Building PC>>

[atc_traffic856]

I am seriously pondering on building my PC > I really do not think
I will save as far as monetary gos> But the challenge is rewarding.
There are I assume Medga areas as to where I may seek knowledge >
May I get a few top ones from here? Sites that would render good info
in where to start, and where to purchase required equipment?

If possible maybe a few "Do not Tos"

Thankyou for your support>>

[Budfred]

This forum is one of the best resources for building your own PC. I have had help here for building 3 PCs at this point. I use www.resellerratings.com to judge online vendors and have found www.newegg.com to be excellent. It is true that you probably won't save money, but you will have fun doing it and you will end up with a better system than you can buy off the shelf for the same money.

I am not sure what you mean by "Medga areas", but I hope I have addressed your main questions.

The main thing I would recommend is to plan what you want and then go look for it. I picked up a motherboard on eBay that turned out to require a 423pin P4 CPU and I didn't realize how much this relatively cheap board would cost me. It turned out the board was bad, so I ended up having to buy another. It was a good learning experience. I will still shop eBay at times, but I will be more cautious....

Budfred

[LoupaMaray]

It is a little cheaper NOT to buy the latest hardware I purposly buy hardware that is six months to one year older than the latest thing. Realize that commercial software necessairly lags behind the newest hardware developements and that there are usually revisions to the latest hardware (software too). Heck...Why buy the hottest CPU when you can get a slower one for a lot cheaper price and that works good and that you can upgrade once the price on the faster ones comes down?
Eh...?

[Whyzman]

There are many benefits to building yourself. If you've followed any of the threads where folks are discussing proprietary systems (e.g., Dell, HP, etc.) you see that oft times you are limited as to your choices of components, and also future upgrades.

Perhaps that best place to start is to ask yourself that bottom line question..."How much am I willing to spend?" A follow-up question would be what are you planning on doing with your build? (i.e., gaming, photo editing, word processing...etc.)

Also, be aware that shipping charges can rack up quickly and eat into money you thought you might be saving. As Budfred mentioned, NewEgg is a very reliable etailer. They also adjust shipping with multiple products going out at once, rather than a composite of individual shipping charges.

There area a number of customer service minded computer etailers out there...you can also just ask if anyone has done business with them before and their comments.

One of the best things about what many affectionaly call the IBUILTIT systems is that when you run into a problem you know exactly what you've got under the hood....troubleshooting doesn't void any system warranty if you need to swap out a part to check on it.

[atc_traffic856]

Thanks to all of you for your excellent info, and support i will
follow your suggestions>>