My ship has finally come in. With the long-awaited arrival of my RAM board my PC is finally complete and I’m at last enjoying the fruits of my labor. I’m giddily writing this column on a computer that’s so juiced it’s in danger of being random-tested by Bud Selig. Rather than bask in the glow of victory, however, it’s time to sit back and reflect on the lessons learned. I came up with four.

1. Make sure everything’s compatible. You have to choose components that play well together. This is especially important with the RAM and motherboard. Pretend the RAM is you, and the motherboard is your potential mother-in-law. If you forge ahead and buy RAM that literally can’t stand to spend five minutes in the same apartment as your motherboard, all hell could break loose. Do what I did: after you decide on a motherboard, go to Crucial Technology’s website and walk through their .ASP program. It takes 20 seconds, and they’ll show you a list of memory modules that are compatible with your particular motherboard. And you don’t even have to sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

2. Don’t bother looking for a cool case; they don’t exist. All cases are big, clunky, and look like they were designed by construction workers. Don’t talk to me about neon lights. I wasn’t looking for a gimmick; I just wanted a thin, sleek case like the one on my computer at the office. Wasn’t going to happen. As I looked around for a case to buy, they all seemed so huge, like I’d stepped back in time. Then it struck me. The office PC may be small and compact with nice rounded corners, but it’s a micro ATX box and not exactly designed for customization. Who knows if I can add another memory module, a second hard drive, or even a video card? And forget about swapping out the power supply. In fact, I’m afraid to even open the thing for fear of voiding the warranty. The computer I built, on the other hand, has three PCI slots, room for extra hard drives, and even an expansion bay for a Zip drive or anything else that catches my fancy. When I realized that this project was about function over form, suddenly the case made little difference. My case came with a 250W power supply, two USB ports, and cost less than fifty dollars. Perfect.

3. Look for the price break. Because PC components are sold through retail businesses, most components carry a price break that clues you into the best performance-price value. Sure, I wanted the Pentium 3.2GHz chip, but only because it’s pretty close to being state-of-the-art for Intel. “Got the 3.2, dude,” I’d say to anyone who’d care to listen. “Screams.” But I began to have second thoughts after talking with my wife, Sweetie, who is immensely practical, fiscally responsible, and surprisingly effective when threatening me with a waffle iron. I ended up saving a hundred bucks by buying the Pentium 2.4.

4. Listen Carefully — Load the OS, Load the Anti-Virus Software, THEN hook up to the Internet. It’s too painful to recount in detail, but after I’d loaded Windows and a boatload of other software (albeit no anti-virus programs) on my new system, I plugged in my Internet line and within an hour had five viruses on my virgin system: Blaster, Welchia, Backdoor, Gaobot, and Raleka. I don’t know where they came from, because I didn’t open any email attachments and I don’t remember downloading any programs that I considered questionable. But after two days of trying in vain to remove the parasites, I recalled the words of my late great uncle, who painted cars for a living: “Sometime you just gotta take it down to the metal.” So I did. I ran FDISK /MBR and started from scratch. This time, however, I installed an anti-virus package and scanned everything before loading it. It’s been two days now. So far, so good.

I began this project looking for an adventure. In his article “Build Your Own PC,” Mr. Risley assured me that the project would save me money and be a learning experience. He was right on both counts. Now I’m a full-fledged PC hobbyist and proud to be part of the club.

So when do I get my T-shirt?