How to build your dream PC

From...

by Stan Miastkowski and Kirk Steers

(IDG) -- Are you old enough to remember when car buffs could really soup up an automobile? Those days may be fading away for cars, but they're in full swing for PCs. In fact, your current PC -- whether getting a bit long in the tooth or hot off the conveyor belt -- is probably a bit of a compromise.

Most of today's PCs are designed for garden-variety computing such as word processing or Web browsing. Fortunately, myriad available add-ins, add-ons, and accessories offer seemingly infinite upgrade possibilities. You can customize that boring beige box, whether it's your office workhorse or your family's e-mail gateway, and transform it into the millennium equivalent of a 1960s hot rod.

Starting with a bare-bones, off-the-shelf system, we created a sound and media center worthy of any home-theater buff, a state-of-the-art digital darkroom for photography hounds, and a screaming game PC for serious players.

Each of the projects had a common starting point: a Dell Dimension XPS T600r system with a Pentium III-600 processor, 64MB of RAM, and a 9.5GB IDE hard drive. Your upgrading needs may vary, but even our fairly capable base system needed some significant enhancements to meet our project specifications.

For each of these projects, we provide a summary of the minimum system requirements, a shopping list of components, a price range, the expected upgrade time and expertise level, and some power tips. You can mix and match upgrade components from each of our projects, too. And we have left enough wiggle room to give you a range of choices for each project. So you can get started with lower-end components and then upgrade later, or you can lay down the bucks for the best right off the bat.

How to proceed

There are three basic steps to take when you use our project guide:

1. TAKE STOCK OF YOUR PC. If most of your system's components meet our minimum requirements, your upgrade will be that much simpler. In other cases (such as when your CPU does not meet the specified minimum), buying a new system is a more sensible first step.

2. DECIDE WHAT UPGRADES YOU REALLY NEED (OR WANT). To help you decide, we provide advice on how each upgrade will benefit your computer. Consider the price, the time, and the difficulty of each upgrade -- and be honest with yourself about how comfortable you feel handling an advanced-level upgrade. If you have misgivings, think about paying a computer dealer to do the upgrade, or call on a trusted friend who is more experienced.

3. READ "HOW TO UPGRADE (ALMOST) ANYTHING". After you have made your choices and purchased the components, the "How to upgrade (almost) anything" guide (see link below) will walk you through installing your upgrades. The end result: You'll have a task-specific hot rod ready to chase the checkered flag. And you won't even need to get your hands greasy.

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Under the hood: Our base system, a Dell Dimension XPS T600r, came equipped with a Pentium III-600 CPU, 64MB of RAM, a 9.5GB IDE hard drive, a 16MB ATI Rage 128 graphics board, a 48X CD-ROM drive, a sound card, and a 56-kbps modem.

Upgrade essentials

Any time you upgrade, you must consider some tasks and perform some housekeeping before rolling up your sleeves and getting to work:

  • If you're not running Win 98 SE or Millennium, consider upgrading to one of these OSs, which offer the latest sound and graphics support.

  • Check for the most current software updates.

  • Check for system hardware errors. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, choose the System icon, and click the Device Manager tab. If you see a yellow exclamation point next to any of the entries, highlight the entry, click the Properties button, and follow the directions for fixing the problem.

  • Scan and defragment your hard drive. In My Computer, right-click the hard drive icon, and choose Properties. Next, click the Tools tab, and then click the Check Now button. After the system has completed that operation, click the Defragment Now button.

  • Back up all of your programs and all of your data. (It's also not a bad idea to review the replicated files so you can double-check that the backup operation succeeded.)

CPU considerations

If your current PC doesn't meet our minimum processor requirement, you'll probably get a better value by starting with a new system. Many of the components in our projects -- especially advanced software -- work best with a Pentium III, Athlon, Pentium II, or Celeron CPU. Older Pentiums can't be upgraded to these classes of processors, though owners of the oldest Pentium II computers aren't completely out of luck. Companies like Evergreen Technologies offer kits for upgrading to a fast Celeron processor for around $130 to $230 (for details on upgrading CPUs, see "Beef up your processor power," link below).

If you're really ambitious, consider upgrading your entire motherboard -- but only if you have experience working with hardware and are comfortable poking around extensively inside a PC case. A typical motherboard costs about $100, but the total price depends on the type of CPU and how much RAM you equip it with. The full upgrade will usually set you back $300 to $600 (for details, see "Install a new motherboard," link below).

Essential upgrades

Unless you have a brand-new computer with more RAM and a bigger hard drive than you can imagine needing, those are most likely the first components you'll want to upgrade.

Make sure you have the right tools for each job. Most projects require a Phillips-head screwdriver, and many call for a pair of needle-nose pliers. You'll also want to avoid destroying components with static electricity. Don't leave a PC that is less than three years old plugged into the wall while you work on it: Even if it's turned off, some low voltage remains on the motherboard. It won't hurt you, but if you accidentally short something, it could damage your PC. The solution is to wear an antistatic wrist strap, which you can find at your local electronics store, such as Radio Shack. If your PC is more than three years old, you can safely leave it plugged into the wall to provide a ground to dissipate static charge.

Opening the case of a modern PC is generally easy, but virtually every one is different. Read your manual carefully before you open the case. Always leave plenty of time for all upgrade projects, too. And before you start, read the manuals that come with your new add-ins and peripherals.

For more essential upgrade tips, see "How to upgrade (almost) anything," link below.

Project 1: A sound and media center

As PCs have become more powerful, sound and pictures have come into their own. Our sound and media center creates a lively home entertainment system built around your PC. Here's a brief summary of the parts you audio enthusiasts and home theater buffs will need. (Typical street prices are noted.)

For optimum sound, you need a top sound card. Fortunately, these cards have come a long way in the past few years -- from low-fi to hi-fi, with lower prices. In a field of strong alternatives, Creative Labs' Sound Blaster cards are the market leaders. We chose the midrange ($100) Sound Blaster MP3+, which delivers lifelike sound and is chock-full of special features for listening to MP3 music files and CD audio, and for working with them as well.

You will also want a CD-Rewritable drive for burning your own music CDs. The $200 Plextor PlexWriter 8/4/32 that we chose offers fast 8X CD-R writing, 4X performance on rewritable discs, and a respectable read speed of 32X. And Plextor has a reputation for producing top-of-the-line, ruggedly built drives.

To access the full excellence of video available on DVDs, you need a capable drive. And while many graphics cards will help decode the compressed video on a DVD, a hardware MPEG decoder (add-in board) produces the best results. A complete upgrade kit -- like our choice, Creative Labs' $250 PC-DVD Encore 8X with Dxr3 decoder board -- makes the most sense.

It wouldn't be a media center if you couldn't watch TV on your screen, and stand-alone TV boards are now available for around $100. We went high-end and chose a new graphics board with TV features built in. Our pick, the $299 Matrox Marvel G400-TV, offers connections for external TV monitors and for analog video in.

Top-quality components won't mean much if you use cheap speakers -- and most units shipped with PCs are abysmal. We suggest you lay down the bucks for top-notch speakers. Excellent models are available in the $100-to-$150 range, but we aimed higher -- Klipsch's $250 ProMedia v.2-400 THX system.

On the software side, you'll need programs to decode MP3s, edit audio, and burn CDs. Most upgrades you can buy include their own software, but you can find other options. For working with MP3 files, MusicMatch Jukebox is a capable and popular choice. A free basic version is available on the company's Web site; a full-featured version costs $30. Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge is the industry standard for audio editing. The professional version costs $499, but Sound Forge XP, a limited $60 version, has enough features for casual users. And for creating CDs, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator is the justifiably popular choice. A basic version comes with most CD-RW drives, but you can purchase a deluxe version with advanced capabilities for $89.

Speakers
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: Don't skimp on your speakers. They're the primary component in audio reproduction. Your ears will thank you.
TIP: Experimenting with speaker placement can pay dividends in great sound.

Hard drive
TIME: 1 hour
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: A big hard drive lets you store lots of MP3 files, and the extra space can help when you burn music CDs as well. Aim for a capacity between 10GB and 25GB. High speed isn't crucial in this area.
TIP: Consider using your new drive for data storage only, instead of as an all-purpose replacement for your existing drive.

DVD-ROM drive upgrade kit
TIME: 60-90 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: A fast drive and a hardware MPEG decoder card are essential for a great DVD experience.

Graphics card/TV tuner
TIME: 30-45 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: You'll want high-performance graphics for the best DVD picture possible -- and why not buy a graphics card with an integrated TV tuner so that you can watch TV shows in a window on your PC screen?

CD-Rewritable drive
TIME: 1 hour
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: Whether you want to archive MP3 files or burn audio CDs, a CD-RW drive can be your best friend.
TIP: Drivers for graphics cards are updated frequently. Always download the latest one from the manufacturer's Web site before you install your new card.

Sound card
TIME: 30-45 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: Great sound requires something better than an entry-level sound card. The best upgrade cards come with tons of software and extras like MP3 support and built-in 3D audio.

Click here for a chart of sound and media upgrade specs.

Project 2: Digital darkroom

Darkrooms used to be tucked away in the cellar, the garage, or a gloomy corner of a home -- and they required running water; smelly, expensive, and dangerous chemicals; and lots of time and patience. But digital cameras, photo-quality printers, and PCs have changed that equation. Though not quite perfect, the latest cameras and printers can deliver images that are nearly indistinguishable from those produced by your local photo-finishing shop. And you can manipulate digital images in ways that are unimaginable in the darkroom--not to mention sending them through e-mail or putting them on your Web site.

The first tool that you'll need for a digital darkroom is a digital camera. Over the past year, they've declined in price while dramatically improving in quality. Now 1-megapixel models (referring to the maximum number of dots that make up an image) are readily available for $200 to $300 and produce excellent snapshot-size images. We chose the $299 Olympus D-360L, a 1.3-megapixel camera that captures images at resolutions up to 1280 by 960.

The next essential is, of course, a printer. You would be hard-pressed to distinguish between a commercial photographic print and the output of the latest generation of photo-quality, color ink-jet printers. The $199 Kodak/Lexmark PM100 ink jet, for instance, has a print resolution of 1200 by 1200 dpi and includes slots for accepting memory cards directly from digital cameras.

Everyone has shoe boxes stuffed with old photographs and slides. Bring them into the computer age by scanning them and storing the digital images on your PC. Today's scanners, such as the $249 Epson 1200U, have high resolutions and are easy to hook up (many use a USB interface). You can even scan old slides and negatives by using the optional adapters that are available for most scanners. (Figure on spending another $100 or so for this feature.)

Are you looking to remove the red-eye from a photograph of your kids? Or do you want to completely expunge your former brother-in-law from a family portrait? Today's image-editing software can do all that, and much more. Although Adobe Photoshop remains the number one choice of graphics professionals, the package is expensive ($609) and too complex for the majority of casual users. Products like Ulead's $80 PhotoImpact 5 can do many of the same things for hundreds of dollars less.

Digital camera
TIME: 15-30 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: Make sure that the camera supports a resolution of at least 1 megapixel; it should be able to handle 2 or 3 megapixels if you plan to print pictures that are 8 by 10 inches or larger.
TIP: Buy extra memory cards for easy picture storage when you're traveling.

RAM
TIME: 30-45 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: Upgrading to 128MB of RAM can make an impressive difference in the performance of image editing software.
TIP: Keep your existing RAM modules if you can, but you may have to discard one if all of your memory sockets are filled.

Photo-quality printer
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: Some printers allow you to plug a camera's memory card directly into a slot, bypassing the PC for faster prints.

Hard drive
TIME: 1 hour
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: You'll need a fast, high-capacity hard drive for working with digital image files, which can take up huge amounts of space.
TIP: Drives in the 30GB-40GB range are becoming common and are great values for their storage space.

Image-editing software
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: A program of this type is essential for manipulating images.

Scanner
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: Higher-end scanners produce better images.
TIP: Most scanners have a shipping lock. Before installation, be sure to remove it.

Click here for a chart of digital darkroom upgrade specs.

Project 3: Home gaming system

Whether you're evading a MIG 29 over the Korean peninsula or ambushing a coworker in a subterranean labyrinth, one rule applies: Victory belongs to the swift. So no matter how quick your reactions or how clever your strategy, playing games on a slow PC puts you at a severe disadvantage.

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to speed up your PC's gaming performance, even if you're stuck with an older CPU. For many PCs bought in the last few years, adding a faster processor -- or buying a new system -- isn't necessary. Many current games run comfortably on systems with PII or Celeron processors -- if you add the right upgrades to your system.

Often the biggest bottleneck in gaming performance is the graphics card. The hottest new games -- especially those that use 3D graphics -- require graphics cards with 2D and 3D graphics capability and gobs of on-board memory -- at least 32MB. If your PC has an AGP slot, get an AGP card. If it doesn't, don't worry: Many graphics cards come in both AGP and PCI versions. We chose the $299 AGP-based Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS for our project, though budget-conscious shoppers can find capable 2D/3D cards in the $150 to $200 range.

The second-most-important upgrade involves system RAM. It's easy to add, relatively inexpensive, and critical for running demanding games. Fast animation moves vast amounts of data. And data that isn't stored on your graphics card ends up in RAM. Before you buy extra RAM, however, check your system's documentation to determine the right type for your PC (see "How to upgrade (almost) anything," link below).

You'll also want a big hard drive. Some games let you copy large blocks of data -- like scenery -- from the CD-ROM to the hard drive, where your system can access it more quickly.

And if you're planning to play games online in head-to-head competition, a fast Net connection can give you a big edge over competitors shackled with slower links. A 56-kbps modem can do the job, but your best bet is high-speed cable or DSL. In many areas, both technologies are just a phone call and an ethernet card away.

A first-rate gaming PC demands a top sound system. You can buy decent speakers and a subwoofer for under $70. But a 3D, four-channel sound system like the $149 Creative Labs/Cambridge SoundWorks FourPointSurround FPS2000 adds another dimension. If you decide to go with four-channel sound, make sure you have a sound card like Creative Labs' $100 Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer, which supports all four channels and positional 3D audio.

And finally, when picking out a joystick, game pad, or other game controller, spend a little extra on a superior product like Microsoft's SideWinder Force Feedback Pro joystick ($130) or SideWinder Game Pad Pro ($40). Either will last longer than a bargain-basement controller and provide superior game play.

Speakers
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: Getting pelted with sounds from all directions makes for an amazing gaming experience.

DSL/cable modem
TIME: 1 hour
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner/Advanced
COMMENT: Online gaming gains a new look and feel on a high-speed Internet connection.
TIP: Many DSL and cable providers offer complete on-site installation, including the modem and an ethernet card. (Configuring an ethernet card and modem settings is a job for the truly computer savvy.)

RAM
TIME: 30 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: Adding RAM is a cost-effective way to improve your system's gaming and overall performance.

Hard drive
TIME: 1 hour
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: With many games taking up 400MB to 500MB of disk space, even a 10GB hard drive can quickly run out of space.

Graphics card
TIME: 30 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: A good graphics card is the most important upgrade you can make for gaming performance.
TIP: Always check the card vendor's Web site for the most recent driver before installing the hardware.

Sound card
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Intermediate
COMMENT: Most of today's sound cards are adequate for gaming. If you aren't investing in four-channel, 3D speakers, save your money.
TIP: If your PC has an integrated audio chip instead of a sound card -- as many Celeron systems do -- make sure it can be disabled in the CMOS setup program. If it can't, you may not be able to add a new sound card.

Joystick/game pad
TIME: 15 minutes
EXPERTISE LEVEL: Beginner
COMMENT: If realism is the name of the game, the more you spend on a joystick, the better the experience.
TIP: Keyboards and game pads that use USB connectors eliminate having to swap connections to the game port on your sound card.

Click here for a chart of gaming system upgrade specs.

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Beyond the PC
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How to upgrade (almost) anything
(PC World Online)
Beef up your processor power
(PC World Online)
Install a new motherboard
(PC World Online)
CPU upgrade the easy way
(PC World Online)
The lowdown on upgrades
(PC World Online)
How to get the fastest Internet connection
(Network World Fusion)
Make your PC hacker-proof
(PC World Online)
Top 15 home PCs
(PC World Online)