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Originally Posted by Mobius
or where I can learn to make one myself I want my comp to be fast,and strong enough to enjoy everything about WoW and Vsoh, so lay it on me folks. Thanks
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Do it yourself, man (edit: I started typing this before Neatton posted - not meant to be a dig against him at all. Still, you'll come away with alot if you do it yourself). If you have a friend that can build one, you might ask him to help you if you get stuck, but it's really not that hard.
This is a pretty good guide. You'll also have us around. Neatton, Pyro, and myself have built more than we can remember, so we've probably seen whatever problems you come up against.
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardw...le.php/3580681
Half the fun is picking parts. I suggest Newegg because they have a great RMA program, but you can find better deals if you look.
You'll need, at mimimum:
A CPU (You'll likely want to look at either Intel's Core Duo or AMD's X2 series.) If the CPU you purchase is listed as OEM, you may need to buy a heatsink and fan as well. Retail boxes will come with one that is likely plenty for you unless you overclock (and if you decide to overclock later - you can buy an aftermarket fan at that time)
A motherboard. It has to support the socket type for the CPU you choose, so pick the CPU first then go from there. Since you expressed interest in 4 gb of ram, make sure it can support 4 gb of ram. If you want to do SLI or XFIRE, be sure the board supports what you want. If nothing else, make sure it has at least one PCI-express x16 slot (and it probably will)
A case. It seems like a no-brainer, but I've seen people forget. A cheap case will do you, but the more expensive ones have nice features like the ability to add and remove drives without tools and storage for extra PSU cables. They're also stronger. You'll find both ATX and BTX cases. Make sure that form matches your motherboard. Get a full-size one since you're wanting to make a monster.
A power supply unit (PSU). Don't skimp here. A good power supply is kind of the lynchpin in your system. If you put a cheap one in (like the ones that often come with cases), it could fail and take half of your components with it. If you get a good name brand, like Seasonic, Silverstone, FSP, or OCZ, you should be good to go. 500 watts is usually overkill for most systems, but since you want a monster...
An optical drive. Not much to say here, really. DVD R/W drives are so cheap these days, but you can just rip whatever was in your Gateway out and use it as well.
Floppy drives really aren't required for anything anymore, but it's handy to have one. Just rip the one out of your Gateway.
At least one hard drive. 15000 RPM is as fast as they come for consumers. The larger the cache it has, the better still. You can usually get away with buying a smaller 15000 RPM drive to install your games and, and a much larger, slower drive, to store pictures, movies, etc. If the drives are SATA (and they almost certainly will be), then you don't have to worry about master-slave relationships. If you get more than one drive, make sure your motherboard has enough SATA ports.
A graphics card. So many options. Nvidia's 7950 if generally considered the fastest card available right now. The X1900XT is very nearly it's equal for less cost, though. I would not recommend the X1900XTX though - it's $100 for almost no gain.
A sound card. You don't really NEED a soundcard, since most motherboards have on-board sound, but having a soundcard can take some of the load off of your processor.
RAM. Windows XP doesn't support more than 4 gbs, so there's no reason to go more than that currently (if there's even a reason to have that much right now). If your motherboard supports 2gb sticks, you might just want to go that route since you can also stick another one in there later.
An OS. I assume you'll want Windows XP since it's a gaming computer. You can get the OEM version for cheap, but it's only good on the motherboard you install it on. If you ever change motherboards, you'll need a new copy.
Geez. I type too much.