I am going to try my best to explain how to pick out your computer and build one. I have built around five computers so far, and have helped make about 10.

First thing you want to realize is your budget. Set a sound budget you are not willing to go over. Think what you need more then what you want. And also remeber no matter what you buy in 2 months there is going to be something better, and the stuff you bought will be a lot less expensive.

For a basic computer.

Case
Power Supply (I always get my power supply seperate from the Case, b/c I have found out the ones that come with cases suck)
Mother Board
CPU (Computer Processing Unit)
RAM
Harddrive
Graphics Card (If you are going to game, and I hope you are :P )
DVD-Burner/Player
Flopy Drive
Operating System if you dont have one.

Optional:
Second DvD Drive
Sound Card
Upgraded Heat Sink (The big fan you see over your CPU. These can be crazy looking, but if you buy a fast CPU, the hoter it will run, and you want to keep it cooled.)
Second Harddrive.

Now onto picking products, and building.

When getting a case you want to get nothening smaller then a mid tower. The reason is when you get a small case you dont have a lot of room to put in a Graphics card, Second Hard drive, larger heat sink, and other goodies. ALso you will have to get a smaller Mother Board and most of the time those are not as good as the larger ones. It is just better to spend the extra money on a larger Case. Also if you are getting a CPU that is very expensive(aka fast as hell) and are going to run 2 hard drives, and a good Graphics Card I suggest getting a Case with no less then 3 fans. You want to keep your system cool. Also make sure it is an ATX case, but most of them all are now.

Power supply. I suggest Rosewill. I use a 600 watt power supply but I also have 2 Hard Drives, and my CPU, Graphics card, and 3 Rom drives need the power. This is where you want to make sure you get the right amount of power. If you know you are going to upgrade any time soon with Hard Drives or Graphics card I suggest getting nothening lower then 450. If you are going to run 2 HD(Hard Drives) and the things I have or more get something higher. Also make sure you get an ATX power supply to match the Case, and Mobo.

Mother Board(Mobo). This is where you have to start looking at numbers. You want to match your CPU, and Ram with the right information on the mother board. Also your Power Supply, will want to match your Mobo, which is almost always ATX now. It is where you plug your power supply into your Mobo, and nothening sucks more then seeing that those dont match when you are building a computer. I suggest Asus as the best MoBo. They are a little more expensive, but they have a lot of goodies that come with them. They offer automatic over clocking that wont hurt your system. A life time gaureente as long as you dont break it while installing.
Also with Mobos you want to make sure it DOES NOT have on board graphics. The reason is it takes up to much space and if you are going to game you are getting a graphics card any ways. If you are not going to game MAKE SURE it has on board graphics.

Side note: When picking a Mobo or CPU make sure you have made up your mind on what brand of CPU you are going to get. Amd or Intel. There is not a MoBo they will suport both, or atleast not to my knowledege. So make sure when you get a MoBo it is for the right brand of CPU.

Now when you are picking your CPU you want to make sure first that it is the right socket for your mother board. The best way to explain socket is the way the pins are set up on the bottem of the CPU, and you want to make sure that the MoBo has the right fittings for the CPU, this also sucks if you do it wrong. Also when selecting your CPU make sure to match the BUS speed with the MoBo and CPU. The speed and price of the CPU is up to you, really what ever you budget is.

Side Note: I suggest AMD for gaming. I have run AMD for 2 years, and have not seen or herd one bad thing from AMD for gaming. Go Intel if you are going to use it for over all processing speed. They are sick for Photoshop, and others like that.

RAM is another tricky one. You HAVE to make sure you match up the right type of RAM with your Mobo. Most AMD MoBos are the DDR -400 or DDR-3200. But just make sure with your Mobo. It should say right on the product details what RAM is needed for this MoBo. When selecting RAM this is where it is best to spend a little cash. Almost all the games out there now need 512 to run at basic speed, but most are going to start asking for 1 GB. I suggest getting atleast 1GB, and then upgrading to 2 GB later, depending on budget. I suggest Corsair or Kingston RAM they have been the best for me.

HardDrive. This is the area I know the least about. I normally just go out and get a 250 GB back up hard drive, and get a 40 to 60 GB main harddrive. My back up hard drive is SATA. From what I have gathered SATA is a lot faster a quiter. It doesnt use the normal huge cables you see on the old EDA HardDrives. This is up to you on which you want to buy. SATA has come down a lot in price so again up to your budget on how larger a HD you want to go, and if you want to get two. Also make sure your MoBo supports SATA before you buy one. SATA is about a year old in the main stream of computers so just make sure but almost every Mobo made now has SATA built in.

Graphics Card. This is another area you HAVE to check your Mobo configeration. You want to make sure weither your Mobo is either AGP or PCI-Express. PCI-Express is the best you can get for Graphics Cards right now, so I suggest when buying a MoBo to get one that is PCI-Express. Now when looking for Graphics cards again make sure you have the right type to fit your MoBo and then select which one you want. These are REALLY expensive. Probably the most expensive of the items you will buy. This is where you can make or break your gaming experince, next to CPU and RAM. This is pretty much where you want to check your budget and get the right one for your money.

Side Note: The really good Graphics Cards have chip sets in them. Try to match the Chip Set with your Mobo maker. My Graphics card is the 7800GT made my Nvidia, and the chip set is Asus.

DVD Burner. Up to your budget. These can be really cheap or really expensive. I stick with the cheaper ones, and it works great. You can try to get a style point here and matching your color of the DVD drive with your case.

Floppy Drive. These things are really old, but they are really niec to have if you need to make a copy of Bios, or something else. Up to your really could be optinal, but if you have the money get one.

Operating System. This is up to you. I dont know to many people who can use Linux, but if you can get that :) or if you dont know how to Windows XP really is the best one out there. Expensive but good. Also Vista is coming out soon, Microsofts newest OPS and it looks to run pretty well.

As for the Optional things, those are up to you, and I dont feel like I need to go into them.

As for building your PC that is up to you. They are super easy to install and normally the hardest part is figuring out the case most the time. If you have a local comptuer store, and are uncomfortable installing your CPU have them do it on your MoBo for like 5 bucks, anything more is a rip. If you dont wnat to build it yourself I am sure the local store will do it for you for a charge, but look over the manuals, and you will see its really easy.

Side note, but very important: If you are going to build it yourself. Build over wood or tile floors and NEVER carpet. The electric current you build up when walking on the carpet can fry the MoBo or other things. Dont take this lightly. I have done it twice. :( Also during the cooled seasons electricty builds easier, so make sure you build in a warmer room.

If I have missed anything please let me know. I am doing this all off the top of my head, and just trying to help those who need a little. I am not an expert on building or knowing all the products so if you do know more information please post!

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