When you're considering to B-Y-O your own PC, the issue of money is ever present. And with good reason, too. Most people, when confronted with all of the different possibilities, seem to go overboard in a few areas. And usually, these are the areas with the least payback in system performance. An example would be installing an LS-120 drive, because "it holds a whole lot more than a regular old floppy." 

The questions that needs to be asked is, "Do I REALLY need an LS-120 drive? And if so, where will I be able to use it, other than on my PC?" Note the key word here is "need". For the most part, if you install an LS-120, you will be the only one able to use it. And those expensive disks? They'll be all yours, and yours alone. (Well, maybe you'll be able to find one or two people who have an LS-120 on their systems...maybe.)

"Why?" you may ask. Because, when it comes to portability, the only people you can share that disk with must ALSO have an LS-120! And compared to the installed base of PC's, the number of LS-120's installed is a very. very. very small number, indeed.

But I digress.

The point is -- spend your money wisely. If, as in the above example, you believe that you need a fairly large amount of space (120MB minimum) for backups and such; then consider a CD-RW drive. You can "burn" a CD for about a $0.50. And it's portable in the sense that ANYONE with a CD-ROM drive will be able to use it. (And you can store up to 700MB on that one CD! Not just a measly 120MB.)

Of course, if you happen to work somewhere where EVERYONE has an LS-120 AND you'll be copying files to/from home and work -- then by all means, have at it. But, consider the fact that EVERYONE will also probably have a CD-ROM drive. Which would you rather deal with: one CD or a handful of floppies?

So...

To insulate yourself from making possibly poor choices, the first thing you want to do is make a list. On one side of the list, write down all the "gee-whiz-bang" stuff that you've always thought you wanted in a B-Y-O PC. On the other side, write down just the bare essentials that you absolutely must have to make your B-Y-O PC run. (For ideas on just what ARE the bare essentials, see the chart below.)

Somewhere in the middle of these two lists, is the system you'll build. To find it, let's take out another sheet of paper (the old fashioned kind or the digital variety). Here you'll write down, in detail, EXACTLY what you'll use the PC for. For example, if you're into Graphic Arts, you may write down that you need a very large and fast hard drive to save your artwork on. When working with apps such as PhotoShop and Director, bigger and faster are definitely a plus. Whether you decide on SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) or EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Device Electronic) is your choice.

The newer EIDE hard drives are now sporting SCSI speeds, with ATA-66MB/second and 7200 rpm disk speeds. And the costs of EIDE's are still much lower than their SCSI cousins. [I won't go into the debate over which is better. That's a choice that's better left up to you.]

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OK, now that you've finished your lists, it's time to decide what goes and what stays. But before we do, you need to write down one more thing -- how much you can spend. It's important, because if you haven't got a lot to spend on your B-Y-O PC, you need to know upfront -- BEFORE you spend it all, and still haven't got a complete system!

Let's take this one step at a time.

If you want an AMD K6-2 or -3, you'll need a Super Socket 7 motherboard that runs at 100Mhz or so AND that accepts PC100 DIMM's. (Don't bother with the boards that accept SIMMs and DIMMs - they are mutually exclusive! You can't use SIMMs with the DIMMs.) If it's a Celeron, you'll need either: a)  Socket 370 or b) Slot 1  motherboard. This will depend on the type of CPU you want. The Socket 370 is similar to the Socket 7, except it is special for use with several of the Celeron chips. The balancel of the Celeron's are using the Slot 1. There are many motherboards out there that have BOTH the Socket 370 & a Slot 1. These are probably better if you expect to ever upgrade your B-Y-O PC. The motherboard should  accept PC100 DIMM's.

Lastly, is the Pentium II & III. These require Slot 1 motherboards, 100MHz bus,  and accept DIMM's. The only real choices with motherboards for these CPU's is: a) whether or not to get an integrated board, b) how much memory it can hold, and c) would you like SCSI with that?

Most of this has been decided for you, based on the CPU of choice. At this point it's usually getting the most 'board for the least cash.

With the AMD and some of the Celeron's, you can use the AT-type case. With the newer Celeron's and the Pentium II's and III's -- you'll be getting an ATX case, since most of the Pentium II and III motherboards require this type of case, due to the edge-connected peripheral connections (i.e.: monitor, PS2 mouse & keyboard, serial and parallel, USB, etc.)

Memory. The best advice I can give is: Buy as much as possible! You'll never regret having it. With Windows 95/98/NT and especially Win 2000, more will always be better. The biggest thing about more RAM is that it will reduce the use of the memory managers'  hard drive caching/swapping. More so when you're using apps like PhotoShop or Need for Speed 3.

That depends to some extent on what you intend to put on it. If you're a graphic artist or a musician, you'll want a lot of space and speed. If, however, you're just using it for letters and a spreadsheet or two, you'll want not quite as much space and speed. With the risk of dating my info, I'll say that - at a minimum, you want a large drive. Something in the neighborhood of 10GB. (Everyone always says that they could never fill that much space, but they always do.) Most of the current EIDE drives run at 5400 rpm. The newest drives run at 7200 rpm. These newer drives have the speed and capacity for accessing data that is in the same speed group as SCSI hard drives. 

So, the best advice for hard drives is the same as for RAM. Buy the most hard drive you can; because if you don't, you'll later wish you had. Besides, the software manufacturers seem to continually turn out bloatware. (That's computer-speak for applications that were written the easiest way - not the best. And those applications also have more bells-and-whistles than most users will ever have a need for.) And the reason? They figure EVERYONE has a SUPER FAST computer with EXTREMELY LARGE hard drives, so...let's help them fill them!

With video, it's a little easier making a decision. At a minimum, you want a card with 8MB of memory on it. I wouldn't even bother with anything smaller, since software is being written for cards with a minimum of, you guessed it! - 8MB's.  Really, if you're a heavy-duty programmer/graphic artist/musician/gamer, then the only choice is MORE. More RAM, more FEATURES, more of EVERYTHING. Here you're looking at the 16MB and up video cards, with high resolutions (minimum 1600x1200). For general business use, 8MB may be overkill; but at least a new application won't fail because you scrimped on the video card.

Your choice! Any of the PCI wavetable cards are fine. If you've got special needs, then you'll already know about cards and speakers that will make your life easier. In general, Ensoniq  and Creative Labs have sound/audio cards for just about every taste and pocketbook.

Again, it's your choice. Some prefer a trackball over a mouse. This is especially true for graphic artists who require a much better "feel" when working. For keyboards, the choices are all over the map, as well. Personally, I prefer the ergonomical keyboards. I've found that I can type faster and longer -- and more accurately using them. The only caveat when buying mice or keyboards -- you'll want the PS/2 variety. These will help in keeping your serial ports clear for other equipment/peripherals. Plus, you won't have to play the "IRQ/COM Game" with your mouse and modem.

A standard CD-ROM drive is a given. Nowadays, you must have one in order to load new software. CD's are the medium of choice for software distribution. Minimum speed is 32x.  If you plan on making your own CD's, then you'll need a "burner". This is either a CD-R or a CD-RW. Basically, either model allows you to "burn" your own CD's; whether for data, music,MP3's - whatever.

The CD-RW costs a bit more than the CD-R. And the blank CD-RW media are fairly expensive. This is because of the ability to not only write to this disk, but to write OVER whatever has been written to it already.

Personally, I decided to go with the CD-R. The way I look at it, is if I thought it was important to save my data permanently by  "burning" a CD, why would I ever want to write over that important  data? 

A good CD-R drive will run about $300. for the SCSI models, and $150. for the EIDE's. I'm using the SONY Spressa internal SCSI drive (CDU948S/CH).It comes with an Initio SCSI controller card and all the software you'll need to use it right away. It uses a caddy (which I thought I wouldn't like - but I do) to hold the blank CD. It has a 2MB cache, while most of the EIDE drives only have 1MB. And believe me, that 1MB difference means the difference between a finished CD and a buffer-underrun. Several of my friends purchased the EIDE model, and ultimately spent a lot of money for CD's, because of underruns. For them, it made the rest of the disk unusable.

With the SONY, I haven't had any problems like the EIDE's. And it's fast! Most of the less expensive EIDE drives only write at 2x speed, though there are 4x drives available. If you want EIDE, Mitsumi has some good drives. The SONY writes at 4x. That means I can "burn" a CD in 15 minutes versus the 30 minutes that it takes with the 2x drives.

Probably Windows NT, when talking about B-Y-O PC's. That is, as long as you don't want to run any games. Otherwise, Windows 98 would be more appropriate.  I know some  will disagree with me on this one. However, we're talking about an operating system for the bulk of PC users, as well as the largest percentage of all software written for the PC. The Linux/Unix/BeOS/DOS users may always disagree about this one. And that's fine. If you prefer these or another, go for it! 

The minimum size you want to look at is 17" (15.8 to 16.0 inches actual viewing area.) Anything smaller, and you'll be kicking yourself for wasting your money. And a 19" monitor would be the optimal size. As I've said before, graphic artists have special requirements, and so will probably want a 21". Here are the minimum specs for a 17" monitor:  1600x1200 @ .26 & 85Hz. Flat-screen, digital on-screen display. AOC has some fantastic deals on monitors. You can find the  7Glr & 7GlrA in the $250. range (the GlrA has built-in speakers). The 19" is the 9Glr. The picture quality is excellent and won't cost you a small fortune.

Here's where you can go to do your price-checking, trying to get all you want for as little as possible. And we're talking quality goods here, not third- and fourth-rate equipment that will need to be replaced in two months; or, requiring special hacks just to make it work properly.