Motherboard
There are a wide range of motherboards available on
the market. As with all components purchased with
you system I recommend staying with brand names. The
motherboard choice will vary with your choice of
CPU. There are several kinds to choose but the
two most used are Slot 1 and Socket 7. Slot 1 will
provide you with greater support up into Intel's
high-end Pentium II line of chips while Socket 7 (or
super 7) will open up possibilities with non-Intel
chips such as AMD or Cyrix which are usually less
expensive. A slot 1 motherboard comes with the
Intel 440BX chipset. The motherboard should also
support 4-5 PCI slots, 2 ISA slots, USB, 2 COM
ports, LPT port, PS/2 Mouse, and Keyboard. On most
motherboards you will have to change the jumper
settings to select your CPU.
Case
First thing is to make sure that your case is
compatible with your motherboard. They must support
the ATX form factor standard. I recommend a
mid-tower with at least two fans, and 250 watt power
supply. The power supply is located in the top
back corner of the case. The lower fan blows cool
air into the bottom of the case and the upper fan,
located in the power supply case, blows hot air out
of the case. Your motherboard and case should also
come with the correct plate to fit the external
ports on your motherboard. Verify this before you
purchase.
CPU
The CPU is of course one of the most important
components in your system. Your choice of CPU will
effect system performance more than any other
component (perhaps the exception being the graphics
card). Today there are several vendors offering x86
compatible CPUs. They include AMD, Cyrix and Intel.
Your choice of CPU must be compatible with the
motherboard architecture as well. A slot 1 CPU must
use a slot 1 motherboard. Although there are some
options for adapters. Also, when considering your
CPU the same questions should be asked. What
programs will I run? What is my budget? etc.
Heatsink
& CPU Fan
Intel and AMD retail CPU's come with a fan, but if
you buy an OEM version you'll need to purchase a
heatsink with fan.
Hard
Disk Drive
The drive should support Ultra DMA 33/66, EIDE and
come with an IDE cable, mounting kit and
installation disk. Windows 95a supports only FAT16
and has a 2048MB limitation per partition. This
means that any one drive letter can be a maximum of
2048MB. A 6GB drive would then be partioned into
several drive letters. Retail drives come with an
EZ-BIOS extension that gets around this limitation
and newer versions of Windows (i.e., Windows 95b
(OSR2) and Windows 98) support FAT32. You'll need to
set the jumper settings on your drive to be master.
Usually this is the default setting for a new drive.
Also, note the location of pin 1 on the drive. This
is usually located next to the power connector.
Windows9X
CD/Windows9X Startup Disk
You'll need the original CD-ROM for Windows 9X as
well as a boot diskette. These cost alot of money so
I advise the purchase of a second hand cd from www.ebay.co.uk.
3.5"
Floppy Disk Drive
The Mitsumi floppy drive is good quality for low
amount of money as long as it is a standard
established company there shouldn't be a problem,
but just in case keep your receipt. Note the
position of pin1 (cable is red for pin 1) on your
floppy drive. It's usually located next to the
power. A cable should be supplied with the drive or
motherboard.
Graphics
(VGA/Video) Card
The graphics card is probably going to be one of the
most expensive components you put in your case
depending on your requirements. If you want to play
high-end games that require 3-D hardware accelerated
graphics then you'll need a graphics card that is
cable of doing Direct3d or OpenGL in hardware.
Thankfully, most manufactures support good 3D
accelerated graphics today. If you are not concerned
about graphics try and find a motherboard with
onboard graphics (VGA).
RAM
The kind of RAM required again depend on your needs
and also the motherboard you have chosen. RAM comes
in several types ; SIMMs, DIMMs, RDRAM. RAM ranges
is size from 1MB to 256MB per card. SIMMs (single
in-line memory modules) must be installed in
identical pairs (i.e., two, four). DIMMs can be
installed individually. If you have a system that
runs at or over 350MHz PC100/8ns/168-pin SDRAM is
recommended. For systems with the 440LX chipset
regular 10ns SDRAM will do. For overclock system I
chose 64MBs Enhanced Memory Systems PC133 HSDRAM for
its stability beyond 133MHz.
Windows9x systems
should be configured with a minimum of 32MBs. 64MBs
is required for more demanding applications and most
3D games. The VA6 motherboard uses PC133MHz 168-pin
SDRAMs.
CD-ROM
A 32x CD-ROM is more than adequate for most
applications. Optionally, you can substitute DVD-ROM,
CD-RW, DVD-RW. The CD-ROM should be IDE compatible
and come with an IDE cable unless you got one with
the motherboard.
Sound
Card
For the low end a 16-bit ISA sound card. For
high-end, the Create Labs Live! 32-bit sound card is
considered an excellent choice some times you will
find a sound card embedded on to the motherboard so
you won't need to buy one.
Modem
56 Kbs or faster, ISA or PCI. I recommend getting a
good quality modem. 3Com US Robotics is a great
source although you may pay more or you can get an
ADSL modem if you have broadband (Bt, AOL, Freeserve
Broadband) or a LAN port for network/internet
connection.
Monitor
A 17" monitor is really today's standard. Your
should support multiple resolutions and frequencies.
I decided to go with the Samsung Syncmaster 550s
15" monitor. Shop around. You'll probably find
your best buys for monitors on the web.
Speakers
If your into gaming and listening to extreme music
then spend a few pounds to get good speakers.
Otherwise, don't spend more than £30 bucks unless
you plan to use other multimedia software.
Keyboard
and Mouse-
These are no doubt needed and are very cheap to
purchase.
*For a rough price boundary refer to PCWORLD.co.uk
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Copyrighted by
Dalbir Singh Rana of Ernest Bevin College