High-end PC – Inside Parts (CPU, Mobo, RAM and VGA)

We’ll start with the inside components and then work our way to the outside of the system.

- CPU Selection

Next up on the list is the graphics card selection and although it would seem like we are favoring nVidia over other companies that is only because nVidia have the best products out for building a high-end gaming PC at the moment.

We have selected the brand new PCI Express based XFX GeForce 8800GTS graphics card with 640MB memory for several reasons. For one, it has DX10 hardware support and that means it is going to last you for some time and you’ll be able to play future games like Crysis and UT2007, in all their glory. Performance is very good and while the price tag is expensive, it’s still about $200 USD cheaper than its bigger brother, the GeForce 8800GTX. If you’re into overclocking, you’ll be able to push the GeForce 8800GTS very far and you should be able to reach near-GTX performance at a lower price.

While we would love a couple of GeForce 8800GTS cards in SLI dual graphics mode but that will end up costing you close to $1000 USD – you can always buy a second card later anyway. Don’t get us wrong though, a single GeForce 8800GTS is going to offer kick-ass performance for your new holiday gaming rig even when you run a high resolution such as 1920 x 1200 and a high level graphics quality and AA and AF settings all turned on.