Guide: Building a PC for your girlfriend/wife

She is, as I'm sure many significant others of people who read this site are, a self-professed computer geek. More than most, even. She doesn't need any help getting things done in Windows. She's not afraid to change a registry entry or two. She loves video games—PC or console—and wants some fairly beefy hardware. The only problem is, she's not into hardware. She knows what all the important parts are, but she doesn't have an interest in PC components and certainly holds no romantic ideals about building her computer herself. Maybe you can relate?

I built a nice Shuttle small-form-factor PC for her a couple years ago, but it's getting pretty outdated, so now's the time for an upgrade. So I made Glenda a deal. I would take her list of what is important to her in a PC, and select and acquire the parts. Then she would have to build it, and write about her experiences doing so here. This will be a little different than many of our Build-It articles—more personal, less generic—but it may provide a nice template for those of you considering a new PC for your better half.