Building a computer is not as hard as you think. There is some basic information that you need to be aware of and you can do it yourself. There are those who would like to build their own computer so they can save money, by buying the parts they need, for the most basic computer (not that this is necessary true always) but in some cases, it might work.

There are those who would like to build a supercomputer, a special computer with special features and capabilities that they desire, like a special gaming station, with powerful capabilities that will run any and every game or super graphical software there is on the market.

The base of it all, are the parts you choose for your computer. The computer is built on these basic hardware parts:

1. Motherboard
2. Processor (CPU)
3. RAM (Memory)
4. Video Card (Graphic Card)
5. Computer Case (Where it all will fit into – the Computer BOX)
6. Power supply
7. Hard Disk drive
8. Optical drive (CD/DVD Drive).
9. Keyboard
10. Mouse
11. Speakers
12. Sound Card (usually comes onboard the motherboard) but you can choose to have a separate sound card – maybe for advanced audio capabilities

When your intention is to build a cheap simple computer, you just need to select the suitable computer parts, do a survey, and choose simple parts.

When your intention is to build a supercomputer, well choose the best (or by your budget) parts there are there, and you will get a boosted supercomputer. The main parts that affect the performance of a supercomputer are the
Motherboard, CPU (Duo, Quad, i5 or i7 etc…), Large capacity of RAM, and a good Graphic Card, with at least 1GB of RAM on-board it.

Another issue that might really speed up your computer is a really fast Hard-disk drive, which is more expensive, but as we know the READ/WRITE operations are what effects the performance of the operating system and any software/game running on it.

The process of building a computer from scratch is explained well on this video I found on YouTube that shows the whole process of how to build a computer from scratch. Pictures are better than words they say 🙂 (Well the video is even better). The basic idea is, of course, connecting all of the parts and inserting them into the computer case.

• Build a Computer

Dedicated servers are usually being used on hosting farms. The Dedication part means that the server is solely yours, and the definitions you require for it, like bandwidth, security, resources and other configurations that you have requested, will be dedicated to you, so you will always have them available.

This is important when the server has special features that need to be kept at all times, like a constant bandwidth that is always available at a certain capacity, so no bottleneck will be created. This is useful when the server is serving many clients at the same time.

Dedicated servers include redundant solutions for electricity, for databases, SQL server applications and management for them, which warn in case of problems, network issues or server down situations. Such solutions are mostly available for Windows or Linux operating system servers.

The dedicated managed servers are usually 1U Rack servers, (I prefer the DELL server hardware) and they do not include desktop components. They are much secured for websites or SQL databases and you can customize them to any of your requirements.

The dedicated servers are usually blade servers that enable scalable and redundant solutions to be able to guarantee reliability and the ability to grow in case it is required.

Dedicated servers can support Linux distributions like Red-Hat, CentOS, Debian, Fedora or Windows Servers 2006, 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 or Microsoft Exchange server, ColdFusion application servers using management tools like cPanel, Plesk control panel or the DotNetPanel.

You can register your servers on a local hosting farm, or anywhere in the world, at any hosting just make sure you read the terms agreement carefully to make sure you get all of those guarantees and reliability with your dedicated servers.

You will need to define, the bandwidth you need, the hard-disk capacity allocation requirements, the memory (RAM) you require and CPU needs (2 Processors (Duo) or 4 Processors (Quad)) and the kind of dedication server you require – if it’s a Dell server or HP or whatever the hosting offers and you find suitable.

Here are some examples of Dedicated hosting server links:

• http://b2evolution.net/about/linux-dedicated-servers-web-hosting.php

• http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated.shtml

• http://www.webhostingsearch.com/dedicated-server.php

• https://www.webstuff.co.il/home.asp?lang=english&

• http://www.layeredtech.com/

When we want to use one of the U family servers, to host on our communication cabinet (usually not for private use – unless you have placed a communication cabinet at your home  ), you need to consider a couple of variables in order to understand exactly what type of server do you need and for what purpose. How strong the server needs to be (CPU power, Memory), capacity of hard-disks, how resistant should it be? (Does it need a RAID controller? So how many hard-disks do we need?).

The communication cabinets which U servers are being placed into are also called rack-mount. The reason is that the computers are being stacked up one on the other, mounted into the shelves of the communication cabinet creating a rack of servers.

The decision procedures on how to assess the server we need are:

1. The main decision should be what is the purpose of the server?
2. Who will be the designated audience and how many will be using the server at the same time?
3. What types of services are going to run on it, and how strong in terms of processing and memory does it need. (CPU needs – dual core, quad core, 2.4 MHZ etc… and RAM, 4GB, 8GB, 32GB etc…).
4. Total hard-disk capacity needed, expected storage needs according to use. What type of RAID controller does it requires and how many disks are needed – storage capacity.
5. How much do we want to spend on hosting our server on a hosting farm, money wise.

• When we use all of those basic features that define the server, then we can choose what type of server we need, and how large it will be. Each U (height) of the server will usually cost us extra money to host, since each U space is being charged by the hosting farm.

Well, now we know what type of server we need, so all we have to do is decide which server type and model we want that fits our requirements.

We probably will want a brand (A known company manufacturer like DELL, IBM, HP etc…) type of a server. I like the Dell Power-Edge models, but you can choose which server you prefer and compare prices between one to the other, to make your best choice.

Places where you can buy and choose U servers are:

• DELL Power-Edge Servers
• HP Integrity System Family
• HP Integrity Server Blades
• HP ProLiant Servers
• IBM Rack-Mount Servers