Go to your local computer hardware store (Intrex, Tigerdirect, Best Buy etc.), and find the section with the graphics cards. If you are to be using your computer for movies, videos and low-end gaming, I would reccomend buying an XFX 8600 GT (XXX edition if they have it). If you think you will be doing some gaming, I would reccomend an XFX 8800 GT (Again, XXX edition if they have it).

These are really good cards for their price to performance ratio; the 8600 will run you up about $80, the 8800 about $160.

If you have an older computer, then you may have a different graphics card 'port' in your computer. Before you go to the store, see if you can find out what type of motherboard you have, or what computer model you have if you can't figure out the mobo. Then, when you go to the store, tell them what type of motherboard / computer you have, and they should be able to tell what graphics card 'port' you have. If you do not have PCI Express 2.0, then let an expert at the store pick you out a graphics card.

Now, once you get back with your brand new card, you need to open up your case (The case is the metal box that holds the insides of the computer). This is fairly easy. First unplug ALL of the wires coming in and out of the case, and then remove the two large screws in the back of the case. After this, you will need to give the side of the case a good shove backwards (away from the front). You will now have your case open.

At first glance, the inside of the computer looks pretty intimidating.

A typical Computer with case opened (Image Source)

If you can see, below the fan and they light-grey heat sink there is something sticking out from the Motherboard. That is the graphics card. You are going to need to unscrew this with a phillips-head screwdriver.

Here is a close up of a graphics card (Different picture, different card).

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Do you see the screw in the red box? That is what you are going to need to unscrew.

Now that you have unscrewed the card, look around the port that the card is in. If you see any little levers, raise these to unlock the card. Now, just gently pull it out.

You will need to put in the new card now. Basically, repeat the instructions to remove your card, backwards. Place the card in the slot, push the lever back down (If there is one), and screw it into it's slot.

We're almost done! Now you just need to install the drivers, and then you're ready to go.

Close up your case and re-plug all of the wires. Then press the 'On' button on your computer. At this point your computer might 'freak out' a little bit. It all of a sudden has this brand new graphics card running everything without the proper driver. Starting up might take a little bit of time, but don't worry because installing the driver is quick and painless. Once you have booted up and logged on, you need to fish out the driver CD that came with your graphics card and insert it into your CD drive. Then just follow the instructions on the disk to install it. After this, just restart your computer.

Well Done! You've replaced your graphics card, and you can start playing games or watching movies as soon as you want!

I hope you've found this guide informative and easy to read. Please drop a comment below!

There are lots of variations in motherboard, especially the fact the some use different processors. Make sure you buy a motherboard that is compatible with your processor. I will say "up to blah blah blah" anything older, and with the same socket will fit. Sockets are where your processor plugs in, different processors have different numbers of pins and only fit on motherboards with the same socket. So if you buy for example - an AMD dual core X2 5000+, look at the specifications and it will tell you which socket it is, for example this is AM2, so I need to find a motherboard with the same socket. Roam around until you find one.

Now, another thing to take into mind certain motherboards have a maximum amount of ram, so if you want to buy 2 gigs, you need to buy one with a maximum of 2 gigs. But if that motherboard is ideal, and you only want to use 1 gig, that will work. Now, different types of ram will only work in motherboards made for them. For now I would lay off the new ddr3, and buy ddr2 or ddr, don't buy edo or sdram as they are old and will not work in any new motherboards. You need to find out what pc of ram your motherboard can take, and what type.

Ddr is a single speed, and all you need to do is find out what density or "latency" your motherboard takes, either high or low.

Ddr2 is a little different, and you'll need to find out which Pc number yours can take, here is a detailed overview of the types.

• DDR2 - PC2-4200 Which is 533mhz, the slowest form of DDR2 you can buy.
• DDR2 - PC2-5300 Which is 667mhz, Which is reasonably fast. Most supported.
• DDR2 - PC2-6400 which is 800mhz, which is sufficient, and needs a 400 watt power supply.
• DDR2 - PC2-8500 which is 1066mhz, Will suck up power and needs a very high wattage power supply. Fastest.

Be aware, that a lower wattage power supply will work for a while, but will blow after about 5 hours of use. You're going to need cooling for your cpu, so the best idea is to find a fan that can cool to 80 Degrees Celcius, as no dual core processor will be hotter than this. If you're buying quad core, you'll need to opt for water cooling and a case fan.

You will now need to select a case, one that fits your motherboard, look in the specifications, and you will either see (only with computers 1995 and onwards)

• Standard ATX
• Micro ATX

Standard atx is bigger, and any case that says standard atx will fit a standard atx motherboard, and a micro atx motherboard.

But a micro atx will not fit a standard atx motherboard, as they are bigger. Find one that has some nice features, like sd reader and neon or whatever you like.

Next comes the graphics card, if you want a performance computer, you need to buy one, if you don't, you can use the onboard graphics built into your motherboard, which are typically 32mb - 64mb.

For the perfomance computers;

You'll need a graphics card, Stick to Nvidia or ATI and make sure it will fit on your motherboard, make sure your motherboard has either of the following

(detailed spec included)

• PCI - All new computers have these slots, but not really for graphics cards, old computers used them for graphics cards.
• AGP - New computers will not come with these, but they did make them, and if you aren't buying a new motherboard its a good idea
• to get a graphics card with agp support. They aren't too bad, went up to about 256mb.
• Pci express x1 - The small slot, all new motherboards will be fitted with one, and sometimes it's the only version of pci express.
• Pci express x16 - The bigger slot, it can have bigger graphics cards, and more power.

If your motherboard does not have a pci express x16 slot, buy a standard pci express card.

If your motherboard has both, buy one for the pci express x16 slot.

You may find more variations of Pci express such as x4 and x8, but 1 and 16 are the most common.

Asus make budget graphics cards that are based on nvidia cards, and are typically not bad, but do not buy one that says "supporting 512mb ram" or alike as it will eat into your main memory. Unless of course you have some to spare. High performance graphics cards will have fans, and lower performance ones will have heatsinks.

Based on the speeds, and memory available I will help you determine what power supply speed you will need.

• 128mb - 200W
• 256mb - 300W
• 512mb - 300W
• 768mb - 500W
• 1024mb - 900W

If you don't want to take any risks, buy a 1000W power supply, they are around £100 ($200).

Now, another imporant feature is the hard disk. These are simple, and should be easy enough to find, but for those who are having trouble, here is a little guide.

You get 3 types of hard drive (that is what cable and motherboard socket they need)

• IDE - You can still buy these readily, and these are the most common, you will need an IDE data cable, you can find them on most good websites (See bottom)
• SCSI - Can't buy anymore, not a great success do not recommend buying one. You will need a SCSI cable, which you will have to search ebay for.
• Sata - Good speed, reasonably cheap, need a Sata cable, make sure it's sata and not sata2.
• Sata2 - The best, fast, expensive however, you will need a Sata2 cable.

Again, make sure your motherboard and hard drive are the same format, and buy the cable.

Hard drives range in sizes, but i'm not going to go into detail, because there is not specific requirements for a hard drive (unless it's an old computer as they have a

maximum size).

Also make sure your power supply is compatible, all power supplys are compatible with IDE, and if your powersupply doesn't have the sata plug (for both sata and sata2 it's the same)

You'll need to buy a sata extension, that plugs into exsisting plugs. They are around £5 ($10)  Most motherboards will have ide slots, and some will even have sata and ide or sata2 and ide. You cannot get sata and sata2 boards.

Now we move onto CD/DVD drives, You get 3 types of CD/Dvd drives, but the formats don't really matter so i'll just list them.

• IDE
• SATA
• SATA2

Obviously they are slightly fast, but it doesn't really make a difference.

If your computer has 1 sata2 or sata slot, use that for the hard drive, and use the ide for the CD/Dvd drive.

You need to select the right kind of cd or dvd drive:

• CD - Can only play cds, cannot write, cannot play dvds.
• CD-RW - Can Play cds and write them, cannoy play dvds.
• Dvd Rom drive - Can play dvd roms, cannot play dvd rams. Cannot write. Can write and play cds.
• Dvd rom Rw drive - Can write dvd roms, can play dvd roms, cannot play or write dvd rams. Can write and play cds.
• Dvd ram drive - Can play but not write dvd rom/ram. Can play and write cds
• Dvd ram drive rw - Can write to Cds/Dvd roms/rams, can play dvd roms, rams and cds.

Obviously you can buy Hd-Dvd and Blu-ray players, but i have no expierience of them, so I can't help, sorry.

You'll need a monitor, but they're easy enough to find, just make sure you get one thats right for your graphics card, either VGA or DVI.

Vga is standard on most, but you can get adaptors to use vga on dvi graphics cards and vice versa.

You'll need a mouse and keyboard, BUY PS2 do not buy usb as they are completely useless!

Unless of course it's wireless.

Buy speakers (optional), just find a decent pair.

Buy a sound card, Most will be Pci or Pci express x1, but it doesn't matter which format it is.

You can also buy High Def sound cards.

But it doesn't really matter, as long as you get one.

Some motherboards will have sound cards built in on the back panel, so check if yours does, it'll save you some cash.

A network card is useful, you may have one built in, but buy one just incase, they're very cheap.

Make sure to buy all of the cables, and make sure everything is compatible, and then follow my next guide, which explains how to build up the computer.

Thanks for reading, hope it helped!

You can uninstall programs to make your computer have more space and virtual memory. Go to control panel, add or remove programs then remove the programs you don't want.

Cleaning your temporary files

You can get rid of your temporary files to make your computer A LOT faster. 30 minutes of regular internet is about 40 megabytes. Eventually, you can have up to 100 megabytes or even 430 megabytes like I did! To get rid of them, first go to your internet browser, go to options, then internet options, then look for CLEAN TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES. Click that and than wait for it to clean. Then, you can clean the cookies, but if you want to save passwords and usernames then don't clean it.

Cleaning your Registry

Cleaning your registry can have many effects such as getting a faster start up time, and more virtual memory. To do this, I suggest you get a program like Abexo Registry Cleaner to clean your registry. First make a backup with the program so that if something goes critically wrong then you can fix it. It wont take long to fix and wont take long to scan.

Download CCleaner (Crap Cleaner)

This program is very good at cleaning “Crap” and is also a good registry cleaner. Run it weekly and you should be clean of “Crap” and have a faster internet/computer. Get it at ccleaner.com

Buy a new computer

If your computer has less than windows 2000, has a graphics card made before 2004, has less than 550 RAM and has a processor less than 1.5 GHz then you need an upgrade. Yeah, you can check all your statuses if you go to control panel and click system. You can get upgrades at Best Buy or at Circuit City and you can also get it online. Upgrades usually cost from $1 - $200.

The Basics

Here is what you need to get started:

• Motherboard
• Processor
• RAM
• Graphics Card
• Hard Drive
• DVD/CD Drive
• Sound Card
• Power Supply Unit
• Case
• Keyboard and Mouse
• Monitor

Please keep in mind that some components may not be necessary for your build. For instance, many people simply stick with the onboard sound on their motherboard, scratching the need for a sound card. Likewise, the same can be said for motherboards with built-in graphics. Some people skip out on an optical drive (although this is only recommended for very cheap rigs).

Motherboard

What all the components are plugged in to. This is an area where many people like to skimp, but accessibility and expandability in the motherboard can mean the difference between a fun build and a nightmare. Please make sure all other components are compatible with this part (i.e., it has enough of the right types of ports for your hard drive(s), optical drive(s), and case fan(s), the right socket type and support for your processor, the correct size for your case, has enough of the correct type of ports for your peripherals (e.g. mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc.), the correct slot for your Graphics Card, and support for your RAM). Recommended for most Intel builds are the P35 and X38/X48 motherboards.

If you feel the need for SLI (multiple Nvidia graphics cards), go with either the 680/780 boards, or, if you've got the cash, the 790i Ultra. For AMD builds, most any AM2+ boards should do you fine.

Processor

First of all, make sure that the CPU (processor) you are getting matches the socket type of the motherboard (e.g. LGA 775, AM2, etc.). Also, make sure the chipset of the motherboard supports the CPU. You can check this at the motherboard manufacturer's website. For performance computers, Intel CPUs are currently your best bet. Keep in mind that Gigahertz (Ghz, the speed of the processor) aren't necessarily equal between different models and brands. For example, the 3Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo e8400 is INFINITELY faster than the 3.2 Ghz AMD Athlon 64+ 6400+. Also, if your programs support them, quad cores are the way to go, but seeing as many don't yet, I would stick with a dual core for the time being. If you are on a tight budget, AMD CPUs can be found for less than Intel's, and a single core may suffice for your needs.

RAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) needs to have the same socket type (SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, DDR3) as the motherboard to be compatible. The most common socket type for RAM for new computers is DDR2 (Double Data Rate revision 2). For most builds, DDR2 800 should be quite fast, although if you plan on extreme overclocking, DDR2 1066 may be warranted. The number after DDR2 is the effective operating frequency, in Megahertz (Mhz, 1000 of which equal one Ghz). Most people will use a dual channel setup (installation varies by motherboard), where two sticks of the same type of RAM are put together, effectively doubling performance. The RAM speed is dependent on the slowest stick, though, so this is only recommended if using two identical RAM modules. For EXTREME overclocking, you may want to use DDR3 (which currently comes in speeds between 1333 Mhz and 2000 Mhz), but this is much more expensive, and motherboards supporting this technology are, as of yet, few and far between. 2GB (gigabytes, 1000 megabytes, amount of memory) are more than sufficient for most builds, but if you plan on doing a lot of multitasking, you may want to think about getting 4GB of memory.

Graphics Card(s)

For a gaming computer, the graphics card is, perhaps, the most important part of the build. It is necessary in any computer, but some motherboards come with built in graphics for those who do not use any graphic-intense applications. Please insure that the slot-type (PCI Express x16, AGPx8, etc.) is supported by your motherboard, and that the power supply has the necessary connections (PCIE 6-pin, PCIE 8-pin, etc.). The two main companies here are ATI (owned by AMD) and Nvidia. Currently, Nvidia supplies the very best of the best when it comes to graphics cards, but in some cases, you may prefer an ATI card. If you want to watch blu-ray/HD-DVD movies, you need to ensure that the graphics card supports HDCP to watch it at the full, intended resolution. Two of the newest cards, the Nvidia 9800GX2 and ATI Radeon 3870 X2 have TWO physical cards in them, replicating SLI and Crossfire respectively in a board that does not support SLI/Crossfire. SLI and Crossfire are the names for Nvidia and ATI's multi-graphics card systems respectively. For the most intense graphics, you may wish to pursue one of these two options (in which case you need to make sure your motherboard supports the technology). The top of the line Nvidia single-card graphics card is the 9800GTX (closely trailed by the 8800 Ultra, 8800 GTS G92, and 8800GTX), and ATI's is the Radeon 3870 (closely followed by the 3850).

Hard Drive(s)

The hard drive is the component which stores all of the software on your computer. There are various interface types (IDE, ATA, SATA, SATAII), of which SATAII is the most recent (and best). This is because it supports the highest bandwidth while sporting the thinnest cable (helping to promote good air flow, and make cable management easier). The most important statistic when buying a hard drive is the storage space. Make sure it has enough (e.g. 200GB, 500GB, 750GB, etc.) storage space for your needs. If you are not sure, see how much you use on you current computer to get a rough estimate. If you still aren't sure, it never hurts (anything but your wallet) to have too much. Performance is mostly dictated by the interface type, spindle speed, and amount of platters. Spindle speed is the speed at which the hard drive rotates. Most desktop hard drives rotate at 7200RPM, although there are faster 10,000RPM drives, but these offer less storage space. That second figure I mentioned, amount of platters, is how many magnetic disks there are within your hard drive. The less there are, the faster, quieter, and less likely to break your hard drive is. The best platter today is available in the Samsung Spinpoint F1 1 TB (terabyte, 1000 gigabytes). It has three platters, each with 333GB of storage space. Most desktop hard drives fit in a 3.5” internal drive bay. Eventually hard drives will be replaced by Solid State Drives (SSDs), but these are currently far too expensive and don't provide nearly enough storage space for the average user.

Optical Drive

Where you put your optical discs (DVD, CD, blu-ray, etc.). There are two main interface types (SATA and IDE), with SATA once again being the preferable type. For most budgets, a DVD writer would be recommended, although none are necessary if you are building an “el cheapo” computer. If you have the money and the media, you may want a blu-ray drive though. The fastest of these write blu-ray discs at 6x, while DVD writers can write at speeds of up to 20x. The claimed speeds are important, but there are more variables than the test figures represent (due to variations in which media brand is used for the testing). The fastest optical drive on the market today (DVD writer) is the Samsung SH-S203B. Most optical drives fit in a 5.25” external drive bay. Another technology some may be interested in is lightscribe, which laser etches an image into the top of a disc, although these drives cost slightly more. Also, for almost everybody, floppy drives are no longer needed.

Sound Card

While almost every motherboard nowadays comes with built-in sound, aftermarket sound cards will always be there for the audiophile. There are varying interface types (PCI, PCI Express x1). The most popular today are the Creative X-Fi Series and the ASUS Xonar D2 series. Some sound cards feature onboard RAM to offload all of the sound processing from the CPU, boosting performance in any application that involves sound (sometimes a few FPS (frames per second) even in intense games). Only get an aftermarket sound card if you truly appreciate rich, vibrant sound and have a good set of speakers/headphones to go fully take advantage of one.

Power Supply Unit

The PSU is what provides power to all of the components of your computer. It is important not to skimp on this, as it is the only component that, should it fail, has the possibility of taking all the other components with it. The most important thing to look for in a PSU is the brand, as certain brands have a reputation for power supplies that will not crash (as some cheap, generic ones have a tendency to do, sometimes with explosive results). Some recommended brands are PC Power & Cooling, Antec, Seasonic, Enermax, Thermaltake, OCZ, Corsair, Thermaltake, Tagan, and Gigabyte. The most important statistic in the PSU is the wattage rating. This tells you how much wattage the PSU can supply to your components. Use a wattage calculator (and add 15% or so for safety's sake) to determine what kind of wattage it will take to run your computer. Also important is the efficiency. Many PSUs today are stamped with the 80plus seal of approval, signifying that they run at 80% or better efficiency (e.g. less than 20% of the supplied power is lost as heat), improving performance, component life, and helping reduce energy consumption. Also, be sure that the PSU has connectors for all of the components you need to power, and try to find one that will allow you to keep it as you add things to your computer. Modular support is a nice feature to have (not all of the wires are permanently attached to the PSU, so the connectors you aren't using can be unplugged from the power supply, reducing cable clutter), but you pay a premium for it.

Case

What you put all of your components in. Important things to look for in the case are it's size, motherboard form factor, if it will hold your graphics card, what kind of bays it has, the provided cooling, and what it looks like. Size-wise, for most people the only way to go is either Mid-Tower ATX or Full Tower ATX (sometimes called Super Tower ATX). Either of these will hold an ATX motherboard, and most Full Tower cases will hold an Extended ATX (EATX) motherboard. Check reviews to see if your graphics card will fit the case, as some of the newer graphics cards are quite long and do not fit in some cases. You need to make sure it has enough 3.5” internal bays for your hard drives, 5.25” external bays for your optical drives, and if it has 3.5” external bays if you use accessories that utilize those bays. Make sure it has adequate cooling for the setup you are planning on building. I recommend that the case you choose has at least a 120mm fan or 2 80mm fans. Any more than that should be good as well. Look to see it h as at least on exhaust fan, and that there are not more fans than you need (this will make it very loud). If you are planning on watercooling, you should definitely go with a Full Tower case, and for ease of installation find out if it fits the radiator you are planning on using. Looks are personal preference, but I find some people like to have a conservative looking case with one solid color and usually either in black, beige or white, while others like flashy cases with side windows, LED fans and crazy paint jobs.

Keyboard and Mouse

Keyboards and mice are generally best chosen after trying out a few and seeing what you like best. There are a few things to look for. If you want an uncluttered desktop, go for a wireless set. If you want all-out gaming performance, try a keyboard with macro keys and the ability to disable the windows key, and a mouse with lots of extra buttons, a “clicky”, or tactile, scroll wheel, and a high and adjustable dpi. If you have many late-night sessions, look for a mouse with an illuminated scroll wheel and a backlit keyboard (such as the Saitek Eclipse II, arguably the best back-lit keyboard to date). But most important, MAKE SURE WHATEVER YOU PICK IS COMFORTABLE!!! I can not stress this enough. You can have the best mouse/keyboard combo ever, but if you find them uncomfortable, you'll find it hell to use your computer.

Monitor

Finally the monitor, what you will be viewing everything you do with. Make sure it is as big as you can afford. A bigger monitor reduces eye-strain and increases the amount of windows you can work with at one time. There is no longer any reason to get a CRT monitor, so be sure to go for an LCD. Also, be sure to get a widescreen (16:10/16:9) as opposed to a fullscreen (4:3), because you get more screen for the price (widescreen panels are cheaper to manufacture). The contrast ratio is quite important to how good the images look. It tells you how black the blacks are and how white the whites are. The higher the better. Make sure is reproduces at least 16.2 million colors, as this means it is 16-bit (8-bit monitors simply can't compete when it comes to visual quality). The response time should be as low as possible, but make sure that the monitors you are comparing measure response time the same way, or else this statistic is pointless (some measure black-to-white-to-black, while others measure grey-to-grey). Other things to look for in a monitor are how much the stand adjusts, how many screen adjustment options there are (as a general rule, the more the better), and how good you think it looks. Just like mice and keyboards, I recommend you try out the monitor you are thinking about purchasing before you do so, as you want to be sure you will be happy with it after you plop down the cash (which can be quite a lot).

Conclusion

Now you should have a good idea of what kind of computer you will be building. It really isn't nearly as hard as it seems at first. This is all stuff I've come across in the two years I've been interested in building computers, and I could have gone into much more depth, but won't in this article for the sake of simplicity. After you've read this and chosen what components you are going to purchase for your build, you just need to put it all together. I will explain how to do that in a future article, but I promise, it is no harder than it was to choose what to buy. I GUARANTEE you will be happy if you build your own computer, as so long as you do a little research before buying the parts, you will end up with a better performing, cheaper computer than Dell and the likes will ever sell you. Good luck, and be sure to check back in the coming weeks for more of my guides!

The Case

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Well, first things first. The case is just what it says on the tin - a case for your computer. Everything is held in the case, with CD/DVD/Floppy drives having special slots at the front. At the back there are holes for a number of sockets and plugs for things such as a keyboard, mouse, speakers, printers, etc.

Peripherals

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'Peripherals' is the collective name for anything that plugs into the back of your computer - such as keyboards, mice, scanners, printers, speakers, pen drives, etc.. There are thousands of variants and accessories available, so we won't go into much more detail here.

PSU

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This stands for Power Supply Unit. Again, its function is fairly simple - it supplies power to all the bits in your computer, including the fans in the case (your computer needs to stay cool!).

The Motherboard

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This is the mother of all circuit boards inside your computer. Everything connects to this board - it is the central unit, the board that connects different "bits" to each other. You can guarantee that anything in your computer is connected to the motherboard in one way or another.

CPU / Processor

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CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. Don't get scared by this scary title however, as this little board's job is fairly simple. It is the "brain" of your computer. It makes all the important decisions and controls the other parts of the computer.

You may have come across the terms "dual core" or "quad core" before, when talking about computers. This simply means that there are multiple CPU's - dual core means 2 processors, and quad core means 4 processors - as they say, 2 minds are better than one!

RAM

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This is also another term you may have come across when talking / looking at computers. RAM stands for Random Access Memory. You often get several of these boards in your computer, giving a total amount of "memory". This memory is measured in Gigabytes, and generally the more memory the better.

You might like to think of RAM as the heart of your computer - the stronger the memory, the more strenuous tasks your computer can do. However, do something your RAM can't handle and your computer will freeze, or have "a heart attack".

Hard Drive

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The hard drive is basically a high-quality CD inside your computer that stores all of your data. They come in various colours, sizes and styles, but they all perform the same job: to store your documents, music, movies, pictures, settings, and anything else you might have saved on your computer.

Graphics Card

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This is the bit of your computer that acts as a "translator" between your screen and the guts of your computer. It converts the signals coming from the other boards in your computer into visual data that the monitor can display. People who use their computers for playing fancy games often have expensive graphics cards that "translate" the data faster, more efficiently and more accurately.

Optical Drive

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You may be thinking “Optical Drive? What's that? I haven't got one of those”. However, stand corrected. "Optical Drive" is the proper term for CD/DVD drive. Every modern computer has one of these now, as practically all software and media is available on disks. Again, as with other parts of a computer, there are many variants available - some being able to write DVD's as well as read them, some being able to read these "new-fangled blu-ray disks".

Sound Card

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Most motherboards come with built-in sound cards nowadays. However for those that don't, or for the more advanced users, you may need a sound card. These perform roughly the same job as a graphics card, except instead of converting signals into visual data they convert them into audio data that can be played through your computers system. Again, there are many different types of sound card available, with the more expensive ones offering high quality surround sound and many other features us average users will never use.

And there you go! That's all there is to an average computer! However, as technology is so rapidly advancing, there are always many other add-ons you can buy for your computer that I probably haven't listed here. Boards such as TV tuners, wireless networking cards, Bluetooth cards, and many are available to just slot into your motherboard. These all perform the functions they say on the tin - so I will not go into detail here. I hope you found this article interesting, and if anything learned something new about your computer!

Processor

This is the heart of a computer, this runs all the tasks and is basically the main part of your computer, now you can either have a AMD or a PENTIUM these are the two most commonest processors on the market, then you have the type of processor such as PENTIUM 4, 3, Celeron, Xeon or Centrino on the other hand you could have AMD, Athalon there are more but you get the idea.

Now the power of the processor is determined in either GHz or MHz now this depends on how old your processor is, see mine is a PENTIUM 4 3.0 GHz which means 3.0 GHz so its pretty darn fast 3.0 GHz is equal to 3000 MHz. The higher the GHz or MHz the faster your computer is.

RAM

Random Access Memory, this is where data is stored while the computer is running and then when you turn of the computer it is deleted, its not a saving place more of a temporary storage area, you see instead of saving the data on the hard drive and having t find it all the time this makes the computer faster. Now we have different types of RAM there is SDRAM, DDR RAM or DDR 2 RAM. Now DDR is Double Data Rate basically 256 DDR RAM is twice as fast as SDRAM 256.

So the more RAM you have and the type will speed your computer up as well I have 1024 DDR RAM, this means that I have a fair amount of RAM to help my processor and speed the computer up.

Hard Drive

Now this is where all your data is stored and actually kept, your hard drive is the main storage area; data stored here is not deleted unless you decided to delete it.

The hard drive size is Giga bytes so my hard drive is 160 GB so it’s fairly big. Now the more GB your hard drive as the more memory you can store on your computer, bigger the better.

Graphics Cards

Now if you want to play the newest games or run heavy modelling or photo editing software you will need a powerful graphics card with RAM, graphics cards come in many different styles so what you want to look for is a respectable company such as NVIDIA or ATI and then a good RAM amount such as 256 DDR RAM this is a good card for any computer.

This is all I will be covering as these are the main aspects to look for other ones are the amount of USB ports, and PCI slots or AGP slots, that’s it folks have fun.