As an online retailer, the most vital tools I use are my computers. I have two desktop computers running on the Windows operating system; I use them to design and maintain my web pages, upload items to my Etsy shop, edit product photos with Photoshop and print postal shipping labels to mail my products to customers. They are reliable, hard working computers. And I built them myself so I am sure top of the line components went into them! A lot of people shake their heads and say YOU? Build computers?! I’m not kidding … It’s just SO easy to build a desktop PC now. That was not always the case …
Our first computer was a Tandy RLX 1000 from Radio Shack. We bought this computer before Windows existed; and it was VERY expensive. The operating system was IBM DOS, and basically we worked with text on a blue screen. The video was 16 colors so graphics were very limited. There was a two button mouse, but … its use was limited. It was a 286 class PC with a 10mhz CPU. On the case it boldly proclaimed it had a hard drive – an amazing 60mb of storage! That baby was fully loaded … 512k RAM was standard, but this machine had 1megabyte … hard wired to the motherboard!
I built my first PC somewhere around 1997 – 98. It was lightning fast compared to the Tandy … it had an Intel Pentium 133mhz microprocessor and 32MB memory … with a big (at the time) 800 MB hard drive. Computers had come a long way … but I still needed to install MS DOS first because in those days a CD Drive wouldn’t run until you edited the boot sector of the hard drive, actually writing in a DOS command to make the PC aware that there was a CD drive in the case. I think it was MSCDEX001.exe. It took me a week to figure out. Eventually I figured it out; and successfully installed the Windows 95 OS from a CD!
After figuring out that puzzle I enrolled in a course and earned certification as a PC technician. I’ve put together many PCs since that time; it is just amazing how today’s computers are so much easier to build. If you can turn a screw and replace a fuse, you can build a great computer! Of course you need to read and follow directions … but it really is easy to do. With a few hours time you’ll save a load of cash and build an amazing computer that will run any software or do anything you want it to!
Inside a PC case are component parts. If you assemble a PC you can choose which components will go inside; if YOU assemble it, this can truly be a personal computer!
Before you do anything, think about your requirements and the three basic parts – the motherboard, CPU and memory. Decide on the components that best fit your requirements. If you just spend time web surfing, you don’t need the highest priced, fastest microprocessor. However, if you play lots of computer games, you’ll want a processor that is much faster. If you do a lot of photo editing, more memory should help you. Today’s operating systems need more RAM to run, and you’ll probably require a minimum of 2 gigabytes … more is better. Many today’s PCs can handle 6 gigabytes RAM or even more.
If you use your computer to watch films or TV, or if you like to play PC or online games … a specialized video expansion card is a must. Video cards fit into a slot on the main board; they’re great because they leave the installed memory for other uses. Many main boards have onboard video processors, but use the installed RAM … taking it away from the RAM you put into the board.
Get a subwoofer and four speakers, an HDTV tuner card … attach it to an indoor HD antenna … and listen to music or watch TV on your computer! This is really good if you don’t have a lot of space, especially students in in cramped dorm rooms.
Have a huge music collection on your PC? Movies or thousands of digital photographs? Your computer’s hard drive is the modern equivalent of a filing cabinet … get a big one if you need to save everything. A one terabyte drive is very affordable now, and a lot of computers have the ability and space to contain two hard drives. As an example my website and the pictures I have on it – my product pictures like silver earrings – take up a lot of hard drive space; that computer has two huge hard drives for this reason. Disk drives plug in to your motherboard with a cable. There are sockets on the motherboard marked HDD1, HDD2 or SATA1, SATA2 … simply plug them in and you’ll be all set!
The old CD drive I mentioned earlier is in the garbage. Modern drives read and record dvd discs and CDs; there are even Blu-Ray writers now. Install it … and it runs. You might need to run an installation disc but no more editing the hard drive’s boot sector … although I believe it was a good learning experience, it isn’t required anymore!
You can easily put in a multi card reader for a variety of Flash memory cards, Firewire ports … any possible option you want in your computer.
The last step? Install Windows! The operating system will configure and make all the components work together.
In three hours … you can be the proud owner of a brand new PC!
Article ©2010 written by Bob Edwards. Bob is a metalsmith and jewelry designer, and is co-founder of a popular retail jewelry website featuring handcrafted gemstone jewelry. This article may be published on blogs and websites as content provided all links and this author’s statement remain intact.