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matter.

Hard drive capacity is fairly standard and entry-level models these days range from between 160GB and 200GB which should be plenty for storing documents and doing the odd bit of internet surfing. If you've bought a new motherboard, chances are, it'll support SATA which is the newest interface for hard drives as well as the older IDE interface. You can future proof your PC to a certain extent by using SATA hard drives.

Some kind of optical writer is a must. These are so cheap these days, it really doesn't make any sense to go for a standard DVD-ROM rather than a DVD writer. You never know when you need to transfer files from one place to another and it's foolish to rely on file transfer or email.

A Gaming PC:

For PC gaming, you'll probably spend the most amount of money on your PC. PC games, especially anything from the First Person Shooter genre, can be very resource intensive and will require a fast CPU

Not only do you require a graphics card with good specifications, but if you're serious about your gaming, you might also want to invest in a decent soundcard (plus speakers, of course) and a good keyboard and mouse setup. On top of this, it might also make sense to consider a decent quality gamepad of some description, though this is purely down to personal preference.

Multimedia PC:

You won't need a top of the range graphics card for this, but it is probably worth spending a little extra on a card that will allow you to output the signal to a television (especially if it's a bigger screen than your monitor) or projector.

A decent CPU will be a factor here as will your choice of soundcard. Ideally you'll want something that supports 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound and while these aren't that expensive these days, a set of decent speakers for this setup will cost a little extra, pushing up the price of your PC.

If you want, you can also buy a TV card. The TV card I have enables me to receive free to air digital TV here in the UK and use my PC as a hard drive recorder. Programmes do take up a fair amount of space, so a big hard drive is required and a DVD writer is a must if I want to archive the recordings for long-term storage.

Graphical Design PC:

A graphical design PC will require three main components: a large monitor, a good quality graphics card (those not necessarily top of the range) and a decent mouse as well as spending the cash on whatever software you will require for this (e.g. Photoshop). You might also want to buy a stylus/pad combination too.

Monitors

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