So you've followed our advice, assessed your usage patterns and come up with a list of suitable components. Then you read component reviews and found the exact manufacturer and model for each part. When you weren't sure, you even questioned the members of our community forums. Perhaps you've even based some of your own picks on our System Builder Marathon article series, designed for this exact purpose. And now you're ready to make the big purchase.
With so much money on the line, you want to make sure the transaction goes smoothly, of course. Cruising through the building process you suddenly slam on the brakes: where is all this stuff going to come from?

Experienced builders often have a favorite source that they will recommend exclusively, but their reasoning might not apply to your circumstances. Each type of seller has strengths and weaknesses, and even hazards to avoid. Among these are the "big box" computer shops, smaller local stores, online vendors large and small, and even auction sites. Each varies in terms of the selection, convenience, cost and support they offer.
Purchasing Convenience
Online Merchants
Not everyone has the time or inclination to shop. Fortunately, the online buying process starts with easy site-to-site comparisons and ends with the parts being delivered right to your door. Customers no longer need to battle traffic driving between stores or make special trips to other parts of town (or even to other towns entirely) to find everything on their lists.
Vendor search engines like Tom’s Hardware Stores compare prices on a huge selection of parts from such popular sites as Directron, Newegg, TigerDirect, and ZipZoomFly, but often miss a few specialty parts. Online specialty stores like EndPCNoise and FrozenCPU provide less common parts, and locating competing sources is as easy as entering the specific part name into a generalized Web search engine. This may require filtering through dozens of "hits" to obtain a short list of sellers, but that takes only a few extra minutes.
Local Stores
Buying locally eliminates shipping time and avoids any potential inventory screw-ups that might further delay the shipment. While local variety is less than the Web offers, national chains focus on popular items that meet the needs of most buyers. Smaller, locally-owned shops may specialize in lower-volume parts, but finding the right one could be difficult.
In addition to instant-purchase gratification, local stores offer the convenience of display samples. This hands-on approach allows one to feel the action of keyboard keys, check out the weight and fit of a mouse or game controller, and examine the visual quality of displays. Seeing an item in person also allows one to more easily judge its visual impact, something simple photos and measurements don't always convey.
- Part 1: Component Selection
- Processor And Graphics Selection
- Motherboard Options
- Remember The Memory!
- Hard Drive Selection
- Power Supplies And Other Components
- Part 2: Choosing The Right Vendor
- Purchase Price
- Integrity
- Part 3: Putting It All Together
- Installing The CPU
- Installing The CPU Cooler
- Installing The Power Supply And Motherboard
- Installing Other Components
- Motherboard Cable Installation
- Device Cable Installation
- Final Words
Or for those of us in the uk, check out
scan.co.uk
ebuyer.co.uk
overclockers.co.uk
DO NOT install your motherboard like this. Have all the screws in place before tightening.
However, when overclocking 8pins will give you far more stability and is highly recommended.
Except for the fact that the hibernate file =RAM size say 4Gb, and outlook files (can't be moved from C
Do you mean the Outlook pst can't be moved from C? I've three customers in the building here that I've moved all the 'local' Outlook data to a network drive...
I investiagted that for a while and found nothing to help, but I guess it can be done though. I was running a 30Gb ssd as a system drive (vista 64) and it kept creeping up to 25Gb+ will all folders on a different drive etc.
However in an article about building a system to have the fairly advanced need to move certain systems files around or turn them off, without actually stating that you'll need to do it is a bit of a discrepancy, i'd bet that 90% of people that know how to run a light installation of windows already know how to build, and that 90% of those that don't know how to build but might want have limited windows installation/customisation skills. So it appears that the article is aimed that software literate but hardware illiterate people, seems like a really small group to me.
Price range is cheap as poss without being crap.
Editing HD video and games is the point. Looks like I’ve got a few weeks read.
Also an Nvidia 8000 series card or ATI HD46xx upwardsfor accelerated render.
Also an Nvidia 8000 series card or ATI HD46xx upwardsfor accelerated render.
I've used them twice, both times i bought an "own brand" scan item that arrived DOA and took weeks to get any kind of response and refund.
used them lots, returned items, not had any trouble, refunds take a while with anyone including amazon... I think own brand is generally an issue, although with nvidia etc. its just a re-badge.
Never had a problem with scan before. I never buy own brand products where my PC's involved!
1. AMD Phenom II X4 Quad 955 Core 3.2GHz Processor 4 x 512 KB Boxed - Black Edition
2. Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P Motherboard Phenom II X4 Socket AM3 AMD 790X ATX RAID Gigabit Ethernet
3. Kingston ValueRAM Memory DDR3 Non-ECC CL8 DIMM 1GB (need two)
4. Western Digital Caviar Blue 250 Gb 7200 Rpm Sata-ii Internal Hard Drive
5. Samsung SH-S223L/BEBE Internal 22x DVD Writer Drive SATA Lightscribe - Black (OEM)
6. Corsair VX Series, 450 Watt, ATX, PS/2, Power Supply, UK Version (CMPSU-450VXUK)
7. Asus EAH4350 SILENT/DI/256MD2(LP) Graphics Card Radeon HD 4350 256MB PCi-E DVI VGA (90-C1CM1F-H0UANAKZ)
8. LG L1734S 17 inch LCD TFT Monitor 1280x1024 700:1 5ms - Black/Silver
9. Hercules Muse LT PCI sound card
10. Edimax EW-7128G Wireless LAN PCI Card 802.11b/g 54Mbp (Ralink)
11. Antec Three Hundred Midi Case
I know i'll need a few extra fans for the case, but will I need a CPU-cooler, or will I get one with the processor? And do I need a 'controller', or is it bundled along in there somewhere?
Even more importantly, can someone confirm that these components are compatible?
Would appreciate any help, guys.
1. AMD Phenom II X4 Quad 955 Core 3.2GHz Processor 4 x 512 KB Boxed - Black Edition
2. Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P Motherboard Phenom II X4 Socket AM3 AMD 790X ATX RAID Gigabit Ethernet
3. Kingston ValueRAM Memory DDR3 Non-ECC CL8 DIMM 1GB (need two)
4. Western Digital Caviar Blue 250 Gb 7200 Rpm Sata-ii Internal Hard Drive
5. Samsung SH-S223L/BEBE Internal 22x DVD Writer Drive SATA Lightscribe - Black (OEM)
6. Corsair VX Series, 450 Watt, ATX, PS/2, Power Supply, UK Version (CMPSU-450VXUK)
7. Asus EAH4350 SILENT/DI/256MD2(LP) Graphics Card Radeon HD 4350 256MB PCi-E DVI VGA (90-C1CM1F-H0UANAKZ)
8. LG L1734S 17 inch LCD TFT Monitor 1280x1024 700:1 5ms - Black/Silver
9. Hercules Muse LT PCI sound card
10. Edimax EW-7128G Wireless LAN PCI Card 802.11b/g 54Mbp (Ralink)
11. Antec Three Hundred Midi Case
I know i'll need a few extra fans for the case, but will I need a CPU-cooler, or will I get one with the processor? And do I need a 'controller', or is it bundled along in there somewhere?
Even more importantly, can someone confirm that these components are compatible?
Would appreciate any help, guys.