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Computer Hardware
I show you where to get an unbeatable price from trustworthy resellers for the core computer hardware components you need to build your own computer at Build A Computer Like My Super PC - Cost To Build A Computer. Here are additional observations for some of those computer hardware components, plus some considerations for other computer hardware components.
For the most part, each computer hardware component comes with its own secondary parts, such as screws and cables. When building My Super PC, I purchased a second IDE cable to have the hard drive and CDROM/CDRW on separate IDE cables. The hard drive and CDROM/CDRW should not be on the same IDE since doing so will cause them both to run at the speed of the slower device. The CDROM/CDRW is much slower than the hard drive. Placing them on separate IDEs allows them to both run at their maximum speeds. OEM drives, such as the floppy drive, do not come with mounting screws, but these were easy to obtain from Home Depot. And since I also purchased an OEM hard drive, it did not come with mounting screws either. For a complete parts list of every single part that I needed to build my own computer, see my Computer Assembly - How To Assemble A PC, Parts List and Components List page.
Computer Hardware - Printer
This can be quite a subject in itself. It all depends on what you want to do with your printer, such as print pictures, make double-sided copies, generate lots of pages, and so forth. There are many printers that make good, general-purpose home environment printers, including ones made by LexMark, Epson, Canon and Hewlett-Packard (HP). I favor HP myself because there's no questioning the quality and speed of the printer, but also because they are the only company that makes their printers with a low-profile which means it fits quite easily on a shelf. I have the HP 842c and I'm very satisfied with the quality and speed. Great deals on printers happen almost as often as I need to replace my ink cartridges. Considering the high price of individual cartridges and the falling prices of printers, it's often worthwhile to just go ahead and buy a new printer that comes with two ink cartridges as the HP printers do. I wouldn't be surprised to upgrade my printer about once a year. One thing to watch for on really low-end printers is to make sure it holds two ink cartridges at the same time, one for black-and-white and one for color. Otherwise you're stuck having to change from one type of ink cartridge to the other or using the color cartridge to approximate black-and-white, neither of which is a very good option.
Computer Hardware - Keyboard and Mouse
The Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse I use with My Super PC are very nice and I've experienced no dropouts, latency or other problems. They are excellent quality and ergonomically structured. I've read many reviews on them and one reviewer thought the mouse felt heavy with extended use (it contains 2 AAA batteries), but I disagree and I use it heavily for gaming. The batteries in the mouse last me four months to six months, and I use it extensively. The batteries in the keyboard last at least ten months.
