Designing the Perfect PC
A Sign you’ll see in many repair shops says, “Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick any two.” That’s also true of designing a PC. Ever y choice you make involves a trade - off, and balancing those trade - offs is the key to designing a PC that’s perfect for your needs. Each project system chapter has a graphic that looks something like this:
Ah, if it were only true. Reality, of course, is different. One can’t put the highest Priority on everything. Something has to give. As Frederick the Great said of designing military defenses, “He who defends everything defends nothing.” The same is true of designing a PCI f you focus on these elements while designing your PC; you’ll soon realize that compromises are inevitable. If small size is essential, for example, you must make compromises in expandability and you may very well have to compromise in other respects. The trick is to decide, before you start buying components, which elements are essential, which are important, which would be nice to have, and which can be ignored.
Once you have the priority of those elements firmly fixed in your mind, you can make rational resource allocations and good purchasing decisions. It’s worth looking at each of these elements in a bit more detail:
