The goal of this guide is to help potential buyers and system builders plan their next project. Generally, there are a few possible scenarios for building a PC:

Maxing out from the start - this is usually building a PC around a motherboard and "max out" all the possible features leaving no room for upgrading in the future. This usually means topping out the CPU to the fastest bus speed supported, the most ram supported, and usually fill both PCI-e slots if they are available. If only a single graphics card is being purchased, then the motherboard will only have one graphics slot.

Leaving some room to grow - this is when you are selectively leaving room for upgraded ram, CPU, and possibly leaving that second graphics slot empty, just in case. This is the PC that gets upgraded a year later and is usually what most would consider a "budget gamer" PC.

Bare minimum- whatever gets the job done and not a penny more. Bare minimum CPU, RAM, and graphics to get you by. The power supply provides exactly what the PC needs and not a watt more. Not as concerned with leaving room to upgrade so long as the bottom line is as low as possible and the favorite games run better on the new PC than the old one.

With all the new technologies being released and faster video cards coming out monthly, this is really a buyers market. The newer games are starting to really push PCs to the limit and the average gaming PC of today was a super computer just 10 years ago. Take a look at the games you want to play. The minimum requirements are your "hard deck". You cannot fall below this or you will not be happy with your system. Go by the most graphically intense game you "want to play" not necessarily "what you are playing now" or else you will be stuck in a constant upgrade and never truly be satisfied with your PC. Don't let your PC stop you from buying that game next spring. Think ahead.

Having said that, lets start with the heart of the system, the motherboard. Whether you are on a strict budget or are going all out, this is where it all comes together. Take a look at what is hot and what has the features you need, like on-board sound, Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, etc. You know what you need the motherboard to do. My recommendation is to always build around a strong motherboard that you are comfortable with and find something that supports at least 1066MHz front side bus (1333MHz front side bus is preferred). I also recommend a motherboard that supports dual graphics cards, even if you are not going to buy two, in fact, especially if you are not planning to buy two. The reason for this is that in a year, when the video card you have is 1/3 the price is it now and you are finding you need a little more punch for your PC, having that room to add the second graphics card can save you hundreds in upgrades and saves lots of hassle. The stronger your motherboard, the more stable your PC will be. Skimping on the motherboard is the fastest way to a buggy PC there is.

Next up is the CPU and RAM. Now these should be purchased at the same time as the motherboard for support reasons. Not necessarily from the same retailer (though that does help), but within the same time period so that during the build process, if anything arrives defective and needs to be replaced, you are still within your support times for all the parts in question. I group these together since they depend on each other. Using the motherboard as a reference point for which supported CPU's you can choose from and how fast the RAM can be, look at your minimum requirements of your games and go with at least the highest CPU speed required. If you have three games and two only need a 2.0GHz CPU and the third a 2.4GHz, then obviously you won't go below the 2.4GHz. Front side bus is important. I would pick a faster front side bus CPU over one with a higher core clock. Todays CPUs are cheap enough that dual core technology isn't too expensive anymore. Don't go below a dual core CPU, and lately 1066MHz front side bus seems about the baseline. This gives your PC some lifespan. 800MHz front side bus systems are on the way out and considered the low end. While they still perform, these systems are nearing the end of their lifespan and are on the "soon to be upgraded/replaced" list for many users. The RAM speeds must be at least enough to cover the front side bus of the selected CPU but can be over if your budget allows. Lately the DDR2-800 RAM is so cheap, that it's hard not to get it. However the DDR2-667 and even DDR2-533 is enough that you won't be choking the CPU performance. As long as you can feed the front side bus requirements of the CPU you are golden, but in order to really push your dual core to the limits, see if you can work in that DDR2-800 or faster. Go with 2 gigabytes at least, and if you can, go with 2 1 gigabyte sticks over 4 512mb's. Systems from a year ago only needed 1 gigabyte but now with Windows Vista out there, 2 gigabytes is the new minimum. Most motherboards have 4 slots for RAM so only populating 2 initially allows you room to easily double your ram without having extra sticks laying around. Also remember, if you want more than 4 gigabytes of RAM, you must go with a 64-bit operating system. 2 2 gigabyte sticks of ram and a 32-bit operating system is a good middle ground leaving room to expand later, but it is not the cheapest way to go.

Now you got motherboard, CPU, and RAM solved. Time to look at power supply solutions and start thinking ahead to graphics. This is where it gets tricky. Providing too little power to your PC can ruin hardware. If you are thinking games, you are thinking graphics, which means you need power. Some may disagree, but I do not recommend anything less than an 850W power supply. Some lower cost graphics cards out there do not have nearly the power requirements that the big dogs do, but at this point, we want to plan in some overhead to leave room to either expand to a second graphics card a year later, or use two from the start. Read what the power requirements of your graphics card are and budget in at least +100W over the recommended watts for the unit . Go with name brand power supply units and always get the brands that provide lifetime warranties. Keeping in mind the fixed costs of hard drive, optical drive, and a slick case, you should have a strong idea at this point how much your budget allows for graphics. If you cannot meet the minimum graphics requirement for your game and stay in your budget, down rank your ram from DDR2-800 to DDR2-667 for example, or possibly step down a speed in your CPU core first, if that's not possible, drop down from 1333Mhz to 1066MHz frond side bus. If things are still tight, then drop the power supply down to a 720W unit and plan on a smaller hard drive. That should be enough to get you there but do not sacrifice bus speed below 1066MHz or 2 gigabytes of RAM. If you have to, see if going with 4 512mb sticks of slower RAM is enough but don't go below DDR2-533.

All thats left is case, hard drive, optical drive, operating system, and if you can get one or two graphics cards. It's almost $100 for a DVDRW drive, 80-120 gigabyte SATA2 hard drive. Then you can get into a good aluminum case for about $50. So loosely figure about $150 off your budget for those items, but now you have your graphics to pick and OS if needed. Get the strongest card you can support with your power supply. You can get a high end card if you have the budget and power needs met with the 850W, but if you had to down size the power supply to the 720W or have a short budget, you may have to settle for a GT series or XT series card.. If you can get the GTX, XTX, or Ultra series cards you must have the 850W unit. If you have enough to get the second high end graphics card or want room for it later, then you must get the 1000W power supply to handle them. You may not have enough in your budget for one high end card, so look at the highest end GT or XT series card you can get and get just one. Remember nVidia uses SLi with Geforce cards while ATi uses Crossfire with Radeon cards. Be sure to match your graphics cards with the motherboard you picked. You won't have to upgrade to add a graphics card later if you do it right, you planned for it already.