By Tikkler - June 27, 2000

So, you've decided that it's not worth it to upgrade that clunker of a computer of yours, and want to get a new system altogether. Where do you start? What do you look for in a computer to satisfy your own needs, and not the needs of the salesman who sold it to you? If you're one of those "play it safe" people who prefer to buy a computer from a major brand such as IBM or Dell, then I suggest you talk to your local salesman; this guide's not for you. This guide is for you people who like to get down and dirty and would like to have complete control over everything that's going into your new system, I'll take you through (in a lot of detail) all the general components necessary to stick into your new computer and tell you what you need to get a system that's a perfect match for you. Be prepared for a long ride folks, as getting exactly what you want is more complex than you might have thought.

For everything mentioned in here, you should be able to find the stuff SOMEWHERE, whether it is a local computer shop or an online retailer. For the best prices of each of the components, I suggest you go and pick up a local computer magazine/newspaper, if they're available in your area. For example, in the Vancouver area, we have The Computer Paper and Vancouver Computes! These magazines provide excellent information such as technology news, how-tos, reviews and many other things you might find in a national computer magazine such as PC World. We're, however, not getting these computer papers to read these articles, what we're looking for are the ads in the papers (you heard me, we're not looking at the content, but the ads!). I find that a lot of the local computer shops (you know, shops like "Jake's Computer Depot" or "Mike's Computers") advertise in these computer magazines, and their prices are often cheaper than most of the online shops. Take some time to flip through these ads so you can compare prices and pick where you want to get each component.

If you decide not to go local, and want to get even better prices by looking in the online world, a good place to start is Pricewatch.com. I, personally, don't use Pricewatch because I live in Canada and most of the online shops listed on PriceWatch don't ship to Canada for an acceptable fee but for you folks down south, these guys have the best prices (although you have to be careful when you're buying from there, as some shops falsely advertise their prices). If you live up in the great north, like me, you can try places like futureshop.ca, Buy.com Canada, and Onvia Canada.

Now that we're done with the easy part, let's get down and dirty and look into each separate component.

On to: The Processor (CPU)