mcp6453 wrote:

While I know quite a bit about computers, I am certainly not up to
speed on video cards. Others have recommended that my son get an
8800GT or GTS for a Christmas present. The recommended seller seems
to be newegg.com.

Newegg is very popular and have good prices, common recomendation.
8800GT is the new 'miraclecard', its a midrange card but with very high
performance. Those cards are PCIe 2.0 and DX10 so will last a while. When it
coems to 8800GTS you should know that there are two very different cards
with that name, one is beeing phased out and is based on slightly older tech
and are trimemd down versions of the old king of the hill 8800GTX, the otehr
variant (and the much prefereed one) is the new 8800GTS based on the G92
core (it can be said to be a trimmed up version of the GT with the enw core,
PCIe 2.0 etc). The way to tell them apart is by the memory on the cards. The
old ones will ahve 320/640MB while the new ones (if not marked as G92) will
have 256/512MB ram. The problem with the GT/G92 GTS is that they are very
new and hot and supplies are VERY short right now.

The computer is an Intel DG33TL. It supports PCI-E. What is the
difference between PCI-E 1, PCI-E 16, and PCI-E 2.0? Are there any
differences as far as the motherboard concerned? Will a PCI-E 2.0 work
in any PCI-E slot?

As explained earlier it doesn't realy make a difference, 2.0 is fully
backwards compatible with 1.0 and there are very few gfx cards and even
fewer motherboards around that actually is PCIe 2.0 yet. As sais earlier,
the x factor of a PCIe slot is how many lanes it uses for communication,
each extra lane adding a set amount of extra bandwidth. PCI 2.0 is supposed
to double that bandwidth.

How do I know what brand of card to buy? XFX? EVGA? ASUS?

AFAIK most cards are made in teh same factory and then each brand just add
their own logos, extras etc so they should be fairly similar, go with the
best package and price. (Asus are known for all around good quality and
packages, XFX/BFG for tested and overclocked cards etc... If you're unsure
just google for the model name and review and read up ona card befroe
deciding.

Best Wishes
Thomas