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There are two areas to think about here, practical and technical. The practical issues are how it looks, (colour, style, finish/shine, side windows and internal lighting) and whether it will fit under your desk. Technical issues include the size, heat and power issues. Economy cases disperse heat through the PSU which can get noisy, better cases have more but quieter fans, more internal space for better air flow and more room for future upgrades.

Processor or CPU manufacturers are constantly trying to beat each other’s products so new faster products are being announced all the time. You need to consider what you want to use the computer for and how long you want to keep it. If you want high performance for gaming and video editing go for the top of the range. For home and office use, choose a mid-range processor type and don’t go for the slowest edition.

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Shortage of memory is the most common reason for a system slowing down. With MS Vista your system will barely stagger along with 512MB. It will work steadily but slowly with 1GB but ideally you should go for 2GB for long life, or 4GB for video editing or heavy gaming, for which you should also go for faster DDR2 800.

All of our video cards support Vista Aero, if your looking to play games you should buy the best card you can on your budget. If it's for general usage a basic card will be fine. For help choosing call us on 0161 660 9150 or email us.

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Choosing a good motherboard is important as the motherboard links all your other components together.

You can click the information icon at the end of the motherboard models to view all the details of the motherboard.

If you have no idea which motherboard to choose view our comparison chart by clicking here.

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The Power Supply Unit (PSU) feeds power to all the components in your system. It also helps to suck air through the case. The power output needs to be enough to drive all the components that you have chosen. 350W may be enough for a basic system, but add a big CPU and graphics card, more drives, etc. and you need a lot more power. Invest in a better PSU for smoother power output, quieter operation and a more reliable system.

For the latest graphics cards the minimum requirements are as follows:

ATI 4870 - OCZ 500W
ATI 4850 X2 - OCZ 600W
ATI 4870 X2 - OCZ 700W
NVIDIA 9800 GTX - OCZ 500W
NVIDIA GTX 260 - OCZ 600W
NVIDIA GTX 280 - OCZ 700W

CrossFire
2 x ATI 4850 X2 - 900W
2 x ATI 4870 X2 - 1000W

SLI
2 x NVIDIA GTX 260 - 850W
2 x NVIDIA GTX 280 - 1000W
3 x NVIDIA GTX 280 - 1200W