Buy pc parts is one of the biggest advantage of building your own computer.
First you'll be able to buy components with total control of quality, reliability and performance.
And then you have creative control over new technologies, variations…and build a computer perfectly suited to your requirements.
However it's profitable to you to learn some specifications before buying parts blindness. Any mistakes can transform your adventure to be a horror and you'll spend time, energy and money for no results.
Especially if you are first-time PC builders with any or limited experience, this step is really important. It will help you to choose your parts, in store or online, considering the main factors and to make sure you make the right decisions.
If you are experimented builders, these tutorials will be useful as a reminder of guidelines to purchase your components.
Main specifications
Be intelligent
The first step is to decide what you are going to do with your PC. Then make a list of all parts required.
This will help you to buy what you exactly need. By example, if you decide to build a small form factor PC, it's not necessary to add a gaming keyboard or a professional sound card.
Think about what kind of applications you intend to run in order to choose adequate hardware for them. For graphics editor, by example, you'll need a lot of disk space, at least 80 MB, a powerful processor approximately at 500 MHz…etc.
Benchmarks
Never buy your pc parts based exclusively on benchmarks. Sometimes it lies.
Opt for quality with warranty
Make sure you buy best quality components. But for all individual components you need to get them with warranty. But you should try to have them with good prices, and even for cheap not to spend all your money in purchasing devices.
Sometimes used or second hand products can be a bargain. If you used to deal with reputed stores which sell good second hand products, go get it.
Read the reviews
Buy with advice and consumers experiences. Before buying any parts take a time to read their review or get more information through a good quality forum.
Our review pages will help you too. But we won't be able to review all parts designed by the various manufacturers.
One more consideration
Sometimes you can use some parts from your old machines to complete your new system. If this device is adequate for your purposes why do you have to pay something you already have?
Look at your old case, monitor, speaker, mouse, keyboard, video card…and think if you really need to have a new part while the old one can do the same job. By doing this you can save hundreds of dollars and having the same results.
Now it's time to read some guidelines about individual components before you start to buy pc parts.
Relative pages.
How to Choose a Processor? General considerations about how to choose a processor and what is the right processor speed for your computer.
How to Choose a Motherboard? Guidelines to better know how to choose a motherboard appropriate to the system you want to build.