Building a PC has become a very simple task, as it’s simply a matter of connecting a bunch of components together.
However, the number of choices available at the component level is immense. Today, you could build a simple PC for as low as Rs 20,000, or a “super-duper” powerhouse in which the sky is the limit as far as price goes. In this article, we’ll take you through the steps of building a simple PC that would cost around Rs 20,000 and also explain some of the other choices available for other components.
Specs and approximate prices for a Rs 20,000 PC |
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The basic tool for building a PC is a star or Philips head screwdriver. Everything else, such as spacers, screws, etc, usually comes with the PC cabinet. Having a screwdriver with a magnetized tip would be better. Let us see how to go about building the PC.
Step 1
The body and the brain
The cabinet and the motherboard form the body of your PC. Inside the cabinet, you will find a ‘tray’ on which the motherboard rests. Insert spacers in the grooves on this tray such that the motherboard can rest comfortably on them.
Spacers ensure that it doesn’t touch the metal base and get short-circuited accidentally.
Most PC processors come in a ‘socket type’ of packaging. To insert the processor, lift the lever of the socket and place the processor on it. The processor can go into the socket only in one way. This is marked by a small arrow sign on one of the corners of the processor and the socket.
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More options
The motherboard decides the upgrades you can make to your PC in terms of add-on cards and even switching to higher clock-speed processors and higher amount of RAM. So, when you’re building, or even buying, a PC be wise in the choice of motherboard. Your choice of motherboard also decides what CPU you can put in it. An Intel 810 motherboard, for instance, can support an Intel Pentium III or a Celeron processor.
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The CPU is the brain of a PC. Being the most talked-about feature of a PC, you’ll find vendors pushing computers on the basis of CPU clock speeds. What does this mean? The clock speed determines the number of instructions per second the processor can execute. The higher the clock speed, the more powerful the CPU. But, the question to ask is: How much do you pay for that extra speed? For example, a difference of 50 MHz may amount to a cost difference of Rs 5,000! And with the extra 50 MHz, you’ll get a negligible performance improvement.
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For the processor, you have many choices. You can choose between a VIA C3 (fits on a Socket 7 board), AMD Duron/Athlon XP, Intel PIII (being phased out now), Intel P4 and Intel Celeron. The latest Celerons and P4s have the same core and hence can fit onto the same socket.
For the choice, the rules are simple. A Celeron or Duron can easily meet your office productivity needs, with even some amount of gaming and graphics thrown in. But if you’re an avid gamer, code compiler or multimedia designer, you should go in for a PIII, P4 or an Athlon processor.
Step 2
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Putting in the memory
Match the grooves on the RAM module with those on the memory slots to put it in. Again, the RAM modules will go in only one way into the slots.
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RAM is the temporary storage that holds information for your PC to run applications simultaneously. It’s different from the hard disk as it loses its contents as soon as the PC is switched off.
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Depending on your motherboard, you can choose between SDRAM, DDR-RAM or RDRAM |
Depending on the motherboard you use, you can use SDRAM (the most common), DDR-RAM or RDRAM. 128 MB is the bare minimum recommended nowadays. The latest motherboards (those for P4 and Athlon XP processors) come with either RDRAM or DDR-RAM. The speeds and performance for these are higher than
SDRAM.
Step 3
Setting up the drives
Now it’s time to put in the various drives–hard disk, CD-ROM/RW or DVD and floppy. The hard disk and floppy drive use a 3.5” bay, which are normally the bottommost bays in any cabinet. Push them in and tighten them firmly with screws. Other drives such as a CD-Drive, CD-ReWriter or DVD-drives fit into 5 ¼” bays. These drives and the hard disk connect to the PC using IDE cables. The floppy drive connects with a different kind of cable and a smaller jack for the power supply. It is recommended to connect the hard disk to the Primary IDE connector with an 80-pin UATA cable. Preferably let it be the only drive on this IDE cable. Connect the other drives to the Secondary IDE slot on the motherboard. The floppy drive connects via the FDD cable (slightly less wider than an IDE cable) into its own slot.
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You can connect up to four drives as primary master, primary slave, secondary master and secondary slave, respectively.
Entry-level hard disks are 20 GB, 40 or even 80 GB drives are available. Opt for a 7200 RPM drive over a 5400 RPM drive for faster data transfer speeds. You can use SCSI drives for even faster speeds (needed in extensive video editing work or server configurations).
A CD-ROM can store up to 650 MB of data and up to 74 mins of digital audio. DVD disks can store up to 4.7 GB. If you intend to back up lots of data (even MP3 and movies), opt for a CD-RW drive. The choice is entirely on the basis of your needs and your budget. Drive speeds are not a big bother and you can go in for a 40x CD drive or a 52x if you can get it cheaper. DVD drives are available up to 16x speeds. Nowadays, even combo drives that can read and write CDs and read DVDs are available.
Step 4
Add-on cards
Your PC would need add-on cards for display (if your mother board does not have onboard display), networking/modem and sound (if the motherboard does not come with onboard sound). The display (or graphics) card fits into the AGP slot (a long brown slot). Other cards go into the PCI slots (white in color). Insert them with a little vertical pressure and gentle to-and-fro motion. Finally, fasten them to the cabinet with screws.
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The power cable for the hard disk goes in here |
More options
Graphics cards are available in a lot of models from various manufacturers. Two things to look at are the type of graphics processor and the amount of video memory. The popular ones are those from nVidia and ATi. In general, more the VRAM, better the performance.
Sound cards are available from a number of manufacturers. Most motherboards nowadays come with onboard sound, which performs as good as, or sometimes even better, than the thousand-rupee sound cards in the market. If you want better sound quality and surround sound, you would need a separate high-end sound card.
Internal modems are cheaper, but performance wise are similar to their external counterparts. The only problem with internal modems is if you get a lot of surge voltage on your telephone line. Network cards are needed to connect to a network, and come pretty cheap these days.
Step 5
Power to your machine
Put in the power supply to the motherboard. This is the largest of the many plastic power connectors coming from the SMPS (the PCs power supply that is inside the cabinet, pre-fitted). If you were using a P4 motherboard, you would need to connect the auxiliary power connector too (one with four wires). Similarly, connect the power cables to the hard disk, CD drive and the floppy drive.
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The power cable for the hard disk goes in here |
Connect this cable to give power to your SMPS |
Step 6
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The peripherals
We need to connect the monitor, keyboard and the mouse. The monitor connects to the VGA connector on your graphics card. The keyboard and mouse connect to the PS/2 ports.
More options
Decide on a monitor keeping in mind its size and resolution (density of pixels). The higher the resolution, the sharper is the picture and the more is the workable desktop area you would have.
A good display is 1024 by 768 pixels, but for high-end graphics use, you may choose one that displays 1280 by 1024, or even 1600 by 1200 pixels.
Keyboards are either standard or multimedia (ones with extra keys to play music, e-mail and browsing). Mouse is available as two-button, three-button or even with a scroll wheel. You can even go in for a cordless keyboard and mouse.