When testing the latest and greatest computer hardware on a regular basis, it is easy to lose track of what is realistic in terms of price. For example, right now we have a GeForce 8800 GTX on the test bed with two more cards in line, followed by a GeForce 8800 Ultra and a Radeon HD 2900XT. The cheapest of these graphics cards is the Radeon HD 2900XT costing around $400 US, while the 8800 Ultra costs significantly more. These are the type of graphics cards we often find ourselves reviewing, as they are more exciting than the more realistic mid-range solutions.

Unfortunately due to the extreme prices graphics card manufacturers continue to set for their high-end products, most of us cannot afford them. In fact it is not until they are out dated and have dropped considerably in value that most of us can afford them. Therefore the majority of gaming systems out there comprise of graphics cards priced at $200 US or less, and unfortunately these cheaper graphics cards also have a shorter lifespan. Nevertheless, today graphics cards such as the GeForce 7900GS and Radeon X1950 Pro offer gamers an excellent level of performance for a bargain basement price.

While the graphics card is a vital component of any gaming system, the processor or CPU as it is commonly known is just as important. Thankfully due to added pressure from AMD over the years, it is now possible to purchase an extremely powerful processor for next to nothing. Take the Core 2 Duo E4000 series for example, these 2MB L2 cache processors pack a serious punch and only cost a little over $100 US, which is amazing! Furthermore good quality motherboards are also quite cheap these days, offering a great deal of features, performance and overclocking headroom.

The motherboard is not only a vital component for a gaming system but for any computer, and these days users are spoilt with so many good quality options available at $100 US or less. Helping to make budget computers even more powerful are dirt cheap hard drives and memory modules. Gone are the days when it was necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on these components, with 80GB hard drives now costing as little as $40 US! However, spend twice this amount and you can be looking at a 400GB hard drive, which would have been mind-blowing to consider just a few years ago.

Along with hard drives, memory modules have also been driven down in price, particularly DDR2 modules. These days it is necessary to have at least 2GB of system memory for gaming, but this is not really an issue given 1GB modules can cost as little as $35 US each. Even optical drives and LCD monitors have been driven down in price over the past few years, which is nothing but good news for the consumer. That said, we believe it is now possible to build a high performance gaming system for low-end system money. Therefore we have set a budget of just $900 US to build a fully functioning gaming system, capable of taking on the latest games. This system will also feature an LCD monitor along with a keyboard and mouse for this price!