Hardware Talk :: Hardware Noob

I am thinking of building my own computer soon and I am wonder what parts do I need?

I know I need a
Mother board
Hard Drive
CPU
Case
CD drive.

Anything Else?

Lots of RAM (make sure memory and cpu are compatible with your board)
Video card (nvidia tnt/geforce is well supported in linux)
Heatsink and fan for CPU (might be included with the cpu)
Power suppy (i'd say 300w or more is best)
Sound card and speakers or headphones if you want to use sound
Monitor, keyboard, and mouse =o)
Network card/modem

You might consider checking out some motherboard/CPU combos to make shopping a little easier. The prices are not much different than buying separately, and you can be assured that you're getting compatable hardware.

Also, it's a good idea to do a little research to make sure that the hardware you are getting is known to work without trouble in Linux.

I think a lot depends on how you are going to use it.

Is this going to be a game machine or is just something to surf the net and do some word processing?

The hardware rule of "More is Better" is true but it's not always needed. I've been very productive with some low end equipment. If this is the first machine you've built then hacking it together with some cheap, used, closet components might be a better way to go till you gain experience.

Just my two cents....
Good luck

Thanks everybody.

If you build a mini-itx system and use DSL as your OS, then you don't need a hard drive or a CDROM drive. All you need is a USB pen drive, the mini-ITX motherboard, about 256MB of RAM, and a case with powersuppy and start and reset buttons.

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