There comes a time for most people when they become dissatisfied with their old machine and start hankering for something which will really do the job. That happened to me just recently. Sure, my old machine was OK and had been functioning well for the last few years. But I knew that it was pretty pedestrian compared to the latest machines running at 1GHz or more. I wanted one – and I wanted it now. And I wanted it with all the fancy bits!

The only problem was, the boss didn’t want to pay full whack for all the latest hardware that I wanted. Now Leo can be pretty unimaginative sometimes. He could see that the machine on my desk was still running OK – so why change it?

It only takes a couple of hours to assemble a fully working machine like this.

However, I eventually conned ... er persuaded ... him that we could save some dollars if I did all the work of putting it together and then we could show readers how straightforward it all was. That convinced him. So the approach outlined here shows how to build a high performance machine for the home. That meant it had to have all the multi-media bits such as DVD-ROM drive, a video card with TV output sockets (S-video and video) and a first rate sound card. After all, that’s what most dedicated PC users really lust after, isn’t it.

Afterwards, it would be relatively easy for us to convert our "home" PC to office use by adding a network card and ZIP drive and by swapping the operating system from Windows Me to the much more robust (and expensive) Windows 2000. However, we wanted to initially use Windows Me, since this is the operating system most home users would use and we wanted to prove that it ran OK on our chosen hardware combination.

It’s up to you whether you use exactly the same parts specified for our PC or substitute other brands. You might want to save money by using a lower cost motherboard, for example, or by downgrading the processor and/or hard disk drive. And, of course, a CD-ROM drive is much cheaper than a DVD drive.

You might also want to strip parts out of an existing machine but be careful of this approach. Some older parts, such as hard disk drives, video cards and slow memory, can seriously compromise performance. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from using floppy disk and CD-ROM drives, an existing keyboard and mouse, and an existing soundcard.

A word of advice here – try to buy the main bits, including the motherboard, CPU and hard disk drive, from the same retailer. That way, you can buy an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version of the operating system, as well as an OEM mouse and soundcard, which is a "helluva" lot cheaper than buying the full retail versions.

Check on warranty too but be aware that warranty doesn’t cover accidents – damage any of the parts and it’s your wallet that will suffer.