Windows 7: Building Your Own System

I recently built my own and I agree with all that's been said.
I spent ages working up to it. Doing little things on my old one. Gradually doing more ambitious upgrades until I'd done virtually all the processes involved in a build.
I'd also followed this forum and other sites such as Tom's Hardware and looked at comparisons between the relevant components.
Also looking at the websites of custom builders and their various mid and top end combinations can give you an idea of what's being paired with what out there.
Problem is there is always a better graphics card coming. Always.

My best choice was an enormous case with a slide out motherboard tray. This made the whole build so much easier.
Also recommended. I had my old pc running and was able to beg for help on this forum when I got stuck.
I'll certainly never buy one off the shelf again

Thanks for all of your input. The whole process does not seem too bad. The best part is that you have a nice new computer when it is all over.

Here is another nice and easy guide that comes in 5 parts: Building a New Computer – Part 1: Choosing Hardware :: the How-To Geek And as the others already said, once you are set on the mobo, CPU and graphics, the rest is easy. Also a good box with ample cooling is a good idea. The bigger the box, the easier it is.

Actually assembling it is the easy part. Staying within a budget is the hard part. Just do your home work. And it doesn't hurt to have a working system on hand to go to the net for answers. Just take your time, research your hardware. And if your going to cut costs somewhere. IMO never choose your power supply as a place to save money. After all it is the heart and soul of your system. If it's not up to the job it doesn't matter what else you have it isn't going to work properly. Quality known name brand products! Tomshardware was mentioned somewhere before. Great place for product reviews. Just a few of my thoughts. Fabe

this is the beauty of it....b/c ''your'' building it, a lot more care & attention goes in, these PC shops throw these towers together like they're playing with ''Lego''

after a while you grow quite attached to your builds.

i just wanna keep building em, even if i have no use for more PCs...... but the wife draws the line at 2.

SkunkSmash: come on over to my house. I bought a pallet of open boxes and returns from a computer store going out of business. I've got 3 new empty cases and all the trimings to build at least 3.Not ball busters but could give you that building fix your looking for. Fabe

right...im there

just look out for the guy who's waving with an ''anti-static band'' hanging of his arm.

Did you figure out why I have the hamburger for my Avatar? My name is bigmck, so the hamburger is a Big Mac, get it bigmck & Big Mac............I am just too cleaver

But a Big Mac has 3 pieces of bread.

I am with all you guys here. I managed to get a few extra computers (2) from various places. These were my playthings. I would plug them in, make them work, then take them apart and change them around. First thing I did on one of them was to take the ENTIRE thing OUT of the case, separate EVERYTHING, then try to put it back together by just figuring it out. (I do not recommend that).

That computer has never worked quite right after that (some KB error that sometimes happens that won't let it post). Though I have since scrapped it.

My current rig I custom built. Took me 2 weeks (time from decision on parts to installed OS). I did very little research, just went to Fry's Electronics and started shopping. In retrospect, I'm really lucky it works.

However, I too am addicted now. It's something I REALLY want to focus on in my business (anyone need a custom rig?), though I need to learn some more first.
I just bought an A+ Cert study guide, looks really promising (yes I plan to read all 1424 pages!).

~Lordbob