PC System Requirements

Important Components

of any PC

• Keyboard
  
• Monitor
  
• Mouse
  
• CPU/Tower
  
  • PC Case
    
  • Power Supply (SMPS)
    

    Rating Decides the number and type of peripherals you can handle. So if you intend to connect USB hard disks or some of the more powerful graphics/sound hardware go for atleast 350-400Watt units. A poor supply can dramatically reduce the life of your hardware so spend here. And check this place out
    

  • Motherboard

    Go for integrated USB 2.0. AGP 8x or PCIe for your graphics card if you plan on gaming or graphics. If not most onboard chips can handle the graphics requirements of office applications and provide decent video playback quality. Since your processor has to dock here make sure you get a motherboard chipset that supports the number cruncher you're looking for.
    

    Ask about the form factor. This depends on the motherboard. Since almost all new motherboards conform to the ATX form factor, your case will have to be ATX compatible. You can still scrounge up AT cases for AT motherboards. A modern ATX motherboard can be identified by the fact that all the jacks for the keyboard, mouse, parallel printer, and serial COM port are soldered directly onto the motherboard.
    Go here for the kindsa screws you need.
    

  • Processor
    
  • CPU Cooler
    
  • RAM

    RAM RAM
    

  • Hard Drive
    
  • Graphics Card
    
  • Optical Drive
    
  • Floppy (Optional)
    
  • Gaming/Music Requirements
    
    • Sound Card
      
    • Speakers
      
  • Internet Requirements
    
    • Modem
      
    • Network Card
      
• OS Software

Oh and read Jeffs posts.

Coding Horror: Building a PC, Part I

Coding Horror: Building a PC, Part II

Coding Horror: Building a PC, Part III

and Coding Horror: Building a PC, Part IV