Re: How to Build a Superfast, Superquiet PC, Part 1
For ideas for less expensive, you would just make a list of the type of parts you need (you could base it on this article), then go somewhere like newegg.com, and start with your processor and decide on what blend of price range and performance makes the best sense for you. Then based on the processor you choose, you start looking at the motherboards that work with your chipset. You need to think of what things you want on your motherboard ... which features do you want built onto it, and what kinds of expansion capabilities do you want available like number of PCI slots open, or an IDE plug in as well as SATA if you want to use an older drive or DVD drive. Then start looking at the motherboards and find one with a price you can live with, that has what you want. Many sites also have user reviews for the mother boards, so you can then read about each mobo and see if a lot of people have received bad boards out of the box, or had wiring difficulties (badly designed board making it difficult to wire). Also newegg.com is nice because they show many picture views of the mobo, so you can see it up close. Then once you know your mobo size you can think about your case size and power supply size etc ... Oh, of course, once you have figured out what you want, you can compare prices on different sites, or locally. I usually stick to one site while I'm deciding what parts I want to use for the computer, then after I decide what I'm getting I start looking for where I'm getting them. I usually look at newegg.com for the selectionof parts, then decide where to get them. If I'm in a hurry, I might pay more to get them locally ... or it might end up the same once you consider shipping. Also, it's usually better to pay with a card, so you can return something easier at some local places (thinking Fry's Electronics here - plastic is the only way to go if you need to return something). It's important to look into the return policy when choosing a vendor also.
