If everything goes smooth, no bad or improperly assembled parts, building your own computer from scratch is much easier today than it was just a few years ago. But if things go wrong, and they can go very wrong, building your own computer can be expensive and frustrating. Mixing the wrong components or improper hardware assembly, loading of the operating system, drivers, and other software can, and usually does, produce a computer that hangs and crashes a lot, or may not run at all. See Computer Hangs & Crashes.

Building or repairing your own computer is somewhat like doing an appendectomy. When everything goes smoothly, just about anyone can do simple surgery. The surgeon gets the big bucks because he/she knows what to do when there are difficulties. To minimize your difficulties please see Under the Hood, before you start working on your own machine.

The following is not a step-by-step recipe for building a computer, but only some of the highlights of my 15 years experience in this field. If you are reasonably handy, have read the above links, have a little luck, and here to the following suggestions, you should be able to successfully construct your own computer.

Good Parts Make Good Computers

First and foremost: Be prepared to buy only the best parts. Like just about everything in life, computer parts are available in a variety of prices and qualities. Cheap parts usual equate to poor quality, a short lifespan, and more problems in construction and use.

Second: Buy new parts from legitimate dealers. Used parts or parts from shady retailers could be defective. A bad part in a new build can be a real pain to track down. Parts like CPUs & memory are commonly Re-Marked by less than honest dealers. Re-marking is done by changing the markings on older/slower parts to make them look like they are newer faster parts. Remarked components are prone to intermittent failures and a shortened lifespan. Be careful where you buy your components.

Make sure you have the latest drivers. Even brand new components like video cards, modems, sound cards, etc. usually need updated drivers. For each major component, get on the Internet or contact the manufacture and see about downloading or ordering the latest drivers. This will pay big dividends in getting your new machine up and running with minimal trouble. See DriverGuide.com for a source of drivers.

Be very selective about the type of parts you want in your computer. For instance; there are two major types of modems; Soft-Modems (sometimes called Win-Modems) and Full-Modems. Soft-Modems are a fraction of the price of Full-Modems, and usually a fraction of their performance. If you live in the big city, (Shorter, newer wires to the phone company) a Soft-Modem may work well for you, but if you are located out in the rural areas where longer, older, phone lines are the norm, a Full-Modem is your best choice. A Full-Modem is always the best choice, but be prepared to pay from 3 to 5 times more than for a Soft-Modem. You get what you pay for!

Before you start, gather the following:

Anti-Static wrist strap.

Anti-Static mat, with ground strap.

#2 Philips screwdriver (magnetized).

Needle-Nose pliers.

Heat sink compound.

Isopropyl alcohol wipes.

Paper towels.

Large, clear, and well organized work space.

A few safety points to keep in mind:

Always wear an approved wrist strap when working on your computer.

Take your shoes and sox off, if you commonly generate static when walking, or wear anti-static shoe-covers.

Never let anyone walk up to your work area and touch or handle the parts.

Never hand a part to someone that is not properly grounded.

Never accept a part from someone that is not properly grounded.

Never carry a part around the room if it's not in its anti-static bag.

Leave all parts in their anti-static bags until just before they are needed.

Never touch the bare, golden, connector edges with you fingers.

Be very careful working around the sharp sheet metal edges inside the computer case, they can slice you up like a knife.

Ground the anti-static mat and wrist strap.

While always working on the anti-static mat, and with your wrist strap on and grounded, examine your motherboard and other cards for the existence of removable heat sinks. (See the left sidebar about preparing heat sinks)

Set the motherboard on the anti-static mat, (be sure and have a solid flat surface under the mat). Install the CPU retainer and CPU, open the memory retainers farthest from the CPU. (Placing the memory at the end of the bus reduces line ringing.)

Insert the memory board into the socket farthest from the CPU. Firmly push on both ends until the retainers snap into place.

Insure that the memory is evenly inserted into the socket. Miss-inserted memory, or other boards, can cause massive component failures the instant that power is applied to your computer. (The above is a greatly exaggerated example of a mal-inserted memory board. Even a slight misalignment can be fatal to your components.)