The Perfect PC: Don’t Buy It, Build It

The perfect PC: Quiet, but powerful. Roomy enough to hold your expansive DVD collection, but small enough to tuck inside a cabinet. It should look nice and be ready to tackle all of the latest and greatest games, but it shouldn't break the bank.

The perfect PC means different things to different people. If you search hard enough, you may find a factory-made ma­­chine that matches your ideal, at a reasonable price. But if you'd rather not wait for a major retailer to hit all the right notes, consider building your own system.

Don't worry--putting together a PC is a lot easier than you might think. And there are plenty of good reasons to do it.
If you've ever had to ship your computer back to the manufacturer for a checkup, the experience may have encouraged you to think seriously about rolling up your sleeves and doing your own troubleshooting. Lengthy turnaround times, or hours spent sitting on hold with customer service are maddening enough. But if your machine happens to be out of warranty--or didn't have a very good warranty to begin with--the cost of getting a part or the entire system replaced could be more than you bargained for.
Most of all, building your own system is fun. Technology has be­­come increasingly complex, but PCs are modular--and with our step-by-step guide you can put together a dream machine that's just right for your needs and budget.

Note: The do-it-yourself process is a double-edged sword. Whether you've had positive customer service experiences in the past or not, having a single seller to turn to if your equipment goes haywire can simplify troubleshooting (and replacing parts). Getting a faulty component replaced on a home-built machine entails working with individual product manufacturers, which may increase the overall hassle.

Caveats aside, you'll be hard pressed to find a computer that suits your needs better than one you build yourself. The first and most important step in building a PC is to know exactly what you want it to do. The only thing worse than wasting timeassembling a subpar system is spending far more money than you need to, cobbling together a quad-core behemoth that you'll be using just to check your e-mail.

Once you have identified the functions that you want your PC to perform, decide how much you're willing to spend.
A system designed for gaming or video editing will require a larger investment than one intended for nothing more demanding than surfing the Web. Our parts lists enumerate the components that we chose, and explain our rationale--beyond sticking to our budget--for choosing each part.

Read Full Story at PCWorld

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