How about this one then? Seems a reasonable price to me. I don't need a monitor and sound isn't much of an issue for me these days. Not sure about the motherboard as have lost track of what's good and what isn't. I can replace the PSU with my current 600W unit. Can always get another 8800 GTS 320MB later when it starts to date in the gfx department. Any opinions/advice? I have to trawl round all the other providers yet so won't be buying for a while.

£649.00 ex. VAT
£762.58 in. VAT
(before all applicable rebates)
Case: NZXT Trinity Tower 400W Case w/ Side-panel Window (BLACK Color)
CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T
Motherboard: (Quad-Core Supports) ECS P965T-A P965 Chipset LGA775 Supports Core 2 Duo CPU FSB1066 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN, USB2.0, IEEE1394&7.1Audio
Memory: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader)
Video Card: NEW!!! NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
Video Card 2: NONE
Monitor & LCD: NONE
Hard Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives (160GB (80GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: SONY DUAL FORMAT 18X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

p.s. Bugger! Just noticed no OS specified so may have to shell out for Vista too.

Looks like a good choice of bits m8 hdd space is a bit low but I guess you prolly have an external data solution ? http://www.rlsupplies.co.uk/products/pr ... ?id=239197

was in computer shopper £800 all in inc vat came top with 79 fps in Prey not sure if they would let you modify it a bit ie no monitor faster processors but includes 640mb 8800gts

You don't need to buy Vista just yet mate. Let 'em sort out the problems with it first.

Cheers guys. Tbh, I'm not even interested in dx10 yet so Vista can wait. The only reason to get it now would have been that it would have been cheaper bundled in with a new PC. I can't afford this at the moment anyway so I'll hold out for 6 months or so, which will give Vista and DX10 card varieties a while to settle down (not that I think Vista will be sorted in 6 months mind you).

How about a solid state hard drive instead of that RAID set-up?

Naaa. I can't afford such luxuries and will rely on current cheaper technology until the price per GB is more agreeable.

PSU looks a little weedy at only 400W

That PC looks good for my requirements. Cheers mate. Regarding HDD volume, I have 2 x 160GB drives in my current machine which I'd look to swap over. I might email these guys to see if they'd modify slightly.

I gave up on the idea of a new PC. Ordered this instead and will improve other components over time.

Translation: my wife said no so I got a gfx card instead Where's ya trousers Sifty?

What is it he actually ordered? sounds like something he can watch the tv on or something.

I bought one of these bad boys today. The joys of having a laptop so old that the battery is dead.

Haha I wish I could deny that I like to call it comprising. That is, I will buy just this bit now and the other bits very shortly (and quietly).

Actually I ordered it yesterday early morning. It arrived today. After the relatively simple task of swapping a gfx card over (deinstall radeon software, download Nvidia software, remove ATI gfx card, new gfx card won't fit coz chipset heatsink in the way, dismantle whole pc to get motherboard out coz heatsink pins are under motherboard, remove obstructive heatsink, haven't got a spare replacement, bastardise heatsink with pliers to remove cooling fins that were in the way, clean up and apply new thermal grease, reattach mangled heatsink, put pc back together), I find the results very pleasing

It's a graphics card Cal. It costs less than half as much as the current top of the range ones and doesn't lose that much performance compared.

you might be interested in trying out PC Designer, a tool we have just created for system builders like yourself who are building ot upgrading their PC's. It allows you to select all the components for you PC and it will tell you if they are compatible or not (so you wont choose an AMD motherboard with an INTEL processor by accident, etc ...).

It is totally free to use and is the result of a significant community effort.

All we ask is feedback on the tool if you do use it.

Enjoy!