I realize there was a previous post talking a little bit about this, and seeing the great responses about the question, I want to ask a similar question. I have had a Dell Dimension system for about 3 years now, and my biggest complaint is the lack up upgradability (is that a word?) and the integration of the hardware. The system overall is a good one and has worked well. However I now find myself wanting bigger and better (don't we all). Because of this, I would like to build my own pc. I read the previous post, and went to tigerdirect and I like the look. While I fancy to know my way around a pc, when I started browsing around, I found that I don't know near enough about the internal hardware workings. I want to know my way in and out with motherboards, cpus, hard drives, sound/video cards, ram and everything else so I have a good idea as to what I want to build and what to build it with. What I would like to ask is if anyone has SPECIFIC ideas and suggestions for a very good pc. I would like to stick under $2500, and I have a few components already, but I still need 90% of them. Where can I go to find a good, complete manual on how to build a pc and descriptions of the hardware. Do you have any specific suggestions? Any cautions? Sorry for the length, but this is something I really want to do. Thank you for any input!

Not to worry, you could build two great systems for that $2500 if you shopped around for the best prices. (Three if you REALLY shopped!) :) There are several websites that will walk you through building a system. I suggest getting the latest version of Que's "Upgrading and repairing PC's" It not only walks you through building a system, it will answer anything you ever want to know about PC's (and some things you didn't). It's about $30 in discount stores like Costco, but well worth it. I use mine constantly and haven't had many questions it didn't answer. What it didn't tell me, I learned on this site by just reading old posts! BTW, my choice would be an Asus or Abit Motherboard with a P4 1.5GHZ CPU, plenty of memory and at least a 30 Gig hard drive. An ATI rage graphic card and a Soundblaster 64 sound card. With what you want to spend you can afford all the goodies, (CD recorder, etc) Try to find a computer show or swap meet in your area, you'll find the best prices, Good luck!

Radon, I too will be assembling me a pc in the near future. This is what I'm going to do and it may help you. Since you like TigerDirect, get the AK31 ATX SocketA board $94 w/o processor. $139 with a 800MHZ Duron. This board will allow you to expand to 1.4Ghz with a bus speed of 266MHZ.. Yes, I know the Duron may not be as fast as an Athlon but this will allow you to up grade in 5 to 6 months when this chip come down and that 1.4Ghz chip should be a lot less than its current value of $139. Thats one improvement. I like this board because it has 6 PCI slots for expansion, you said you want expandablity/upgradablity. It also has 4 Dimm slots expandable to 4GB of RAM (DDR RAM) Memory is Cheap!! You can always add a RAID card on or buy a motherboard with RAID and DDR Memory. Again you can ask 100 people and get many differnt answers. Get you a 60 Gig hd a good Video card and a 300 WATT case. A 19" monitor and a few other devices and you should come well under that price and plus build your machine the way you want it. If you already have a monitor and a hard drive you'll do well for your budget. Good Luck Jas

ATIs are good cards, there's no doubt about that. If you plan on playing games, I'd go for a Geforce though. ATI Radeon is good too. CPU speed is important, but anything above 1 gig is useless if you dont have good hardware to take advantage of it. Soundblaster makes some really good cards. They have a variety of SB Live! cards which prob are the best.

I recommend you go to pricewatch.com for the best computer parts prices on the Internet. The way I learned about the guts of a computer was to take apart my old 486. The hardest thing about it is making the software works.

[original submitter] Thanks for all the advise so far. I look forward to getting this done. If you have any more ideas, don't hesitate to post them. I'm sure there are many others who would like control of their pcs. Thanks!

Ok this is a good topic. Would someone put together a list of products please. Nothing fancy just the basics. Motherboard, processor, ram, case? something roomy that will impress your friends:), power supply, OS. Sound and video could go either way depending on whos doing what. Thanks