Where do I start if I want to buy a custom gaming computer?

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JLG

I'm looking to buy a gaming computer for less than $600 and I talked with several of my friends and they said building a custom one is the cheapest option. This is the first time I've ever bought my own PC, so I have no experience with it and I have no idea where to start. What do I do or where should I look first?

Answer
First thing you'll need to do is look at your budget and gaming needs. If you're looking to play the newest crop of games, you're looking at close to $900 for a decent quad core processor and video card capable of playing games in 1080p. You can game for $600, but you'll have to make a few compromises.

Here are a couple of websites I recommend:
How to build a PC: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/build_perfect_pc_stepbystep_illustrated_howto_guide
Best gaming PC components for the $: http://www.hardware-revolution.com/budget-gaming-pc-q4-2010/

What would be a good video card choice to build a starter gaming computer?

Genisha

Im using a Dell Amd athlon(tm) 64 Dual Core Processor 3600+ 1.90 Ghz and it holds 297GBs im trying to turn this into a gaming computer. its pretty decent so far but i know the video card is what makes the game so good i run games just fine. im tired having to keep my resolutions low just to play them though. Everyone tells me to build a gaming computer instead of buy one. My computer im practicing on is a hp compaq dc7900 small form factor with intel core 2 duo processor Intel GMA 4500 DirectX 10 graphics so my games look and play better slightly better but still in low resolution but i only get 72 GBs and the games are harder to download and set up so what are some good decent priced video cards for these computers

Answer
Hi Genisha,

While choosing a video card, you need to keep three things in mind:

1. Connector availability on the motherboard to install the video card. The latest and prevalent video card connector is PCI Express x16.
2. Chassis form factor. This will decide if you would need a Full-Height card or a Low Profile card.
3. Power Supply. Ensure that the power supply meets the minimum requirements of the video card.

Keeping these three things in mind, you may choose a video card for your systems. Post the Dell system model to know which card have been tested with that.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
GauravS

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