How To Build A PC

Are you afraid of your PC? Do you think it’s too intricate, too complex to even think about taking it apart. In this article I’m going to get you over your fear of the PC so that you will feel confident enough to be able to build or upgrade your own PC.

Despite it’s complexity (and it is a complex mass of circuitry and electronics) the basic design of the PC is very simple. You have a single main board (normally called a motherboard) into which every other component plugs. This motherboard mediates the connections between all the various components that go together to form a PC and it allows your main chip (that actually performs the computing) to access the memory (where all the temporary operations of the PC are performed) and the hard drive (the permanent storage).

Basically that’s all a motherboard is, a way of connecting the main computational workhorse of the PC (called the CPU or central processing unit, what most people think of when they mention a PC’s ‘chip’) to access the memory it needs to perform its tasks whilst allowing it to also access the permanent storage system (the hard disk drive) where instructions and results are stored.

Of course, you need power to achieve this and most of the spaghetti tangle of cables you see inside PCs are there to provide power. A few connect the motherboard to the hard disk and the DVD drive and floppy drive, but they’re in the minority.

You now have your basic PC (at least in terms of understanding the components). But you need to be able to communicate with the machine. So you add a keyboard and mouse. you also need to see what the machine is doing so you need output of some kind. These days this is typically to a monitor or screen of some description. Typically you will have a special card (called a graphics card) that plugs into the motherboard and creates video signals that can be seen on a display.

As well as the graphics card you may also have a sound card and some kind of interface card that allows you to plug into a network (though some or all these jobs can also be done by the motherboard).

Rather than being a scary tangle of meaningless electronics, a PC is actually just a motherboard with a collection of cards stuck into it. These cards all perform a single task and once you know what these cards are for you’re 3/4 of the way to understanding your PC.

In actual fact PCs are designed to be easily put together, to be easily taken apart and to be easily upgraded. They are modular and there are only a limited number of modules. Once you know what these modules are then you understand how your PC works and you can replace or upgrade any of these modules yourself.

It’s not scary at all, it’s logical! Did you know that you only need to undo 2 cables and unscrew 4 screws to replace a hard drive and add a new one. The same goes for upgrading a DVD drive or a CD drive. It’s even simpler if you want to plug in a new hard drive into your PC!

Learn all the basics (and there’s really not that much to learn) and you could build your own PC in less than a weekend. The process really is that simple.

Next time you think of calling out a PC engineer, why not get a guide to your PC instead and learn how to upgrade or repair it yourself. After all, upgrading your PC is much, much, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than throwing it away and buying another one. And you could be saving yourself $100 into the bargain.

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