Video memory, video memory, video memory. 128 MB at least, and not on-board. Get a good card that you can pull out and upgrade later. More (256-512) would be better, but it can wait if the cost is prohibitive. 128 MB will run most current games, but newer ones will demand more for good performance. Make sure you can upgrade your video to get the most life out of the system.

And a good 1GB of system RAM (or more) helps too. If cost is an issue, you could get a comp that has less RAM right now but space for more as he starts playing more demanding games.

The processor should be better than 2GHZ. If you can go a lot better than that, you should.

Sound is important but not as critical as video. It doesn’t have to be extreme unless he is a sound geek. I went with on-board sound and then upgraded later to a low-end card - but then I don’t try to listen to music while I’m playing. My husband does though, so I got him a mid-range card and some decent headphones.

If you can afford it, get a comp that will run DirectX 10. It’s well worth it for gamers. I don’t know the requirements, but you should be able to find them on the DirectX site.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under Tech & gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.