Gateway Parts

TECHS??Building a computer son for online games, and general use. What "parts" do I need to look for?

I want to build a computer for my son for xmas for his room. He has a puter in his room but it is so old that it wont even run some of the cheap games he bought at walmart!! It is over 15 years old. I need you to give me a list of "parts" to have this built. Now, my brother just closed a computer store in February and all of his stock is in my mothers basement. I cant ask my brother because he is "unavailable" for the next couple of years. (I'll leave that at that!!) But, I have the opportunity to buy what i need at his wholesale cost before it is all sold. Tell me what I need from power supply, graphic cards, memory sticks, processors, fan motors, hard drive, video card, pci card,etc, and software that will build my son a good up to date computer. He is 12 years old and plays alot of games online like maple story and general game sites plus for his homework. The list i just stated was some of the stuff I saw in his stock. But I don't know the "specs" or "speed" of what I need to look for on these parts. "PLEASE" help me as I know I can save alot of money buying this stuff.

Public Comments

1. You need a case first. Get one that has good heat dissipation characteristics - copper/aluminium is good. Make sure it'll take an ATX-sized motherboard. Then you'll need a power supply. 400W may be a little over the top, but it should be reasonably future-proof. Next, a motherboard. It should fit the case - go for ATX as I mentioned above. Get one with plenty of slots for memory and with plenty of USB ports. It should have SATA-300 disk support, and if it has good quality sound, that's good. And Gigabit LAN is good too. Read the description carefully since it'll tell you which processor you'll need, and what kind of memory is compatible. So next the processor (one that's compatible with the motherboard) and as much RAM as you can get into the slots. Next you'll need a hard disk or two. The advantage of two separate drives is that transfer from two separate disks is faster than from two places on the same disk. Get them good & big - 1TB if you can. A DVD-writer is next - dual-layer is good, and Lightscribe is nice too. Finally the graphics card: get one with as much memory as possible. Remember these things are pigs for power-consumption and generate enormous amounts of heat. So you'll probably want some fans too. In general, go for components that advertise "low-noise", and that have some sort of temperature control. For example, case fans that only come on when the temperature goes up, but are off by default, are very nice. Maybe you'll also want a nice 19" screen, and a wireless keyboard and mouse. I think I've thought of everything.
2. case: you will want one that is ATX size, you can get one that looks pretty cool too, if there are any NZXT case look at those (they make nice cases and often have screwless installation for some things which helps when building) processor: intel core 2 Duo' are really good try to get one above 2.5GHz these are great cpu's cooling: i doubt you will do overclocking so you can stick with the stock cooler which comes with the retail version of the cpu power supply: you will want one that supports your needs and has a little bit more 500W should do video card: the newer ones are usually the best (dont just look at memory) you will want one at least from the nvidia 8800 series (look for the 8800 GS it is a good deal) that should max out your sons games with a great framerate. motherboard: you must make sure it supports your cpu and you'll probably want one with ddr2 memory. You will also need a pci-e 2.o slot on it. RAM: 2GB of 800mhz should be fine (make sure your motherboard supports 800MHz RAM) hard drive: depends on how much you'll use (500GB should be fine) optical drive: get a dual layer if you can The rest of the components are peripherials (monitor, keyboard, speakers, mouse) good luck