Before we start, here are a few terms you may need to know:

Mb/Gb: measures of storage; in this order, a megabyte (1,000 kilobytes) and a gigabyte (1,000 megabytes).
RAM: Random Access Memory. The temporary storage location for a computer.
Hard disk: the drive that stores your files.
Processor: the "heart" of the computer. Data that is pumped into it is routed to wherever in the computer it is needed. (Please note that I will not be recommending any AMD processors in my article, below; this is because, in my experience, they are unreliable.)
Ghz: measure of processor frequency; higher means faster (well, there is some debate on that, but it is generally accepted that a higher number is faster).

Also note that I may recommend values with a "~" in between them. For anything with that value, the lower end is better suited for your need and less costly; the higher value will work better and last longer, but will be more expensive.

Can you give me a basic rundown?

There are way too many factors for getting a new PC to just give a basic rundown. However, I can at least tell you this much about PC's: if you don't know much about PC's, go with a manufacturer's PC's. I recommend Gateway highest out of all of them; I have good experiences with their tech support and with the performances of their PC's. Hewlett-Packard (HP) is also a very reliable PC manufacturer. The worst choice would be Dell. Their computers are built sloppily and their tech support is more likely to not assist you in a moment of need.

However, if you're technically proficient, you should try to build your own PC. I'm going to cover that in a later article posted here. But the advantage to that is that your PC's performance is going to be much better due to the missing manufacturer crapware that negatively affects the performance.

Or, there's a third option, for those who want to do a little more work: contact a local PC builder. I'm one in my area; PC builders get parts from wholesalers, meaning that the parts are cheap. They don't install crapware on your PC. And most importantly, they won't overcharge you for a good PC.

What specifications do I need for a sturdy at-home PC?

I would recommend something that's not high in specifications, if you're not going to be using it for very intensive applications (running Internet Explorer or checking your e-mail, and maybe typing up word documents, for example; the occasional online game works as well in this package). Here's a sample build:

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core, 2.0~2.4ghz.
RAM: DDR2, 1~2gb.
Hard Disk: 80~100gb, any speed.
Graphics Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
Sound Card: go with an onboard card, don't buy a separate adapter.
CD/DVD Drive: just get a CD writer/DVD reader. You'll be able to make your own CD's and watch DVD movies on your PC.

How about a PC for business use?

I'd recommend to follow almost the exact specifications as above, but go with Windows Vista Business instead of Home Premium, and maybe to get a hard disk that is slightly larger (120~150gb) so that you can hold more files.

I need a PC that can handle home media. It's not quite a gaming PC.

This would be a good thing for those who use digital media quite a bit. To complete the package, I'd recommend (if you don't already have one) a TV that has a DVI (white; its shape is like a rounded parallelogram) or S-Video (black, round, small) on the back of it so that you can watch movies on your TV that are on your computer.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.8~2.4ghz, or for better performance, Intel Core 2 Quad at 2.33ghz.
RAM: 2~4gb, PC6400 (if you don't know what that is, then don't worry).
Hard Disk: 120~200gb (more towards the 200 if you want to store movies on your PC), at a speed of 7200RPM.
Graphics Card: any card that has a DVI port or S-Video port in back so that you can use your PC and TV in conjunction.
Sound Card: you don't necessarily need a separate sound card, but for best sound quality, get a Turtle Beach Riviera (uses the PCI standard port), which can handle surround sound.
CD/DVD Drive: go with a CD writer/DVD reader for writing CD's and reading DVD's on your computer, or get a CD/DVD burner if you want to be able to make your own DVD's.

I need a low-level gaming PC...it doesn't have to handle multiple games at once.

You might need to learn your terms better. Gaming PC's require some special specifications for the equipment used. I can try to define them better, but in reality, you may want to use Wikipedia or a Google search to figure out better what you need.
The term I'll introduce here is latency. Latency is the time between when data is received and when it is written to the memory. Latency configurations usually look like this: X-X-X-XX (where each X is a number). Lower numbers are better when dealing with latency.

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66~3.0ghz for standard performance, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.44~2.8ghz for improved performance, or Intel Core 2 Extreme (Dual or Quad) at 2.93ghz.
RAM: 4gb of PC6400 or above at a latency of 5-5-5-18 or better (lower).
Hard Disk: 250~500gb at a speed of 7200 or 10,000 RPM.
Graphics Card: an EVGA GeForce 9500 GT, which supports 512mb of onboard memory (so that your standard RAM isn't touched by the graphics card, for better performance) or better.
Sound Card: anything goes, unless you have a surround sound configuration, in which case I recommend a Turtle Beach Riviera (for good performance, up to 6 channels of sound) or a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE (for best performance; it supports up to 7.1 channels of surround sound, and is actually quite inexpensive). Do not, however, just go with whatever is built into your motherboard.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, hands down. Unless you want to watch Blu-Ray movies or play Blu-Ray games on your PC, in which case I'd recommend a Blu-Ray reader (which is very expensive, so watch out).

I'm a gamer that needs it all. I mean, ALL. What are the specs I need?

Despite being a geek, I'm no gamer. Well, maybe on occasionally, but no WoW or any of that. I really wouldn't know. But I can put together a PC with all the best parts. Note that this will be, hands down, EXPENSIVE. So if the regular gaming PC I've specified above cuts it, take that. If not, then read on.

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate.
Processor: for great performance, a Core 2 Extreme Quad at 3.2ghz or for ultimate performance, a Core i7 or Core i7 Extreme Edition at 2.66~3.2ghz.
RAM: 8gb of DDR3, between PC12800 and PC15000, with latencies close to or lower than 7-7-7-24.
Hard Disk: 1tb (that's a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes), at a speed of 10,00RPM.
Graphics Card: actually, you'll want a two-pack of cards for best performance. My recommendation would be the PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX, which has 1 GB of GDDR3 memory between two cards. It can be found at TigerDirect.
Sound Card: see what I said in the last computer category for sound cards.
Multimedia: CD/DVD burner, Blu-Ray reader.

Final thoughts.

Finding a computer with these exact specs is a hard job. You'll need to call around to a lot of manufacturers and ask each for a custom PC; many of them can't customize to exactly what you need. Especially when we're talking about gaming PC's (unless you call Alienware, but they'll charge you thousands for a PC as good as the last one I describe).

For gamers, you'd more than likely want to build your own computer, both for cheapness and so that you get EXACTLY what you need from a PC. Not to mention that processors in manufactured PC's won't overclock (getting your processor to operate at a higher frequency than the default, which also helps gamers a lot).

In the near future, I'll be writing a guide to building your own PC. It's a lot simpler than you'd expect, actually. But for now, enjoy your new PC. I hope it works the way you want.

Before we start, get to know the size of your budget and the kind of computer you want to build. Are you into business and need the computer as a personal office routine or for play. A good enough budget will mean a good enough system with all things needed to make it function optimally. Again, are you building a computer for the sole purpose of browsing the internet, or for other use. You need to get your facts on the table before you start.

Look for a good store that stock computer parts and services, many abound online and offline, but i would advice you go offline and vist the hardware stores to get a good first hand knowledge of the parts you need . See them and ask questions, it pays to ask than be lost. Our next step is to buy the major parts of the computer that we need and forget about the parts not needed. First identify the type of computer you want to build. Don't cut cost, due to been hard up with money. Bear in mind that you are building a system, you want to use for at least four years. Now we can start our building.

First, take your processor unit and instal on your board, your hard disk follows, this is where your computer needs to be very effective, for a hard disk with little space may not be capable to do the things you want, so go for a hard disk with enough space, say a 20 gig disk, to back you up all the way through. Once that is in, you pick up the drivers tool you want installed on your computer, now this will depend on what you want to use your computer for, music, movie, editing, Dvd, etc. You determine what tool you want, then instal the drivers to power it, example a Dvd drive will play Dvd tapes and any other devices that is Dvd.

Your central processing unit now is installed on your motherboard, that is, the big board you got from the hardware store.

Next comes your fans and in order to hold them in place use thermal paste, this will make them not to shift, when the system heats up, for any other type of paste will most likely melt up when the computer gets warm.

Pick up your memory slots and other devices you want like graphic, sound, network, Usb cards and instal them.

We are almost finished here, go back to the top and recheck, in fact double check for any thing you missed from the beginning and put it in place. Now pick up the wires you got from the hardware store and place them in all the ports that need to be wired. Once again check that everything is in place and connected, cross your heart for the best. Hit the ON switch and watch your work light up.

Also please note that this tutorial only covers the exterior of the house and that more specific things like creating custom chimneys/windows are not included. If you would like specific info/tutorials on any more specific house components please leave me a comment. And finally all components used here are provided by Google with Sketchup Free.

1. Create a blank document then create a rectangle (using the rectangle tool) the size of the house and garden (Type values as you drag the rectangle to create precise sizes).
   
   
   
   Don't worry if the plot is not rectangular we will deal with this later. Then use the line tool to split the rectangle into a grid. This is not essential but you may find this helpful.
   
   
2. Now draw out the layout of your building on the rectangle as shown. In this example green is for garden, white is for 2 floors, dark gray is for 1 floor and light gray is a glass conservatory.
   
   
   
   I am only texturing them like this to show what I'm doing but you may also find it useful.
   
   
3. Then using the push/pull tool pull up the different sections to the correct height.
   
   
   
   Use the value typing system from Step 1 to get the height accurate.
   
   
4. Create a vertical rectangle coming up from the flat top of the cuboids to the desired height of the roof.
   
   
   
   Then create a line from the bottom corners to the centre of the top line.
   
   
5. Cut out the top of the roof rectangle leaving only a triangle as shown.
   
   
   
   Make sure the angle/size of the roof triangle is correct.
   
   
6. Use the push/pull tool to pull the roof triangle to the far side of the building or the point where you want the roof to come.
   
   
   
   
   
7. At this stage you can use the offset tool to add detail. In this example I used it to slightly push in (with push/pull tool) the ends of the roof.
   
   
   
   This little detail creates a much better model.
   
   
8. The next step is to texture your model using the paint bucket tool. In this example I just used the textures that Google provide, although you can download many more or even make your own.
   
   
   
   Note: Glass textures like the one I used can be found under transparent in the textures gallery.
   
   
9. Almost done! Use the components gallery (found in the windows menu) to find and add components (i.e. windows and doors).
   
   
   
   I find it helpful when adding windows to draw a line on the face and place all windows on the line.
   
   
10. You're basically finished now.
    
    
    
    Just get rid of any unwanted lines and make any final adjustments.

Congratulations - you just built your house in Sketchup!

If you intend on building a PC based on simple tasks such as word processing, the price of the components all together should cost around from $800 to $1 000.

If the computer is intended for the gamin or video editing, you may need to consider from $1 500 and possibly all the way up to $3 000 and more.

REMEMBER: You (supposedly) want to build a PC that is pretty up to date and can support programs from the upcoming 2 to 4 years. So consider spending more than $1 500 if you are not going to change PCs every 2 or 3 years.

So now that you've decided what kind of PC you want to build, the next step is choosing what type of system components you would need in order to build your new PC.

If your system is aimed towards basic tasks such as word processing and media playback, your system's minimums should be:

CPU - Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E6000 Series and higher

RAM - 2GB RAM (Generic will do) DDR2 is recommended for its price and performance

Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce 6000 Series and onwards

Motherboard - Gigabyte EP35-DS3L and upwards

Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Why Vista? Sooner or later you are going to want or need to upgrade to Vista but XP currently is not a bad choice

Keyboard and Mouse - Any quality brands will do according to your budget (eg. Logitech, Microsoft)

Monitor - Any size from 19” and onwards is fine, though do consider a widescreen monitor if you constantly use Word so you can view pages side-by-side, but of course, this would depend on how much you are willing to spend

Speakers - For listening to music inside a room, you can get a set of 2.1ch speaker system for less than $50

Extras - Webcam, Microphone

Chassis - Any quality chassis with good ventilation and that suits your taste (as in design) is good

Power Supplies - I personally DON'T recommend generic power supplies that came with the chassis and suggest that you purchase your own (e.g. brands such as Cooler Master, Antec, Corsair etc are recommended) with 450watts or higher

Hard Disk - A 250GB Drive should do you fine unless you're intending to rip libraries of movies and music albums, your new PC's HDD space is dependant entirely up to you

Optical Drive - A DVD burner should be enough for most users - with LiteScribe if you wish

If your system is for gaming or video editing, start considering more on the performance than the price. Below are my minimum suggestions:

CPU - Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8000 or better (E8500 recommended) or if you have the money, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 or better

RAM - 4GB branded RAM for gaming and 8GB branded RAM for video editing (Corsair Dominator would be excellent and DDR3 would be awesome)

Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 and better (NVIDIA GeForce 8000 or 9000 Series are ideal for extreme gamers)

Though a good video card is not entirely necessary if you intend on just video editing, I still advise that you still purchase one that is at least capable of handling Vista Aero smoothly without causing too much system drawback, plus you might decide to do 3D rendering in the future

If you are an extreme gamer, think about a SLi configuration or Crossfire

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 or better (the motherboard does not necessarily have to be from Gigabyte, but it's just one of my favourites

Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate or Microsoft Windows XP Professional 

Why Vista? Sooner or later you are going to want or need to upgrade to Vista but XP currently is not a bad choice

Keyboard and Mouse - Shop around for gaming keyboards and mice, there are plenty from Logitech

Monitor - 22” and larger with at most 5ms - consider a widescreen

Speakers - I suggest that you purchase higher end set with at least 5.1ch but if you're not really bothered about the sound 2.1ch should be fine

Extras - Webcam, Microphone, Gamepad, Joystick etc

Chassis - You might need to consider a gaming chassis - major brands such as ThermalTake, Cooler Master and Antec provide chassis purposely designed for gaming systems to provide good ventilation systems

Power Supply - A power supply from major brands such as Antec, ThermalTake and Cooler Master with at least 1000watts if made for gaming and at least 750watts for video editing

NOTE: These are just suggested, if your graphics card requires more or less than I said, please follow what its manual says!

Hard Disk - 1TB of HDD space should be enough for a gaming PC though if you're also doing video editing or have media libraries, I would advise that you put some money into purchasing quality hard drives - Seagate and Western Digital suggested - and the PC should total up with at least 2TBs especially if it is like a family's central PC

Optical Drive - DVD burners are probably the way to go, though if you are into Blu-ray, I would get a DVD burner alongside with the Blu-ray drive personally, particularly if I'm burning lots of DVDs (Blu-ray drives tend to burn REALLY slowly with DVDs)

The components needed are:

1. Case
2. Motherboard
3. Processor
4. Memory (RAM)
5. Hard Drive
6. Optical Drive
7. Operating System

Step One: Getting the Parts

I chose Dabs for this step, as I'd used them before, but there are plenty of good websites out there.

You want to find a cheap, but good, piece of equipment for each part. What I did was look for parts that matched the specs I needed, and had a 4 or 5 star rating.

Here is what I got:

• Dabsvalue Case: £20
  Fits all mainboards up to 244mm.
  400w power supply included.
  
• MSI Motherboard: £32
  Fits two DDRII simms, up to 2 GB in each RAM slot. (Up to 4 GB total)
  Socket AM2.
  Supports AMD Athlon 64 X2
  Supports 64-bit processors.
• AMD Processor: £48
  Socket AM2.
  64-bit.
  2.2 ghz (“3800+”)
  Dual core
  
• Corsair Memory: £52
  2 simms, DDRII
  Each simm 1 GB in size (2 GB in total)
  
• Hard Drive: £28
  160 GB
  7,200 RPM
  
• DVD-Rom / CD-RW combo drive: £15
  I actually salvaged this from an old PC, but the same drive was £15 on the net.

Step Two: Putting It Together

Firstly, make sure you anti-static yourself. (Touch a metal objects that is connected to the ground, and un-painted. Or, wear an anti-static bracelet, probably best.) This is important as any static shocks can harm the components.

Open up the case. You'll find many screws with your case or motherboard. Screw the spacers into the case, lined up with the holes in the motherboard. Make sure the motherboard does not touch the case, and screw it in place on the spacers. Plug in any case wires, such as power buttons, into the places as described in the motherboard's manual.

Now Take your processor. Smear on some heat-transfer paste (around £2.50), and line it up with the pins on the white square of the motherboard, making sure the arrow in one corner is lined up with the arrow on the motherboard. Making sure it is perfectly aligned, lower the lever (if it is AM2) to stick it in place. Your CPU may be different; I am writing this from using a socket AM2 processor. Read the instructions supplied with your CPU. Place the heat sink on top, and clip it in place. Connect the fan wires to the motherboard.

Connect the thick grey cable to the motherboard. Now screw the hard drive in to one of the small bays, and connect the thick grey cable, and one of the white power cables. Place the optical drive into the case, and screw it in place. Again, connect a white power cable and the thick grey cable.

Now the memory… Make sure the notch is lined up, and place it in to one of the slots. Don't force it. Push it down gently and the white clips will close on it. Do the same for any additional sticks if you have them.

Now turn it on and pray it works.

Step Three: the Operating System

You want a cheap, but effective, operating system.

I chose Linux as it has many free distributions. I then chose Ubuntu, for some reason. I went with Xubuntu, because I needed a visual system, that was low on resources. Download it, install it on the server, and run it.

Setting up the network should be straight forward, or you can check the OS's website for guides.

All done!

In the end, here's the specs:

• AMD Athlon 64-bit dual core, 2.2ghz 3800+
• 2 GB memory
• 160 GB hard disk drive, 7,200 RPM
• DVD-R/CD-RW drive
• 400w PSU
• Xubuntu Linux

Total cost: £197.50 - Not bad for a server of these specs.

Upgrading

Oh, we're not done yet! As your game makes money, here's some things to upgrade:

• RAM: 2 GB -> 4 GB
• Hard Drive: 160GB 7,200 RPM -> 80GB 15,000 RPM