The term bare-bone kit refers to a computer with the most basic of components needed. So what’s included? Usually with most bare-bones computers, like on TigerDirect, you get a case a motherboard, and a processor, usually already installed on the motherboard. Also within the case you will get a nice fan and with the CPU you should get a heat sink so you don’t have to buy any cooling products to start off with. Often you can save some cash buying these kits. You can now buy a good bare-bone kit with a duel-core processor for under $200 and save yourself some cash when building a new computer.
So what else do I need to buy?
Four things,
Memory, hard drive, dvd-rom and a decent video card.
For memory you should look to buy at least a gig of RAM if you are going the Windows route, you can get away with 512mb on a Linux distro like Ubuntu.
Hard drive size is purely up to you. Myself I usually save a bunch of cash and buy a smaller one like 80gb.
It might cost a little more but its worth buying a DVD/CD burner drive. I made the mistake of buying my laptop without a DVD burner and regretted it shortly after, You can a cheap DVD burner from Wal-Mart.
Now the video card is optional because your motherboard may come with a built in video card. Of course you should buy a better card for HD movies and gaming, or if you have Vista for the “Aero Experience” or with Ubuntu the desktop effects.
Of course there are other accessories you can buy like a wireless card, TV tuner, or even a card reader.
If you have any tips on building a computer from a bare-bones kit please leave it as a comment!
