Computers & Peripheral Hardware

WSRL.ORG / Rural Colorado, Computers & Peripheral Hardware - January 2008 - Page 1

It's easy to purchase a new PC at Best Buy, Sams, WalMart or your favorite electronics store. With a little care and average use, any PC should last a fairly long time with few problems. This page is dedicated to those who are budget minded and want to know and do more. With a little reading and

Old IBM Model 5150

technical aptitude not to mention attitude, anyone can fix or upgrade an existing PC using better hardware for higher performance. Prices for hardware components have never been lower. You can certainly purchase software from Microsoft but for virtually functionally identical applications and file formats, Linux provides a great software alternative that will cost you nothing but a little time and effort.

The Basics -

This page does not attempt to give endless details. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet that do a much better job in that regard than I could ever do. Rather this page provides guidance on what has worked for me over 20+ years. From a physical and electrical standpoint, the PC is highly standardized. With a little common sense, parts are fully interchangeable between machines. I only wish my car was as versatile. Recommended parts are keyed to the links to the right. Case - Enlight or Inwin are industry standard products. Study the features and buy new or find a used case with the same features. Power supply - don't go cheap here. MTBF stands for Mean Time Between Failure. The linked page to the right shows what you should be looking for. Be sure anything you buy matches the plugs shown. 350 Watts should be more than enough for a modest budget PC. In regard to both the case and power supply, the key term is "ATX". The power supply should additionally follow the 12V V2.0 spec. Any ATX power supply will fit any standard ATX case, desktop or tower. This does not apply to the cheaper products sold at Walmart or Best Buy.

The Mainboard -

As above, the key term is ATX. Assuming you can not find a suitable used product, the main/motherboard links to the right are for new, current production products. For a first time build, the easiest way to go is with a board that integrates video, sound, LAN and USB on the board. As shown via the links, the Mwave vendor offers bundles that includes processor, memory and an assemble and test option for $10.00. This eliminates a lot of the complexities and delivers a known working product that you simply mount and plug into the power supply. Don't go cheap on the memory. Memory is critical to stable and proper system operation. The only item left is a suitable hard drive. My recommendation is to stay away from Western Digital and go with a Seagate product. $60.00 buys a 160 Gig hard drive which should last for many years. New boards use a SATA (serial small cable) drive configuration. Older boards require an EIDE/IDE (parallel wide ribbon) drive configuration. Floppy drives are no longer used. For an optical drive, I'd recommend a Liteon product. The do everything DH-20A4P drive can be had for under $30.00.

World's Smallest PC 2x2x2.5"

Mouse, Keyboard & Monitor -

The Logitech optical mouse for around $7.00 will work fine as will a standard Keytronic keyboard for between $10.00 and $15.00. Old tube type (CRT) monitors are almost not made anymore. I'd recommend a lower cost Viewsonic LCD monitor for a modest system. I've never had a Viewsonic product go bad and I've owned 5 of their monitors.

Printers & Scanners -

If you are going to use Linux, I'd recommend an HP corporate level printer. A refurbished HP 2200DN class printer with Adobe postscript front end can be had for under $300.00 and that includes shipping. This is major quality at a very good price. For occasional color printing, a low end printer from one of the following manufacturers should be suitable. I would recommend staying away from all cheaper HP color printers. For scanners, you might want to consider an All-In-One type from HP. All of the above use USB or Ethernet to connect to the PC or network.

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PC & Networking Links
January 2008