It is becoming increasingly popular to build your own computer, and now with proper guidance anyone can do itseriously. In most cases, it saves money, and it guarantees you get what you want. It also assures you avoid proprietary designs many companies use to keep you coming to them for overpriced new parts. Best of all, having built the system yourself, you become very familiar with that system and with computers in general. In this series of articles Ill cover the steps youll need to know while we assemble a generic desktop computer.

Right about now you may be feeling a bit of what I call techno-phobia, or fear of anything in on and around a computer. Youre asking yourself should you tackle the project of building your own computer. Well, there is no reason not to. Even if you know nothing about computers, if you have a desire to learn them, then you can. And once you know the basics, you can build as many as you wish or even turn your new skill into a business! You can learn as you go. In my opinion, it is best to do this at least once. I remember my first foray into do-it-yourself PC construction. I looked inside the shipping box at all those foreign looking parts and started breaking into a cold sweat. A few hours and a few phone calls later I had a new computer that actually worked and best of all I had done it myself.

If you go to buy a pre-built PC by HP or Compaq, they are fine. But, keep in mind that, often, PC manufacturers reduce price by using lesser quality parts. Also, if you do not know you're elbow from a processor, you can be certain the salesman will pick up on that and really take advantage of it. I'm not saying all computer salesmen are dishonest, but you wouldn't believe some of the stories we've heard. In short, you need to know what you're talking about. I think you will find this tutorial in particular quite helpful.

In the following articles, you can follow the steps necessary to building your own PC.