Must-have components

[Agent]

Don't just rely on 'touching the case with the mains plug in and the power switched off ' --'witch brew methods ' .

Ermm... 'witch brew'?... Its basic electronics mate!

[DecomposingStar]

I doubt you'll ever need to flash a BIOS... I haven't even ever needed to yet...

I built my whole system without any form or acknowledgement of anti-staticing myself... It works, but I would NEVER do it again... Just in case.

[Clunk]

I doubt you'll ever need to flash a BIOS... I haven't even ever needed to yet...

Try buying something like a P5B that comes with a 6 month old bios and try and set up your system on that with some 2.2v ram and an E4300 cpu.

You will then need to update the bios.

Lets say that you buy the latest type of graphics cards, you plug it in and it doesnt work properly, until.........yes, you update the bios.

It is always worth updating the bios when you do a new build, to the latest version, it can save you problems later on.

[jackvdbuk]

clunk, i agree but would you suggest updating the BIOS even if you dont have a [roblem? evrything is just peachy? shoudl you still update?

[vinnyT]

I'd add an external hard drive and accronis true image, to make a regular image of your whole pc in case things go pear shaped. This is better than a restore disk provided by whoever made your pc, as it will be more up to date.

[DecomposingStar]

Try buying something like a P5B that comes with a 6 month old bios and try and set up your system on that with some 2.2v ram and an E4300 cpu.

You will then need to update the bios.

Lets say that you buy the latest type of graphics cards, you plug it in and it doesnt work properly, until.........yes, you update the bios.

It is always worth updating the bios when you do a new build, to the latest version, it can save you problems later on.

My MoBo has "liveupdate" so it does it anyway but what i'm saying is; i highly doubt she'll need to flash her BIOS. But for the sake of a £10 USB stick (which is where this discussion came about) get one just in case.

I'd add an external hard drive and accronis true image, to make a regular image of your whole pc in case things go pear shaped. This is better than a restore disk provided by whoever made your pc, as it will be more up to date.

Only worth it if you're going to be keeping files on your computer that are seriously worth keeping... If you're trying to keep costs down, partition your HDD and place a backup on there(locked, of course).

[Clunk]

My MoBo has "liveupdate" so it does it anyway

Not if it cant boot to windows in the first place

[DratUK]

If movies and graphics are a main use I would spend some time reasearching what type of monitor would suit best.
22 inch plus would be a wise choice. If the budget will stretch then 24 inch widescreen is the best for movies and graphics work.
Examplae Dell UltraSharp
Samsung

[DecomposingStar]

Not if it cant boot to windows in the first place

CMOS jumper.

[Clunk]

CMOS jumper.

Xmas Bourbles.

[DecomposingStar]

Say what now?