Which of these PCs should I choose?

That one I suggested is ivybridge anyway. The 1600mhz ram may be faster in certain circumstances - gaming and memory intensive tasks like video etc. Standard cooling is fine, upgrades either give you headroom for over clocking (mine run at 4.2GHz) or can be quieter.

If I priced up all the parts, I doubt it would be much cheaper to build a machine, I do it simply because I enjoy it and overclocking things amuses me.

The biggest performance boost over the base spec I suggested is the SSD - 60gb is enough to put windows and your favourite apps on.

Looking through the specs I think I will go for the slightly faster Intel i5 at 3.3GHz as it's only an extra £15. The motherboard specs say it supports 1333MHz RAM so the 1600MHz Corsair won't be supported or have I read that wrong?

Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, that PC is better than I thought I would be able to get at this price.

If the motherboard does support the Corsair RAM then I will also include that as it will be used for gaming as well as everything else.

£450 is a bit over budget but I'm sure I can save some extra money by not spending it on other things.

Looking at the motherboard that they spec, it supports a maximum of 2 sticks of 1333 -so 8gb of 1333 is the best that you can fit. Will be plenty fast enough.

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

The Ivybridge chips are out, and fit in the same sockets as the previous Sandybridge chips

The main advantage of Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge is the improved integrated graphics. If you're using a separate graphics card, then there's no point in paying more for Ivy Bridge.

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

The Ivybridge chips are out, and fit in the same sockets as the previous Sandybridge chips

Thanks. I haven't had a desktop PC in over a decade so I don't know this stuff any more.

I'm going to be buying the PC tonight. These are the specs I have chosen, not much different from standard.

H61 Chipset Motherboard
Intel i5 3550 @ 3.30GHz
8Gb DDR3
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
500Gb S-ATAIII @ 3.0Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GT610 1Gb
Xigmatek Asgard

Total £456

Will be upgrading the Graphics Card in the future to possibly a GTX550 Ti 1Gb or Radeon HD7770

Does this seem decent for the price?

The Motherboard supports up to 16Gb DDR3, not sure if Windows 7 Home Premium will support that though.

16Gb needs 2x8 which are fairly new and only just starting to be cost effective. 64bit windows will support 16GB on the home premium product. Though to be fair, Mine never uses the 12Gb it has to play with anyway.

Looks good, enjoy a nice fast PC with a clean build of Windows on it. Don't forget to do a system image backup wehn you get it so that you can put it back to fresh later with no effort.

I suggest you use Microsoft Security Essentials as a good, free anti-virus package.

Really quick question. I saw a gaming PC advertised on the side of the DinoPC website. However after customising it, I seem to have a better PC or pretty much the same money. Below are the specs.

ASUS P8Z77-V LX (Z77 Chipset)
Intel i5 3550 @ 3.30GHz
8GB DDR3
500GB S-ATAIII
NVIDIA GeForce GT610 1GB
Xigmatek 500W PSU
Xigmatek Asgard Case
Also comes with a 3 year Platinum warranty.

Now for £3 more I can have the Z77 chipset motherboard which according to their buyers guide is a better, more customisable motherboard and a 3 year Platinum warranty instead of the Bronze warranty.

Before I purchase, which or these should I go for? Just doesn't seem right having a better motherboard for the same money.

Link - http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW...77-93p1307.htm

I went and built the PC with the same specs as I listed above and it comes to £500 so this must be a special offer.

Thanks

Sounds good that, the mobo that is in that package is full size, so more expansion possibilities including 2 spare ram slots.

These magic configurator type sites always have hidden deals and loopholes

Well I bought it last night. Postage was an extra £25 so my original budget was £400. That was soon broken but I was expecting to end up paying more as I can't help myself.