Designing Your Own Desktop Gaming PC

Few things in life are as satisfying as creating something that you will admire and use everyday. Whether you like to cook, draw, build things, write, or compose, there is a certain satisfaction when your project is completed, and you begin using your new creation.

Applying creativeness to your next computer system purchase can also be very satisfying and rewarding. As a matter of fact, it is fairly easy for you to design every detail of your next custom desktop PC, as you don't have to be an experienced computer builder to do it.

You are probably wondering how building a desktop PC can be easy and not require experience. While building a custom desktop PC does require experience, designing a desktop PC for an experienced manufacturer to build is relatively uncomplicated.

Wouldn't it be fun to pick out all the parts for your computer, including the case and the motherboard, and then let experts assemble and test your new system? Do you want a fast, unique looking PC, that you can be proud of?
If you've answered yes to these questions, then designing your own desktop PC is the thing to do.

Getting Started

Thankfully you don't have to visit 20 web sites to find the information you need to start designing your next system. Find a computer web site with a design tool called a "configurator" that let's you choose each computer part you want to add to your computer.

To start designing your own custom gaming PC, you need to make a few basic decisions. The first decision you have to make is whether you want an Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor system. Basically, both processors have good performance, and there is no clear advantage in choosing either processor to design a system around.

Once you have decided on a CPU, it's time to go into the system configurator and pick out a motherboard, computer case, and system RAM. A neat feature of MG Electronics' site is that you can get specific information on any of the parts by clicking on the details link to the right of the drop down parts list.

Personally, I would choose ASUS motherboards, 1 GB of PC 3200 DDR RAM, and the ENERMAX, CSX305LS, Black Tower Case, w/ Window, with 350W power supply for both systems.

Pricing out the above items yields the following summaries:

ORDERED PRODUCT(S) UNIT PRICE QTY TOTAL

INTEL, Pentium 4 or Celeron - DDR-400 (PC-3200) Memory and 800FSB Configurator $841.85
ASUS, P4C800, Intel 875P, 800 FSB, RAID, DDR-400, 8X AGP, Audio, Gigabit LAN, Serial ATA, Retail
INTEL, Pentium 4 3.20 GHz, 512k, 800FSB, Hyper-Threading, Retail
COOLER MASTER, Socket A Coppermine Cooling Fan
DDR-400, DDR-400, Qty 2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDR, 400MHz, Non-ECC (1Gb Total)
ENERMAX, CSX305LS, Silver Tower Case, w/ Window, 350W P.S.

ORDERED PRODUCT(S) UNIT PRICE QTY TOTAL

AMD, Athlon 64 - DDR-400 (PC-3200) Motherboard Kit $841.48
ASUS, K8V-DELUXE, KT-800, RAID, DDR-400, 8X AGP, Audio, Gigabit LAN, SATA, Retail
AMD, Athlon 64 Processor 3200+
COOLER MASTER, Athlon 64 Coppermine Cooling Fan
DDR-400, DDR-400, Qty 2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDR, 400MHz, Non-ECC (1Gb Total)
ENERMAX, CSX305LS, Black Tower Case, w/ Window, 350W PS

So basically there is no difference in price between a barebones Pentium 4 3.2 GHz system at $841.85 and an Athlon 64 3200+ system at $841.48.

Next Completing Your System >>

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