Making a Computer

There are many how to build computers instructables and guides out there, but they all tell you to get certain parts.
You can use any parts in your computer as long as they fit. Once you have the right parts, you can build it in a short time. By "right " i mean the actual part, like ram, Hard drive etc
My computer didn't cost me anything to make, because i was able to get parts from family members, and scavenging.
Throughout the instructable, there will be links. I give a basic overview, and the links are for a more in depth look at the part.
I also give a relate each part to parts of the body if i can.
Also, keep In mind I have never taken any classes about computers, except for the typing class at my school, and that this Instructable is the most research I've ever done about computers, so try to keep harsh comments to a minimum please! It would help more if you tell me what I've missed without being sarcastic

Step 1: The Materials

To build a computer that functions, you only need-

-a Hard Drive
-a Processor with fan and heatsink
-a motherboard
-a Monitor
-256mb or more of ram
-a Power Supply Unit-(PSU)
-a mouse
-a keyboard
-cables to connect it all

But to add form to function you need, in addition to that above-

-a case - AT, ATX, BTX, or LPX -a modem
-an ethernet card
-CD/DVD drives

and if you want it to be even better-

-a graphics card
-a sound card
-speakers
-another hard drive

Comments

[iApple guy]

Whenever I TRY to boot a computer it always says DRIVE:A ERROR. I think this might have to do with the slave, master, etc. setting I have one HD, and one CD rom drive can someone help me with what setting to put the drive(s) on. Thanks a LOT!

[______]

Laugh if you want my computers HDD is 1.19GB Gateway P5-133 Win98

[~KnexBuild~]

did you make it?

[~KnexBuild~]

what computer is that?

[grundisimo]

The pink one is a parallel port. You plug a printer into it.

[drresearch]

Here you said that you built a computer for free, but you are showing a Windows booklet and Windows is not free (and I don't think you could have found it with your old stuff :) ). Maybe you should have installed Linux instead, which is actually better than Windows (safer, faster, small in size and free) (I use Ubuntu 9.10 which is a linux OS).

[______]

I agree and if you want a cool os that looks like apple goto http://moonos.org/

[Jay Spannerz]

Win.

[Jay Spannerz]

Oh, and it has wireless XD

[Jay Spannerz]

Sweet - I have the same router (speedstream) but mine's supplied w/ telstra.

[flargman98]

i have more : ))

[rafitf]

that long connector is the parallel port for older printers

[drresearch]

I saw you have a BLB (Black Light Blue) light in your computer (the one which makes all the glowing effects in the dark), that light emits UV radiation which are bad especially for the eyes. It is okay to use such lights occasionally for partys, etc., but you should NOT have it daily in use in your computer! Also they are not called neon lights, but flourescent lights, no offense, just informing you. MANY people confuse these lamps as neon lights because of their long shape, which originally I think they had something to do with neon.

[drresearch]

Actually for a computer to function you also don't need a hard drive, nor CD drive. If you have a proper setup, you can boot from the LAN. I know a place where they have this kind of setup and they have one computer with no hard drive and no CD drive. This is called an LTSP setup (Linux Terminal Server Project). However for a place without such a setup you do need a hard drive.

[firion]

you can have a computer that functions with under 256mb of ram

[dungeon runner]

But most people will want something a little faster [is all he's saying].

[bowmaster]

"At least 256MB of RAM". OUTDATED!!!!! I'm making a high performance computer with 8GB of RAM. For An XP I would recommend 1GB.

[chessman.exe]

I had never heard of liquid nitrogen cooling. That would ruin hardware, condensation? yeah. The cooling you are thinking of is called phase cooling. Search it up on google.

[xana]

if you do it right it will not condense water on the liquid nitrogen system.    also pure water with nor conductive ions will not ruin your motherboard or hard where.    but that only for people that know what there doing.

[chessman.exe]

sorry, nitpicking here.

Liquid NITROGEN, not liquid pure water :P
that is unless you are looking at a water-based cooling sys, then you have to get de-ionized water, but...im not sure they make de-ionized liquid nitrogen...i'll have to look that up.

[xana]

    i was not trying to say that liquid nitrogen is water sorry for the bad grammar.    liquid nitrogen does not need to be de-ionized liquid nitrogen it to the best of my knowledge it does not exist.    theblindferrengi's comment is right and it does go super fast. i have got a couple of mine to go to 4.8 ghz, but having the silicone on the CPU chip conduct or super-conduct is not good it might cause a short on the chip.    and it has done that to me once or i got a defective cpu its most likely the second one of the two.  go to this sight it might help explains it well       physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/26470

[theblindferrengi]

experimental new processors (like gallium based processors) and some supercomputers use liquid nitrogen to cool the computer processor well below freezing because as a processor gets cold enough it starts to superconduct and that makes the processing speed go way up.

[chessman.exe]

Hard Drives typically come somewhere between 40 and 160. Laptop hard drives get up into the 320 range. WHAT??! NO :P heh, the laptops hard drives actually store less information, but can get up to 500 GB with what we have today and what i've seen last. The regular ide and SATA hard drives at 7200 RPMs can get up to 2 TB. that is 2000 gigabytes my friends.

[xana]

that is 2048 gigabytes Binary.   

1024 kB kilobytes = 1megabyte    

1024 MB megabytes = 1gigabyte     

1024 GB gigabytes = 1terabyte     

1024 TB terabytes = 1Petabyte

[chessman.exe]

well dont we just know every thing about everything.

:P
yeah...iunno what that is supposed to mean..of course it is the amounts of bits to the byte, but...what does that have to do with my post >.>

[chilll2009]

Connect 2 two tb hardds

[xana]

put 4 2 TB hard drives in this.www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx    

[Shaun-c]

I PRETTY SURE THE SMALLEST IVE SEEN IS 64MB OF RAM WHICH IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW. PS NICE INSTRUCTABLE

[SmAsH!]

Nope, ive seen 8mb chips XD

[hcaz-301]

i have seen a mother bord that take up to 144gb ram and two 64bit CPU
this would run

[Hycro]

Up until I got some old Toshiba Satellite notebooks, the smallest RAM I had ever seen was 16MB, now it's 8MB that's the smallest I've seen...lol

[Rossiroller]

 i played with one of my dads olllllllllld laptops, the hard drive was a whopping 1 gb

[chilll2009]

The highestRAM is infinity gb.

[Hycro]

In your picture of keyboards, the one in the middle of the stack is exactly the one I'm using now...it does all I need it to do, and was relatively inexpensive, though I'd like if the keys were backlit in the same sort of way that cell phone keys are backlit, as in the letters and numbers are what light up. That would look cool for a keyboard :D

[Rock Soldier]

If gaming computers are more prone to over heating, then why so many neon lights and the such? Won't that only help make your computer hotter?

[zack247]

yes. but people just install that stuff to make it look cool.

[Redfox888888]

IDK

[Venal1ty]

You cant use any part with any all willy nilly, you have to make sure each part works with the mother board.... Can't find a stick of ram and be all "LOL I R HAS GOT TEH RAMz LUL WEEEE"... you have to make sure its the right speed and pincount.... and wether its ddr ddr2 ddr3 as well...

[Redfox888888]

yeah, i recently figured that out. I upgraded my ram, and my computer started having problems. I fixed the problems, and replaced the ram and i haven't had a problem since

[chessman.exe]

When you say "not sure what this is, i've never used it" That is a printer port. That is what printers (and other things im sure) were connected...but that was a LONG time ago :\