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How to build a PC

Build a pc for  peanuts

Many of the choices you are faced with when building ,or buying, a PC are covered here.

You need to think about the graphics card, memory, onboard sound or separate soundcard, size and type of hard disk, CD burner or DVD burner and so on.

Once your budget is set, the starting point is the CPU (central processing unit), because it is the brains of your PC.

Intel and AMD offer a bewildering number of processors. The differences between the CPUs are in technical details that don't necessarily mean much to end users. Pricing is also competitive, with AMD PCs generally cheaper than comparable Intel models.

Budget PCs come with Intel's Celeron or AMD's Sempron CPUs. These are aimed at undemanding users. If your needs are for word processing tasks and surfing the Internet with some low-end gaming or image editing, a PC running either of these processors is fine. You won't need a huge hard disk - 80GB will be plenty -coupled with between 256MB and 512MB of Ram and a low-end graphics card, or even onboard graphics for the truly undemanding. You'll be fine with onboard sound, and can expect to pay up to about £500, depending on your monitor.

In the mainstream desktop market it's Pentium 4 and Pentium D versus AMD's Athlon XP and Athlon 64. The chief difference is that older Pentium 4 and Athlon XP models are 32bit CPUs, while some newer Pentium 4s, the Pentium D and Athlon 64 are 64bit models. To take full advantage of this, you need a 64bit operating system and applications.

Operating system

Most PCs are Windows XP, and the Home Edition is fine. If it's for a small business or you need features such as remote access, buy XP Professional. Few PCs are sold running Linux, and we'd recommend only the technically confident buy a Linux-only system. Linux can always be installed later. Finally, don't overlook the monitor, especially if you're using the PC for gaming or imaging; buy the best you can afford.