As humans, we just have to measure the worth of things using some sort of value. It can be objective or subjective but no matter which metric we choose, it allows us to compare stuff and decide on their worth. In life, we can use our senses, observations and logical reasonings to form these deductions.
However, such subjective methods cannot help much when it comes to computers. For example, if you compare two different processors, how would you know which is faster? By the size of those processors or their cost? Now, how ridiculous would that be? My processor is faster than your processor because it's bigger!
For the best comparisons of PC hardware, we need objective metrics. Even the long-abused MHz and GHz are useful as measures of performance when applied properly. So, this guide will be using a combination of objective metrics in helping you decide on the right parts for your PC. This will be an on-going work and will be updated as necessary.
This guide will take up many pages, so for your convenience, we have taken the liberty of splitting it up into several small sections.