I've been wanting a new computer for a while. My family seems to think I'm always wanting a new computer, and in some ways that's true. One of the downsides of buying a computer at a store is that they can never make it exactly the way I want it. Plus, store-bought computers are generally hard to upgrade, so they have a habit of staying "old". That's where building a computer comes in. The problem is I've never built a computer nor do I have any formal computer training. And I come from a family of Mac users, so they're probably wondering why on Earth I want a PC anyways. But I've learned that building a computer isn't incredibly difficult, it's sort of like putting together a Lego set. Sort of.
Melyn has posted a bunch of recipes, and I'm going to post my own: How to build a computer.
A CPU (This is the processor, or rather, the part that does all the thinking)
A few RAM modules (this is the memory, it stores the programs that you are running)
A Video Card ( this is what translates everything into an image on your computer screen)
A Hard Drive (this is long term storage for your documents, files, and programs)
A DVD/CD drive
A Power supply (as its name implies, it supplies power to your PC.)
A Motherboard (very important, this is where all the different components above plug into)
A Case to fit everything inside
Lastly, the Operating System (Windows) to run all your programs
And a few other odds and ends, like a internal fan to keep things from over-heating.
Another nice thing about building a PC from scratch is that I could salvage all the parts from my old computer that still worked fine, like the hard drive and DVD drive. Another way to keep costs down. So, after doing a bunch of research, I ordered the rest of the parts I wanted and started puting things together.
After several hours of putting things together, I realized that one of the parts I ordered was wrong: The Power Supply didn't have all the connections I needed. I was very heartbroken. My only option was to ship it back and order a different one (and wait a few more days in the mean time). Unfortunately, most of these parts can really only be found online, not at your local Wal-Mart. Well, after a few more days of waiting, I got the last part connected and here was the result:
"What is that." The computer here looks unusual because I chose a clear acrylic case to put all the parts inside. I thought it looked cool, plus when I see all the mess of wires and junk inside I can say "I built that!". The last part was scary: Turning it on for the first time. When you spend this much time and money on a Lego set like this, you kind of want it to work. Well, i hit the power switch, and waited for something to appear on the computer monitor. Nothing did. I looked at the motherboard and it shows a flashing red light. Not a good sign. The red light indicates something is wrong, but it won't tell you what exactly is the problem. The next part was a lot of trial and error. To make a long story short, it turns out I hadn't jammed the RAM modules all the way into the right sockets. After I solved that problem the computer come online for the first time and I was able to install the software. And then I had a fully functional computer
But this isn't a one week project. There's still lots of fiddling around with the computer I can do, you know, to make it go faster and stuff. But that's the story so far. I spared you lots of the details.
