Building your own PC isn't as difficult as you might think, but it does
require patience and planning. When you're ready to buy everything, you can
save money on shipping by purchasing a good-size chunk of the components from
one place. We did this but we also relied on specialist dealers for some parts.
In particular, we bought many parts for our quiet PC from Compuquiet.com (a
subsidiary of the component seller Directron), which specializes in components
for noiseless PCs. It's definitely worth spending some time shopping around;
the prices of many components (particularly memory and processors) change
daily, so watch for deals.
Photograph: Rick Rizner
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