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!