Parts of Computers! Like half of you have already built a computer Help everybody else understand Motherboard / Mainboard: More and more stuff is soldered on Single-board computer: Just solder everything on! Probably most important choice: Chipset It'll dictate what CPUs work, what communication standards, etc Connectors: These mostly just expose features of the chipset Video: Often integrated into the CPU and Chipset "Peripherals": Network card, USB controller, RAID controller, marginal sound card Sometimes stuff is integrated into the chipset instead North vs. South Bridge: Mostly historical at this point CPU: We know a lot about these already Should live under a heatsink Memory: Main memory here, RAM Dictated mostly by the motherboard, but you could buy a lot or a little Supported frequency varies Video Card: I'll try not to talk about these forever Power supply: If building a computer, buy quality. Won't go obsolete as fast as the other stuff Case: Strictly speaking optional. Protects against cats Long-term storage: NAND flash, or maybe spinning Other stuff: Do you want a CD-ROM drive? Usually these attach to the SATA controller Memory card reader? Usually these just attach to a USB header Better sound card? A USB or optical DAC might make more sense.