by adminIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
There are certain items in which you will need to understand in order to build your own PC. I will go over these items in mild detail so you can get a good understanding of them when its time to choose which to buy.
CPU (Central Processing Unit) - This is the main brains of your PC. There are different brands that you can buy, Intel and AMD being the 2 best. Intel has released its Core 2 Duo series of dual core processors that will process a lot more threads than single core procs, and AMD has their Athlon X2 series of dual core procs. The Intel procs have been running circles around the AMD procs lately but your decision should be based on performance for what you need. Intel has also released a new series of quad-core processors recently that they claim to be the best of both worlds. Its up to you.
Motherboard (Mobo) - The Motherboard is where everything else will plug into. Your mobo is built specifically for a certain CPU socket. So you should be settled on what type of CPU you want before choosing your mobo. A lot of vendors offer combo deals with both. Determining what type of mobo you want isn’t easy. You will need to have a lot of info before you do your search. How much RAM (Random Access Memory) are you planning to use? Are you going to have 2 video cards? If so, do you want to use nVidias SLi technology, or AMD/ATI Crossfire technology? Are you using a SATA (serial ATA) or IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface? There are many other small things that can alter your mobo purchase, but with the things listed above, you should be able to narrow it down pretty well.
RAM (Random Access Memory) - RAM is pretty simple to explain. The more you have the faster your PC will run. There are a lot of things that go into RAM, the the MHz and CAS Latency, but we won’t get into all of that. Really you need to simply check for one thing, weather your system accepts DDR or DDR2. The latter being the newest and quickest. You can not mix and match RAM types, so no combining DDR and DDR2. Not to mention they won’t fit in the slots on your mobo. Now don’t get me wrong, all RAM is not created equal, but to explain the differences would be a post in itself. If you have questions, feel free to speak up on the forums.
Hard Disk Drive (HDD) - Your HDD is a very important piece of equipment. This is where everything is stored. They come in two main interfaces, IDE and SATA. IDE is old faithful that is slowly beginning to dwindle away. And SATA is the faster choice that has become the primary choice for most vendors. Your choice for speed is limited as well. Your have either 7200RPM or 10,000RPM. There are 5400RPM drives, but they are all but extinct for desktops. If you choose the 10,000RPM drives you are limited in size, whereas with the 7200RPM drives you are not, maxing out at one terabyte now.
Graphics Card- Just about every motherboard has integrated graphics, but I would not rely on them unless you’re are doing nothing but document based work. Just about everything these days relies on have a good graphics card. The 2 leading vendors are nVidia and ATI. And when it comes to Windows Vista and true utilization of DirectX 10, nVidia leads the way with its 8000 series. So for anyone that is planning to build a system that has good quality video, a graphics card is a must. In terms of what to look for, standard has become 256MB of video memory. Like RAM, there are a lot of details that go into choosing graphics cards. The primary things to focus on are Bus Speed and video memory. You have three choices PCI, PCI Express, and AGP. PCI Express is quickly replacing AGP on all motherboards.
