~Sabvriel

I have built a lot of computers for a lot of people, at my work I have a lot of people come to me to help me fix broken computers, mainly from a virus or just slow running.

In the spirit of Zombie land, I have made my own rules for DIY computer building. I am sure I will add more to this list, but here is a list of the 10 basic ones that will help you though your computer build.

#1. Virus Protection and Firewall.
There are a lot of free virus scanners out there, mainly AVG. I cannot count the number of PC's I have fixed that AVG has messed up on. Also Norton and McAfee are piles of junk. In my own experience and also on fixing computers, the three above have always failed. I am using Kaspersky, I have used it for 3 years and have not had an issue with it yet. Recommendation, go with Kaspersy. Dont be stingy with money when it comes to keeping your PC safe. Buy the Virus Scanner and Firewall combo, some are good to up to 3 computers.

#2 Do your homework.
There are a lot of cheap and inexpensive motherboard, CPU's, video cards, Hard drives out there. Take your time, don’t rush out on the newest of the new and the super top of the line as soon as it comes out. My advise, be patient, wait a few weeks until some people have bought and tested the item you might want. Check more then just one review site and then make your choice from there.

#3 Wants Vs. Needs.
Lets face it, we would all want a super computer and the fastest Solid State Hard drive out there. But look at what you will be needing it for. If it is just a netbook to surf the internet and to the basic music, movies and twittering, then a small dual core $300 netbook is just fine, no need for a core i7 laptop for just the basics or if you will use Linux for a simple web surfing laptop/netbook.

#4 Operating system.
Going back to rule #3, if you want a tiny laptop that is just your basic of basic, there are a ton of Linux based OS's that will do just what you need. Best thing is, they are free and will let you put Linux and Windows on one hard drive, this is called Dual Booting, at the start up screen you can choose which one to start.

#5 64 bit Vs 32 bit.
If you are a gamer going for high end, then a 64 bit is the way to go, it will let you go higher then 3.33 Gigabytes of RAM. But if it is just for a basic computer, then a 32 bit OS is just fine.

#6 RAM
OK, being repetitive on this. You can buy computers with little ram on them, all netbooks, laptops and desktops. Now if you buy it from Dell, HP, or insert name here, they will have you pay out the nose for a RAM upgrade. Do your homework, check out the speed of the ram and what it is and all that, Most the times you can buy a RAM upgrade online or at a store for much much cheaper then when you buy it as a package deal. Here is my advice for computers. 1GB ram is great for Linux, but not for windows. If your netbook comes with 1GB ram, upgrade it to at least 2GB, and any other 32 bit OS, take it to at least 2 or 3GB. For 64 Bit, if you want to go over 4GB, go for it. But with all my experience,
Linux = 1Gb ram is good
Windows = 2Gb ram minimum.

#7 TURN OFF VIRTUAL RAM
OK, if you don’t have enough RAM installed, the computer can use your hard drive for Random Access Memory (RAM). This is a good idea, but it eats your hard drive away very fast and slows your system down. Go back to the past rule, upgrade past 1Gb ram to at least 2. If your system can go higher, its not a bad idea to go with maximum RAM. Trust me, you will see a night and day difference. But back to the rule, TURN OFF VIRTUAL RAM.

#8 Multiple Hard drives.
This is a very big one for me. During my time making systems, I have seen countless people put their Operating system, virus scanner, games, and all that on one large 1TB drive. It works fast after initial installation, but slows down big time after a while. Why is this you say? Put it this way, think that you just got a computer and have only one hard drive, lets say a 1TB (terabyte) hard drive. After you install your windows or whatever, it runs super fast, but then after a few months, it slows down to a crawl. Now, imagine yourself in a big warehouse, trying to find a hundred different things. Going to take a while, right. So.. huge hard drives in my mind are not the best for your only hard drive. My advise, go for smaller. SSD's (solid state) are great for only OS installations. Put only your OS, virus scanner and a few other tiny programs on it, just for the OS. After that, put in a second, third or forth hard drive. Use one for games, one for music/movies and other programs. Why do this you say? Because instead of being in a warehouse, you are now using a small index that says “this file, movie, music is in this isle, section, shelf. Makes it much faster.

#9 CPU cooling.
There are many ways to cool a CPU. Air, liquid or freezing. The most basic is a fan. Here is where a lot of systems can suffer. Depending on if your going AMD or INTEL. Dont buy a cheap $20 fan to cool your CPU, spend the money on ones that are a bit bigger and will keep it cool. AKA another rule, do your homework!! Air cooling a CPU, spend the $70 instead of $20 on a CPU fan, you will be glad you did. Now yes they might be a bit louder then most, but a small drone of a fan has never really bothered me, I know at that time, my computer wont overheat and wear down faster.

#10 Power supply.
Do your homework. Now depending on what you get, if it is a super fast CPU and Video card and hard drive, then you will need a more robust power supply. Trying to power a mid range CPU, video card and hard drives off a 200 watt, power supply, you will fry your system fast. For most Mid range, a 500 to 600 watt Power Supply will do fine. If you go low end into small computer with an ATOM processor, then 200 watts will do just fine. Also, think about a battery backup. This is the UPS system, a battery that powers your computer in case power goes out. They have many brands and powers on them. These are good things to get. Now its not going to let you do your World Of Warcraft for an hour, but it will give you enough time, say 5-10 minutes, to save what your doing and shut down your computer Safely. There are many sizes and variety out there. My advice, if you have a 600 Watt Power supply, get a batter backup that is rated for 800 Watts. Dont overload your battery backup.


These are just a few guidelines based on what I have done and experienced personally, as well as fixing other computers. These are in no way gospel, but they are what I have learned the hard way. There are going to be more to come, I will be getting into Specifics on CPU's Hard drives and the like in future Posts, but for now, this can give you a guideline. There will also be more to come on this, going into each component. But for now, here is a guideline and tip.