Building a gaming computer is great, but before you can build that dream machine you've got to buy the parts. Buying computer parts is never an easy task: you've got to have a good understanding of the technology you're working with, and an even better understanding of how to make it all work. Of course, we have the top 5 tips to help you when you're buying your gaming computer parts.

Finding the best gaming machine isn't as simple as buying the most expensive package you can find. Sure, sure, it would be nice to buy a Falcon Northwest machine with all of the bells and whistles, but at the end of the day do you really need a Quad-SLI machine to play the games you love? Short answer: no. Long answer: no, and if you spend thousands of dollars on a top of the line machine you're probably wasting your money.

Before you purchase your gaming machine, stop and consider the following:

Selecting a mouse for a computer isn't a very complicated decision; however, a gaming computer may need something special, especially if you're a professional gamer that's sensitive to the various nuances of your setup.

Optical vs Ball

Selecting the right monitor for your gaming computer is vital to your overall gaming experience, but knowing how to choose the right one can be the difference between a terrible experience and a fantastic one.

If you're looking for information on LCD vs CRT monitors, stop looking. With LCD monitors as cheap as they are nowadays, there is no reason to go with a similarly priced CRT monitor (and you'll have a difficult time finding a CRT monitor to purchase).

LCD Problems

Now that you've built the internals of your gaming computer, it's time to take a look at the most obvious external component: the computer case. Buying the right computer case can be an amazingly complicated task, especially if you don't have all of the facts about your system in front of you.

Before you purchase your perfect computer case, you'll need to know some information about your setup:

Most people don't think about how to properly cool their computers, but gamers often learn that the proper cooling system can be the difference between a fried computer and one that will function for a decade. Of course, most gamers don't actually need to build their own cooling system - the stock cooling fans bundled with most products will be enough; however, there are two major reasons to build a cooling system into a computer: overclocking and low noise.

The Network Interface Card (or NIC) was once the exclusive domain of professional technology consultants, geeks, and hardcore gamers. Believe it or not, at one point in time home computers didn't come with an on-board Ethernet connector, since these computers didn't need to think about home networking; but, thanks to the advent of broadband, every home computer has at least one Ethernet port - and some of them are even capable of gigabit speeds!

DVD drives are everywhere these days, and computers are no exception. From DVD to Blu-Ray, computers can host a variety of media readers and writers. Since computer games are generally shipped on a DVD disc (or multiple discs), a DVD drive is an essential piece of equipment for gamers of any budget, but, with a wide variety to choose from, which one should you buy?

Reader or Writer?

The sound card provides exactly what its namesake implies: sound. From regular stereo sound to 8.1 channels of high-quality surround sound, these cards provide you with yet another level of immersion; but, do you really need a sound card?

Why Bother with a Sound Card?

Let's face it: the sound card is slowly being relegated to specialty niche markets. As more and more motherboards start to include sound on-board, the sound cards importance in a computer is slowly being phased out.

Selecting a hard drive for your gaming computer usually isn't a simple case of getting the biggest drive. Let's face it: a gaming machine is all about performance. It doesn't matter is you have several terabytes of disk space when your hard drive is slower than a snail (of course, it doesn't hurt to have terabytes of space).

IDE, SATA, or SCSI?

Almost every modern consumer hard drive will come with a SATA connection. IDE hard drives are a thing of the past, and if you run across one, chances are that its performance will not be up to par with more modern drives.