Building Your Own Computer: It’s All in the Hardware
Building your own personal computer is a unique challenge, but a rewarding one as well. Building your own PC allows you to have greater control over your design and
components of computer, allowing you to customize for a variety of purposes, including high-end PC gaming, video editing, documentation and work purposes, or simply saving money on a budget work machine. Building your own PC can also be cheaper than buying a prebuilt model from a manufacturer, if done correctly by a savvy shopper. Beyond the monetary question, however, is the simple satisfaction of creating something with your own hands that you can use and enjoy in everyday life.
But to build a computer, you need the right parts. Every PC will have these six components at minimum to function properly.
The Case: the plastic or metal shell that holds and protects all internal components inside it. Cases come varying sizes and can have
different kinds of pins and connectors within them.
The motherboard: the “spine” of your PC’s build, the motherboard is what every other component will attach to or plug into in some way or another. It is important to make sure that your motherboard’s pins and sockets match with the rest of your components!
The power supply: A heavy box that regulates electricity as it flows from the outlet into your computer and provides power to the individual components of the PC. The power supply connects directly to the motherboard, and other components through the motherboard.
Processor (or CPU): The
central processing unit effectively acts as the “brain” of the PC and is the greatest determining factor for the speed of your computer. You will want to make sure that the CPU and motherboard are compatible in terms of both manufacturer (AMD or Intel) and the CPU socket.
Memory (or RAM): RAM stands for random access memory and is a critical component of your computer’s operation. RAM allows data to be saved and accessed far more quickly than it can be from storage, but the data is lost if the power supply is lost. Therefore, RAM is most frequently used in short-term calculations, such as in gaming. It is important to ensure that the RAM cards you purchase are compatible with your motherboard’s sockets.
Storage: Storage comes in both
hard drive and solid-state drives, and stores the PC’s operating system and gigabytes of digital files (such as pictures, video, text documents, etc.) you save. SSDs are faster than HDDs, but HDDs hold more data, and are cheaper. Many PCs these days will have an SSD that holds critical files such as the operating system, and an HDD for things like pictures and documents.
These six are the bare essentials, of course. You will also need a keyboard, monitor, and mouse if you don’t already have them, and other components depending on what you plan to use your PC for. High-end gaming will require an independent
graphics card, as well as possibly investing in a cooling system to ensure your computer doesn’t overheat. If you save tons of pictures or videos, an extra hard drive for the storage may be necessary, as well as a DVD or Blu-ray drive for reading discs in those formats.
At ASAP IT Technology, owned and operated by ASAP Semiconductor, we can help you find all the
computer systems and parts. We’re always available and ready to help you find all the parts and equipment you need, 24/7-365. For a quick and competitive quote, email us at
sales@asap-ittechnology.com or call us at
+1-714-705-4780.
