Building Your Own Computer – Motherboard, Power Supply, and Chassis
For many, it's easy to buy a pre-made computer from a respected vendor such as Dell or Compaq and avoid the “hassles” of building one yourself. For others, computers are a devotion and a hobby. Speccing out a computer and choosing parts that are expanding day by day isn't unlike gearing out an RPG character before excitedly rushing it out into battle to see what it can do. Building a computer by yourself has become more mainstream in past years, making cases more builder-friendly and parts easier to connect and more fool-proof. Each part has a socket orientation, notch or groove that pigeon-holes all the parts into the correct spots, and for everything else the motherboard documentation is your best friend.
I will be listing important and dependent stats relevant to each part. Dependent stats only mean that they need to be matched up to something else later on. If you pick popular choices, you might not need to change any part later on due to conflicts. This allows you to focus on the other important stats.
This week we finish off with
Motherboards,
Power Supplies and
Cases. These are some of the more important parts in terms of making sure things are compatible with each other. I wouldn't recommend trying to be thrifty with any of these parts.
Motherboard (Mobo, Mainboard)
Important Stats – USB headers, expansion slots
Dependent Stats – CPU socket type, RAM type, manufacturer, expansion slots
The skeleton and central nervous system of your computer. There are a lot of dependencies because all the parts you picked out need to fit on the corresponding socket for it. An AMD CPU isn't going to work on an Intel motherboard, and DDR3 RAM isn't going to work in DDR2 slots. As I mentioned in past weeks, if you choose popular/current parts and buy all at the same time there's less chance that you'll run into these problems. Just make sure they line up and you shouldn't have any problems.
Expansion slots let you install extras that tend to have “card” at the end of their title (sound cards, video cards, network cards, etc). If your graphics card needs a “PCI Express 2.0 x16” slot, and the motherboard you pick out doesn't have one, you're hosed. USB Headers designate how many USB ports and slots for case-based USB ports there are. More is good. Choose a reliable manufacturer and one with good ratings; you do NOT want to cheap out on a motherboard.
Some motherboards come with graphics modules (identifiable by a monitor port on the back) and others don't. If you aren't getting a graphics card, double check for this. For this and the above reasons, it's usually best to choose the motherboard after the other parts.
Power Supply (PSU)
Important Stats – Modularity
Dependent Stats – Maximum power
Perhaps unbeknownst to those who haven't opened up their PCs, there is a rather non-descript metal box that gets screwed into the corner of your case that spreads the incoming power to a mass of power tentacles for the rest of the components. This is the power supply, and what you're going to need in terms of maximum power is a summary of the parts you chose.
This can be tricky to plot out, so I have yet another helpful link for you:
Basically, the more and higher end parts you put in, the more wattage you're going to want. The graphics card plays a large part in this number. This is yet another item that will come back to bite you HARD if you cheap out.
Chassis (Case)
This is largely up to you and your personal preferences.
As long as you don't choose parts for a desktop PC and then a Shuttle or miniature case, you should be fine. Some newer graphics cards are quite large and may need a longer than normal case to accommodate them.
Some cases are quieter, some have more lights and clear-sided acrylics or mesh, and even if you're incredibly picky for style there's almost certainly something out there for you. Make sure to read reviews; there's no use in buying a flashy case if it's a horror to build in or all the fans break in the first week. It will end up being the face of your PC though, and for all your hard work up until now why not take some pride in it? I always spend the most time choosing a case, and usually spending too much, but I'm always happy with the results!
...But How Do I Actually BUILD This Thing?
That much, unfortunately, I leave up to you. It would be a long article, fraught with poorly photoshopped material trying to convey where everything goes. Thankfully each individual part tends to only plug into one place, and comes with their own instructions. For the motherboard and the case, the motherboard instruction manual is going to be your best friend. Be careful, and when in doubt, Google it!
Building your own PC can be a daunting challenge if it's your first time, but if you're interested in PCs and enjoy the idea of making your own, it's a very rewarding experience. You'll learn a lot, and along the way you'll gain some insight into how much the individual parts are, and perhaps where you have to make compromises. For me, though, having a room full of parts strewn from their boxes scattered everywhere is better than any childhood Christmas morning!
