gDose: How to Build a Computer Part Three

Unseen's Corner

Alright here we go with the third installment of this guide of sorts to build your own computer. The parts covered today are: the ram and the power supply.

First off lets talk about the power supply. If the motherboard is the mother the power supply (PSU) is the father. The PSU performs a vital role, so again this is not an optional part. What it does is give power to the computer. Nothing is going to happen unless no power is being supplied. On any computer the power chord is plugged into the power supply. Then the power supply diverts out and gives power to most of the major parts.

While searching for a power supply what you want can vary. In a store bought PC like an HP or a Dell you usually get a rather poor power supply of about 400-500 watts these days. For a gaming computer that is nowhere near sufficient. The problem with that low wattage is that if you ever want to get a better piece of hardware inside you'll have to upgrade the PSU as well. For the computer parts we've been showing so far this computer would be built with upgrading in mind so we want to pick out a high power power supply. For the graphics card and everything else so far we want at least 600 watts. Since we're building for upgrades 750 watts + is ideal.

PSU's are quite expensive though and the high wattage ones cost a pretty penny. There are value priced 750 and 800 watt ones that are perfect and exactly what we're looking for.

Lucky for us though, bargains are out there

Xion Power Real 1000W ATX PSU

SCORE! A 1000 watt PSU for 100 bucks is a steal. Gobble that up. The letters ATX in the title stand for the kind of size the PSU is. The motherboard and many parts have size factors. ATX is the standard. All standard desktop towers you see though are ATX sized. The itsy bitsy computers that are around that aren't laptops, those are micro-ATX. We're doing an ATX build... but more on that when we get to the case.

For now lets go to the RAM. This is another part that sits on the motherboard. The motherboard we chose in the earlier entry can hold up to 4 sticks of DDR2 RAM each slot can hold 2gb max for 8gb total. Lets talk what RAM is though. RAM (Random Access Memory) is sort of the fat of a computer. Data is stored for short term in the RAM so that the computer doesn't have to access the hard-drive to move forward. So when playing a game instead of the game waiting for the computer to get data from the hard drive through all the other parts, it's stored on the RAM. So the more storage space on the RAM the more stuff is on hand for the computer to access quickly.

If you're looking for a quick upgrade on any computer, getting more RAM is the quickest and easiest way to do it.

First off, don't confuse RAM memory with hard drive memory. People throw around the term memory and it confuses lots of people. If someone is talking memory this is generally what they mean. They're talking about hard drives when they say storage space (more on that later). 500 gb of Hard Drive space is a lot, but don't get that confused with having 4 gb of RAM. 4 gb of RAM is a heck of a lot.

Next on the RAM checklist is speed. Like a processor RAM has a frequency. This meaning the speed the data can be accessed and stored. So having a high speed is important. This is where the terms DDR, DDR2, and DDR3+ come into play. DDR-SDRAM as it should be called (double-data-rate synchronous dynamic random access memory) comes in varying speeds and interfaces on the motherboard. The higher the # after the DDR the faster the RAM is. DDR1 is so outdated now that it actually costs more than DDR2 because it's so rare. DDR2 is the standard but in the next few years will be phased out by DDR3. DDR3 is ultra-fast RAM that can only be used on high-end motherboards.

The motherboard we picked needs DDR2 DIMMS. DIMM being a fancy term for the RAM itself. RAM is just a stick and is actually pretty sturdy stuff compared to the rest of your computer. A few years ago a fancy development was made for dual-channel RAM. On the motherboard the RAM slots are arranged this way:

[1][2][3][4]

The RAM merely pops into the slot. Do note that DDR1 slots, DDR2 slots, and DDR3 slots are not compatible with each other. Back to the dual channel thing; channel 1 is slots 1 and 3, channel 2 is slots 3 and 4. If the channel contains the same memory in each slot then the speeds are combined. Keep this in mind because RAM is sold in pairs generally and the speed they give is the combined dual-channel speed and not the speed of the individual stick. A pair of 400 mHz 2gb DDR2 ram sticks is advertised as 4GB (2 x 2) of 800 mHz RAM.

Ok now to picking out the RAM. This actually depends on your operating system. XP and Vista come in two flavors, 32 and 64 bit. 32 bit limits the user to 4gb of RAM max, 64 bit allows the user to go up to 8gb. Mac OSX is a 64bit OS and only 64 bit (correct me if I'm wrong). 64 bit has compatability issues that are slowly being sorted out, none are too major but if that scares you then it is your choice.

So we've established speed and amount of memory and what each does. So you want a balance. The first few steps in picking out your RAM is to check your motherboard to see which kind you need (we need DDR2) and how much it can support (8gb total 2 in each slot). Lets shoot for 8gb of RAM in this system. There are many factors in speed so we want either 800 or 1000 mHz (we'll explain why in a bit).

Kingston HyperX Dual Channel Ram

That is good ram. It is 1000mHz and there's 4gb of it in 2 sticks. It's well priced too. 4gb of DDR2 ram shouldn't cost you more than 80 dollars. 40-80 is the range on that. So when ordering the parts make sure you get 2 orders of the RAM.

Another factor in speed of the memory is its timings. If the speed is how fast the RAM is, timings are sort of its speed limit. The lower the speed generally the lower the timings there are. 800 mHz RAM has extremely low timings and can be better than 1000mHz RAM with higher timings. If you're going to get 800 mHz RAM check the specs for 4-4-4-12 timings, otherwise don't bother. On 1000 mHz, don't settle for anything higher than 5-5-5-15.

So there you have it. That's your PSU and your RAM in one loooong post. Guys one more note about these 2 parts. I put them together because unlike the other parts who you buy it from is a big deal. In PSUs you want a reliable company. Thermaltake and OCZ are generally the most popular because they're reliable. The PSU I chose was too good of a deal to pass up. If you're not going with a popular company check the customer reviews for reliability.

As for RAM I am fairly strict about this to myself. Kingston, Corsair, or OCZ. Those 3 companies are the best for RAM. Everything else just doesn't compare in my opinion. You don't want bottom of the barrel RAM you want good reliable memory because when troubleshooting 9 times out of 10 it's your memory that is the issue.

Well that was a lot of text, sorry there wasn't any pretty pictures-but we're getting to the nitty gritty here on parts. All that's really left is the Hard-Drive, CD/DVD drive, Cooling, Case, and other peripherals; none of which take much explaining. So here's a happy picture: