Computer Cases

Since there is such a wide range let’s look at where you arelooking to place your computer. The traditional tower case is typically placed underneath the desk orbesides the monitor.  Tower casesused to be large and bulky but you are now able to find tower cases that cancomfortably fit besides your LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.  Another option is a desktop/towerunit.  This case comes in a slimform factor and can, usually, be positioned flat on your desk or on their sidetaking up less space than a tower. We have been selling a nice desktop that can easily fit behind and LCD goingback about six inches from the monitor. Again, look around.  Take alook at sites like www.newegg.com andbrowse their cases to get an idea of what you like.

Peripherals - Video, Sound, Etc.

While are great deal of motherboards include built in audioand sound you might need or want to add these on.  There are some, as mentioned earlier, that can include HDMIvideo out or digital audio outputs but you might want to go with a higher end videocard or sound card.  For those whowork with AutoCad you might look to invest in cards that have their owndedicated memory and higher end graphics processing unit made to handle thedemands of Autocad.

There are specialty add on cards that can add extra USBports or allow you to connect to newer eSATA hard drives.  Some video cards allow you to connectup to four monitors to enhance your day trading, programming, video editing orgraphic design needs. 

If you find that you will need this type of expansion Irecommend to go with a tower case versus a desktop case.  Most desktop cases require you to uselow form factor cards.  These cardsare not as widely available as regularly sized expansion PCI and PCI-Expresscards. 

In Conclusion

Hopefully this helps to get you started and gives you someideas and things to think about. The toughest thing is to figure out what you are going to buy.  The actual assembly of the computer isnot that bad.