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How to Build Your Own PC - Save A Buck And Learn A Lot  9  Chapter 1: Purchasing Components

Understanding Performance Bottlenecks 1 Upgrade Considerations

Now that you’ve seen how to select a CPU and mainboard, you can use a similar approach to select all of your other components, such as a video card and PCI sound card.

Start by seeing what your favorite vendors have in a price range you like. (I like the price range of low!). Then, just go ahead and buy the component, or if it’s more important to you, see if you can find a review of the component on google.com.

Low cost parts like a floppy drive can just be purchased. Don’t worry about which brand is better.

Some builders argue that you should avoid the ultra-cheap parts, because they’re more likely to fail because they’re often built with cheaper components. While this has some truth, if you purchase a 52x CD-RW for $20 and it lasts two years, that seems a pretty good deal. Sure, you could have purchased a $60 CD-RW that lasts ten years. But, so what? By then you’ll have purchased a new system anyway! And, just because a component is more expensive doesn’t mean it will last longer.

Understanding Performance Bottlenecks 1 Upgrade Considerations