Hamburg - It's a bit like buying property with just a building frame on it. The dimensions are predetermined, but what kind of heating to use, wood floors or tiles, how the windows should look - that's all left for the customer to decide. Barebones PCs work on the same principle. They contain only the case, power supply and motherboard. Everything else is customer selected.

While the term "Barebones" technically applies to all PCs that do not come with a complete preinstalled set-up, the term has come to take on a different meaning. Tom Seiffert from the hardwaremaker Shuttle near Hamburg notes that the term now refers to PCs with a distinctively small physical profile regardless of whether they come fully configured.

Apart from the small format, the benefit of a real barebones machine is that the buyer can tailor it to their precise needs. That means deciding how much RAM is needed, the size of the hard drive, as well as which processor and graphics card will be included.

Those small dimensions can also mean a lot of tough decisions for users who need to fit components into a smaller space.

"You definitely need to pay attention to which graphics card you're installing," says Jens Appelt from the Hamburg-based Computer Bild magazine. A high-powered graphics card will quickly overheat in an unsuitably small case.

That means gamers and their mighty graphics cards need to choose a suitable case for their barebones rig. "That should be included, though," Appelt says. The power supply also provides information on its gaming-readiness and compatibility with high-performance equipment. This means, among other factors, 300 watts of performance or more.

What ports do I have? Which processor can I install? These are the kinds of questions barebones owners need to ask themselves. Not too many buyers actually bring home an unusable graphics card, though, says Matthias Pracht, operator of the web site BareboneCenter. de. Many hardware makers like Asus and Shuttle provide good compatibility lists on their pages.

There is a different problem related to configuration that occurs even more frequently, however. "Many people put high-powered equipment into their barebones and then wonder why it's so loud," says Pract. Buyers are therefore advised to consider carefully what equipment they really need and whether they can live with less. "The less you have, the less cooling you need," he says.

A simple barebones machine can be put together for less than 100 dollars. Only another 100 dollars is needed for the rest of the components. The resulting machine is typically capable of handling standard PC tasks, including surfing the internet and reading e-mails.

Even so, barebones machines are not necessarily a savings over other PCs, because packaged PCs and laptops made by large manufacturers benefit from the economies of scale that individual buyers can't hope to match. The true benefit of a barebones machine compared with an off-the-shelf laptop or desktop is the flexibility of the system.

"Laptops and desktops cannot typically be upgraded as easily," Pracht says. (dpa)