Nothing is more fun for me than planning, purchasing, and assembling all of the components for a custom-built system. I guess that's why I like repairing computers. But most people do not know where to start when it comes to putting together a custom-built computer. So here is the ultimate guide for building your own custom computer.

I have been building and repairing computers since the late '90s and have assembled hundreds of systems. What got me started building custom computers was the fact that I could not upgrade the graphic processor inside the Packard-Bell system I had.

Long story short, I contacted the manufacturer of the graphics processor installed on the motherboard and was told that Packard-Bell had ordered the graphic chip with one of the pins disabled. That way, I would have to go back to Packard-Bell to get an upgraded chip.

I decided to build a computer instead and have been running custom-built computers ever since. In fact, I just recently recycled one of my very first AT cases (it had six (6) 5.25" bays and was over three (3) feet tall). So, without further ado, let's start planning, purchasing, and assembling your custom-built computer.

Note: All links included in this article will open in a separate window.

Planning your computer

If you need to become more familiar with the technical jargon surrounding computer components, this is where you want to start. Understanding the jargon used with computer components is essential to the success of your custom computer build. Let's take a look at the vocabulary surrounding building a custom computer.

Defining confusing computer hardware verbiage

It's an age-old problem: Form vs. function. Do you want a sleek-looking computer that takes up a small amount of space or one that can handle multiple graphic cards and run games with intensive graphics? Let's take a look at some of the things you might want to consider when planning out our custom-built computer,

Things to keep in mind when building a custom-built computer

Sometimes, the simplest things can become problems. For example, using plastic-coated wire twist ties instead of plastic zip ties for cable management or installing case fans with the incorrect air flow direction. These common mistakes can cause problems down the road. Let's take care of them right here and now.

Common problems to avoid when building your own computer

Your computer case is a reflection of you and your style. You can get one with a ton of glass and lights or one that is basic with no bells and whistles. It's entirely up to you. Let's look at some of your options when selecting a computer case.

Tips for choosing the perfect case for your computer

The motherboard is likely the most important component you will choose. With so many options, like the different types of I/O connectors and the number and type of PCIe expansion slots, choosing a motherboard can be daunting. So, let's take a closer look at finding the right motherboard.

Tips for choosing the right motherboard for your custom-built computer

When someone is planning on building a computer for gaming, this is usually the first component they look at. Whether you plan on surfing the web and watching cat videos or are planning a multi-monitor gaming rig, the graphics card you choose is important. So, let's take a deeper dive into graphics cards.

Tips for choosing the right graphics card for your custom-built computer

Keeping your CPU cool is a major priority, as is selecting the right CPU cooler. Should you go with an air-cooled heatsink or a liquid pump and radiator type? Are you planning on overclocking your CPU? Let's examine the options for choosing a CPU cooler.

Tips for choosing the right CPU cooler for your custom-built computer

By now, you should have a good idea of what components you will use to build your computer, so it is time to decide on a power supply. With your choice of case, motherboard, and graphic card(s), you should be able to determine the best power supply for your computer. Let's look at how to determine how much power your computer will require.

How to estimate the power required for your custom-built computer

Purchasing the components

You should now have a list of parts you want to use to build your computer. The trick is to make sure that all of them are compatible. Since you will probably be ordering most, if not all, of the components online, why not check their compatibility online, too? Let's look at some online resources for selecting and purchasing computer components.

How to find compatible computer parts online

Assembling your computer

At this point, you should have all the parts needed to assemble your computer. The following article describes how I typically build a computer. It is long but has plenty of images to guide you through your computer build.

How to build a computer

Have you ever encountered a situation where you are trying to install Windows on your computer, but the installation process does not find any available drives to install the operating system? This can be a frustrating experience, but there are several steps you can take to find a driver and complete the installation process. In this article, we will show you how to locate and install missing storage drivers when performing a clean install of Windows.

If you're installing Windows for the first time (clean), and there are no drives listed to install Windows on, don't worry. This issue is common and can be resolved with a few simple steps. The problem is that Windows does not have a generic driver in its installation media for your storage controller.

This was common in the '90s when you had to load the storage controller driver(s) from a floppy disk by pressing F6 when prompted for a drive to install. That is why they are called F6 drivers. In fact, some of the hardware manufacturers still use the F6 folder name in their storage driver packaging.

Now, when it comes to requiring third-party storage controller drivers to install Windows, it usually occurs with RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) storage controllers. But recently, I have also had to use manufacturer drivers for the SATA (Serial AT Attachment) storage controllers used with 11th-generation Intel processors.

Identify the missing storage drivers: This will require having the manufacturer name and model number of your motherboard or controller card. Please make a note of this information, as it will help you locate the missing drivers in the next step.

Download the missing storage drivers: Once you have identified the missing storage drivers, the next step is to download them. You can download the drivers from the manufacturer's website. Some driver downloads are self-extracting install programs, so just download the driver package.

When you download the drivers, make sure you download the correct drivers for your operating system and system architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). Once you have the driver package downloaded, use an archive program like 7-Zip to extract the storage driver package to a separate folder manually.

Copy the drivers to a USB drive: Next, you must copy the downloaded drivers to a USB drive. Make sure the USB drive is formatted in FAT32 or NTFS format and has enough free space to accommodate the drivers. Create a new folder on the USB drive and name it something like Windows Drivers. Then, copy the downloaded drivers to this folder.

Install the missing storage drivers: Now that you have the missing storage drivers on a USB drive, you can install them during the Windows installation process. Here's how:

1. Boot your computer from your Windows installation media and proceed through the installation process.
2. When you reach the Where do you want to install Windows screen, and no drives are shown, insert the USB drive with the storage drivers and click Browse to locate the drivers.
3. Navigate to the folder on the USB drive where you saved the drivers and select the appropriate driver file.
4. Click OK to install the driver.

Once the driver is installed, you can proceed with the Windows installation without any further issues.

In conclusion, locating and installing missing storage drivers during a Windows installation from a USB drive is a relatively simple process. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can resolve the issue and proceed with the installation smoothly.

Are you running out of free space on the drive in your computer? Or are you thinking about getting a faster drive for it? If so, cloning the drive in your computer might be just the answer, and here is how to do it.

Note: Drive cloning is a procedure that computer technicians perform regularly. If you do not feel comfortable doing any of the following procedures, please contact a local computer service company like Geeks in Phoenix.

When installing a new drive in your computer, you have two (2) options; you can perform a fresh installation of the operating system and all the programs. Or you can clone the current drive to the new one and preserve the installed operating system and programs.

Since many people do not remember how they installed their programs or where the installation media/software keys may be, cloning their existing drive is the best option. The complexity of cloning a drive depends on the type of drive, the form factor, and the current and new drive interface.

There are several types of drives; the most popular are SSD (Solid State Drive), HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive). There are also several different drive interfaces; the most popular are SATA (7 pin connection cable) and M.2 (keyed socket). HDDs and SSHDs use a SATA interface; SSDs can use either SATA or M.2.

There are several different form factors (physical size) of drives; HDDs and SSHDs come in 3.5" and 2.5" (width), SSDs come in 2.5" (width) when using a SATA interface, and 30 to 110 MM (length) when using an M.2 interface. Drives that come in 2.5" form factor can also have different heights (thicker); 9.5 MM is standard, and 7 MM is used in ultra-thin laptops.

If you are upgrading a laptop drive (2.5"), check with the manufacturer on what size is recommended. If you are upgrading an M.2 drive, check with the manufacturer (system/motherboard) on what interface (SATA 3, AHCI, or NVMe), key notch (B, M, or B & M) and length is supported.

Now the first thing you need to do is find out the model number of your current drive. Once you have the model number, you can search on Google and get all of its specifications. You can find the model number in Computer Management.

How to open Computer Management

1. Left-click on the Start menu
2. Scroll down the list of programs and left-click on Windows Administrative Tools
3. Left-click on Computer Management

or

1. Right-click on the Start menu to bring up the Power Users menu
2. Left-click on Computer Management

Once you have the Computer Management console open, left-click on Disk Management and locate the disk that has the partition with the drive letter C:. Right-click the disk number (usually Disk 0) select Properties from the context menu. On the General tab, you will find the drive model number.

Once you have your existing drive specifications, it is time to decide on a replacement drive. Are you going to replace it with one that has the same form factor and interface or not. Your decision will determine how you clone your drive, and there are two (2) ways to do it.

Now it is just a matter of getting another drive with the same data capacity as your existing drive. You can get one with a smaller capacity, but you would have to shrink the partition(s) on the drive before cloning it. You can get one with a larger capacity (recommended), but you may or may not have to manually expand the partition(s) after you are done. Some drive manufacturers (WD, Seagate, and Samsung) cloning software will automatically do that.

There are two (2) different scenarios, upgrading your existing drive to the same form factor and interface or upgrading your existing drive from SATA to M.2. Doing an upgrade that involves just SATA drives is relatively simple; M.2 drives are a bit more complicated.

If you decide to upgrade to an M.2 drive, you will need to find out what type of M.2 drive your motherboard can support before purchasing it. You need to find out the local interface (SATA3, AHCI, or NVMe), width/length, and keying. You will also need the hardware (standoff and screw) to mount it to the motherboard.

SATA drives can be connected to your computer using internal SATA and power cables (desktop) or external USB docking stations / external drive enclosures (desktop or laptop). Since M.2 drives use sockets with PCI-e buses for power and transferring data, they have to be directly connected to the motherboard.

There are M.2 to USB adapters, but they can be expensive and only support specific key notches. For cloning SATA to M.2 or M.2 to M.2, I recommend using the drive-to-image method (see below).

• Drive-to-drive. This is the method you would want to use if you are cloning your existing drive to another drive with the same interface (SATA to SATA).
• Drive-to-image. This is the method you would want to use if you are cloning your existing drive to a different interface (SATA to M.2)

Drive cloning software

A few drive manufacturers have the software you can download to clone your drive, but at least one of the drives (source or destination) has to be one of theirs. And a few of the programs you can use to create bootable media. Here are a few of the drive cloning programs available.

Western Digital - Acronis True Image

Seagate - DiskWizard

Samsung - Data Migration

Ultimate Boot CD (bootable media)

R-Drive Image

Hardware required for drive cloning

• Docking station
• External hard drive
• Flash drive for creating bootable media

Drive-to-drive cloning

This is probably the easiest way to clone a drive. The first thing you have to do is install the cloning software on the computer with the source drive you want to clone. If you decide to use the UBCD, you will need to create the bootable media.

Then connect the destination drive by either attaching using a docking station / external case (laptop or desktop) or shutting down the computer and installing it (desktop).

Once you have both drives attached to the computer, you can boot the system normally or use bootable media and start the drive cloning program. Follow the software instructions and be ready to shut down your computer as soon as the software completes cloning the drive.

You will need to remove or detach the source drive from the computer, as both of the drives will have the same boot signature. If you cloned a SATA drive to another SATA drive, connect the destination drive to the connection that the source drive was on. You should be ready to boot your computer on the new drive.

Drive-to-image cloning

This procedure does require a few more steps to complete, but it does also have more options. One of the advantages of this type of drive cloning is changing your computer's primary drive interface. The disadvantage is you may have to expand/recreate partitions manually.

The first thing you need to do is install the cloning software on your computer and then create bootable media using it. You will need the bootable media to restore the disk image or disk backup to the new drive.

The next thing you will need to do is use that same cloning program to create a drive image / drive backup of your primary (boot) drive to an external hard drive. Once that is complete, safely remove the external hard drive from your computer and shut it down.

Now that your computer is turned off, uninstall the existing drive and install the new drive. Once the new drive is in place, boot your computer using the bootable media you created and proceed to restore the disk image / disk backup to the new drive.

If the new drive is larger than the old one, the cloning software may prompt you to expand the primary partition. If it does, let the software do it. If not, you may have to expand it manually using Disk Management inside of Windows.

Windows creates a hidden recovery partition right behind the primary partition. If the cloning software does not put that hidden partition at the end of the new drive and expand the primary partition, you will have to do it manually.

I use R-Drive Image for drive cloning, and it allows me to restore a complete drive image or individual partitions. When I run into the hidden recovery partition, I usually will restore all of the partitions except for the last one, the hidden recovery partition.

Since the system does not require the hidden recovery partition to operate, I boot it up on the new drive and expand the primary partition using Disk Management to fill up almost all of the remaining free space.

I leave a little more than enough free space to restore the hidden recovery partition. I then boot the computer back up on the R-Drive bootable media and restore the hidden recovery partition into the remaining free space.

For more information on upgrading computer drives. click on the following links.

How to upgrade the hard drive in your computer

How to upgrade your computers hard disk drive to a solid state drive

When it comes to desktop computer repair, one of the most common hardware failures is CD/DVD/BD drives. If you're having problems with getting the disk tray to eject or disks are not being recognized, it may be time to replace it. Here's how to replace a CD/DVD/BD drive in your desktop computer.

So you're tired of trying to get your old desktop CD/DVD/BD drive to work and are ready to replace it with a new one. Having to use a paper clip to manually eject your computer's CD/DVD/BD drive tray can get old quick. Replacing a desktop CD/DVD/BD drive is relatively easy; you have to make sure you get one with the correct connections and dimensions.

Find a new drive

The majority of CD/DVD/BD drives on the market nowadays will have SATA (Serial ATA) connectors for data and power. But there are still quite a few older systems that still use PATA (Parallel ATA) for data and 4 Pin Molex for power. SATA type drives are the de facto standard, so finding PATA replacement drives can be tricky. Newegg and TigerDirect are good places to find these older style drives.

PATA and SATA drive connections

Desktop CD/DVD drives have standard width and height dimensions, so all you have to do is check your existing drive's depth. Sometimes you have room to put a deeper drive in, and sometimes you don't. Always check to see what kind of space you have available before purchasing a replacement drive.

Uninstall the old software

Once you have your new CD/DVD/BD drive, you will need to uninstall the software that came with your old CD/DVD/BD drive. It's usually a version of Nero or PowerDVD, and it is branded to your old drive. Once you remove the old drive, the software that came bundled with it won't work anymore. Your new drive should have come with its own disk burning software.

Install the new drive

From here, we need to turn the computer off, disconnect the power cord from the back of the system, and open up the case. Now there are two possible ways of mounting the CD/DVD/BD drive in the case: screws or quick release rails. You may have to remove the front bezel from the case to access the CD/DVD/BD drive, as it will need to come out the front of the case. Please note the connections and remove the old drive and replace it with the new one.

Drives attached by screws and quick release rails

Install the new software

Once you get the system back together, power it up, and let Windows discover the new CD/DVD/BD drive. Windows may require a restart to finalize the setup. After that, you are ready to install the software that came with the new drive.