Help Designing a DB

I am trying to build something similar to www.alienware.com where it lets you build your own computer. I was wondering if some one could help me design sturcture to do it on my own. I am zero in DB and know little asp. I am trying to do it for my own site.
ThanksCan you list all of the things you need to know about?

Make a list...

Modem, Modem speed, Modem Type, CPU, CPU Speed, Memroy, Memory Amount...

Once your list is complete, group like itemas in to containers/Entities

Mak sure when you make a list to collect what type of data it is, number date, char, and it's size..

Make a definition for each as well...this will be helpful...

Then devlop rules...

a computer may hav 0 to many hard drives...

So you may have a computer table and a hard drive...

Now you know you need a ComputerHardrive table to show which Computer has which Harddrive...

what'dya think?

Oh, and google up data modeling...

Once that's done we can discuss Physical implementation...|||How you design the database involves more than just determining what you want to store. You also have to consider performance, usage, functionality, et al.

But a simple layout would be:

Table: CPU
CPUName-varchar(50)
CPUSn-varchar(25)
CPUManu-varchar(50)

Table: Monitor
MonModel-varchar(50)
MonSerial-varchar(25)
MonDesc-varchar(150)

Table: Storage
Type-varchar(50)
Desc-varchar(100)

And so on..

Basically, tables for the different options, a customer table, order table, and a table to hold what the basics are for your clients. Of course, a better way would be tables to hold the various peripherals joined to whatever index (key) system you want and so on.

If you have MS Access, monkey around with it, get the layout you want then upsize it to SQL Server.|||Originally posted by acral
You also have to consider performance, usage, functionality, et al.


Yeah, That's the physical part...

A sound, solid, logical model is THE place to start...