building a computer is fairly straightforward, but there are so many minor details that you can overlook which can cause a lot of frustration in the end
this site has some of the most accurate, comprehensive, and unbiased reviews of computer products availiable today in my opinion
this message board is a good source for tech support (but you have to sort between the good advice and the bad ones); you have the opportunity to read about people's opinions about a particular product, but opinions can be biased, so you should carefully choose your hardware based only on accurate information (where you can get on this site)
a good computer these days doesn't mean expensive, you can check
Pricewatch.com or
Cnet Shopper for some of the lowest prices on the web, but keep in mind that some vendors can be shady, so you should check on them too at
Bizrate.com or
ResellerRatings.com.
seeing that you are building one for a college student, reliability is the key issue where performance is second. shall we assume, that your daughter is less proficient with computers than you? i myself am an undergrad in engineering with a self-assembled computer
for hardware, you'll probably want to talk to her about what she want's to do with it. you have the option of building a really inexpensive but nice computer by using integrated parts like many large computer manufacturers, or you can spend more money on individual parts to get the best of everything (and watch them depreciate)
you don't really need much for word processing, web browsing, etc., so any cpu and mb combinations should work fine, but you need enough ram for multiple applications to run at once, and i find it really nice to have a fast hard drive (it saves time by a great deal whether you are booting up, opening applications, or saving files)
i also think it would be nice to have a near silent computer, so as to allow a quiet study environment. fans and drives are the only mechanical parts of a computer, so find ones that are good but also quiet. i don't know about the case that you are getting, but you might ask people how good it is in keeping things quiet, plastic covered cases are good at dampening sound
until next time, find out what you really need, and tell us about your plans, and we'll help you along the way