Parts List/Shopping List
____ CPU/Processor
Recommended: Although we used a Pentium III for our PC, we recommend purchasing
a Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor.
As of this writing these were available in speeds well over 2-3 GHz. Usually the very fastest Pentium chip is
VERY expensive - a good alternative is the 2nd fastest chip.
Note: If your CPU does not come with a heat sink,
you will need to buy one of those separately.
_____ Motherboard or
Main board Recommended Brands: Abit, Asus, Gigabyte. Any one of
these companies makes solid motherboards.
Note: Abit boards (and a few other brands) use a "Soft
Menu". This is allows jumper-less
configuration of the board; that means, it will take the hassle out of
configuring your motherboard.
IT IS VERY IMPORANT YOU MAKE SURE
YOUR MOTHERBOARD SUPPORTS THE CPU YOU HAVE CHOSEN!
_____ Memory/RAM Recommended
Brands: Siemens, Toshiba, NEC. Stay away
from no-name brands and make sure you purchase the proper size and type of chip
for your motherboard. While we used
DIMM’s, most new motherboards take DDR or Double Data Rate RAM (Not DDR2). If you are not sure, just check your
motherboard’s instruction manual or ask the salesman. Buy at least 512MB of RAM if you plan on running
Windows XP - 1024MB is even better.
_____ Video
Card/Graphics Adapter Recommended Brands: nVidia, ATi. If your motherboard supports AGP (Advanced
Graphics Port) then be sure to buy an AGP Video Card/Graphics Adapter. This will let you take advantage of the
higher performance the AGP port offers.
Otherwise you will want to buy a PCI Graphics Adapter. Before you buy, you should also think about
spending a little extra and getting a combo card that also supports 3D
Graphics. ATi and nVidia are neck and
neck, although nVidia chips tend to have heat issues more than ATi, so keep
that in mind.
Check out some recent magazine articles before
you make your purchase. Video Cards are improving every week! Many of the newer
cards come with software that lets you watch DVD's full screen! All you need is
a DVD-ROM drive.
_____ Sound Card
Recommended Brand: Sound Blaster. Sound
Blaster has been the industry standard for over 12 years. They are the most
compatible card, are worry-free and there are many flavors of Soundblaster to
choose from. The simplest one we recommend is the Soundblaster Live! - this is
a nice card; sounds great and is inexpensive.
If you really need to pinch pennies, a Sound Blaster 16 is fine.
_____ Modem
Recommended Brands: US Robotics. US
Robotics has set the gold standard for modems! They cost a little more but are
very reliable and will not give you any trouble! Do not buy any modem slower
then 56K. Internal modems are much
cheaper then external - so get an internal modem! If you plan to use broadband,
do not bother with a dial-up modem.
_____ Network Card
Recommended Brands: NetGear, Linksys, 3COM.
If you plan on using broadband Internet (e.g. via a cable modem)you will
need a network card. Before you purchase
one, however, make sure your motherboard does not already have a built in
network card. If it does, you don't need
to purchase one and can simply use the one onboard. If you do purchase one, 10/100 versions are
good, but Gigabit cards are gaining popularity as network speed improves. You may want to invest in a gigabit card if
you will be connecting to a home or office LAN.
_____ Hard Drive
Recommended Brands: Western Digital, Seagate, IBM, Maxtor. If your motherboard supports Ultra DMA (i.e.
UDMA/100 or UDMA/133), then get an Ultra DMA drive to match. Most newer motherboards support UDMA/133 -
these drives are fast and inexpensive.
Get the largest drive you can afford; at least 100 Gigabytes is a good
start.
_____ CD-ROM/DVD-drive
Recommended Brands: Plextor, Yamaha, Toshiba, Panasonic. CD-ROM drives are very inexpensive now and
also fast. A 56X CD-ROM can be bought for well under $50. A terrific alternative to CD-ROM drives is
DVD-ROM drives! They are not very expensive and will let you use CD-ROMS, audio
CD's, DVD's, and DVD-ROMS. Buy the
fastest speed you can and remember, if your video card comes with DVD software,
you can enjoy DVD movies on your computer too!
_____ CDRW/DVDRW.
In addition, CD and DVD ReWritable drives (CDRW/DVDRW drives for short) have
also become more and more popular among PC users. With a CD or DVD ReWritable drive, you can
create your own custom audio CD’s, make back-ups of your existing CD collection
and archive or back-up important data from your hard drive; with the advent of
DVDRW technology, now you can even make backup copies of your favorites movies
without losing the original digital quality!
Good CD-R/W drives are made by Plextor and Yamaha. In the interest of getting more bang for the
buck, you should probably get a combo DVD-R/W drive. These
drives combine a CD/DVD Reader, and CD/DVD Writer. Sony makes a great DVD-R/W drive that does
all of this and is very
reasonably priced.
_____ Floppy Drive
Get any generic 3.5" floppy drive.
_____ Keyboard Get
a keyboard that feels good to you. Most newer keyboards and motherboards use a
PS/2 style connector - check your motherboard’s instruction manual to make sure
before you buy a PS/2 keyboard.
____ Mouse
A cheap mouse will break or begin working poorly soon after you purchase
it. If you can afford one, get an
optical mouse. These use a laser rather
than a ball and are much easier to use!
_____ Case
Get any case that you like - just make sure it will support your type of
motherboard. There are generally only 2
types of cases - the older AT case, and the newer ATX Case. We needed an ATX case because we have an ATX
Motherboard. Most all newer motherboards will be ATX form factor. (Beware, there are other case types on the
market now: WTX, LPX, NLX, ITX and BTX, but the ATXform factor is the most
commonly used.)
_____ Monitor
Recommended Brands: Sony, Samsung, NEC.
A nice monitor can be expensive (you get what you pay for); however,
monitor prices have fallen quite a bit. We recommend purchasing a flat screen
monitor (CRT) that is 17” or 19”. Most
brands are adequate for home use and will work fine with your new PC. If you
have the extra money, invest in a good 17” or 19” LCD monitor. They provide
much easier mobility and space you never thought you had!
