right since ive been asking for a new pc for a while and i got good GCSE results, my mum has finally agreed to give me £1000 for a new pc, this includes monitor and maybe keyboard/mouse (speakers/headset not needed)

so the question is, should i buy from a supplier or make it myself, my mum isnt so sure on making it myself but its not that hard and iam sure i could convince her, but with companies i could mayber get a decent deal, so iam not sure

main things i want are quad-core, 4GB of RAM and a decent gfx, id love a i7 but with the monitor i dont think i can get it that low
i havnt been reading up on the latest hardware so some help is needed

Personally I'd build it myself. It's not difficult or get someone on the forum to build one for you.
JonLumb is in this sort of business

Someone's going to tell you to get an Intel chip, don't do it! AMD FTW.

Though I might let Saspro talk you into getting an Nvidia card. But only if he gives me one of his old 260s.

Personally I'd still go with an i7.
My AMD chips don't come close for pure processing power.

It depends on the application. I've seen benches where the Phenom II 955 has beaten the i7 920, but then there are others where the i7 has blown all the competition away, including C2Q chips.

Folding on Linux with an i7 @4GHz (5 min OC) is faster than an 8-core opteron system.
Similar in games for me as well (but I need a newer Phenom for comparison)

I'd go as far as to say that the choice of CPU is not as important as the GPU, as there are very few games around that are CPU-limited.

Decide on what screen you're going to get, as the native resolution will have quite an impact on the GPU - a 1920x1080 screen will need a faster card than a 1680x1050 to produce the same image quality.

If you don't want to build one, have a look at Novatech - their systems seem to be pretty good value and their customer service seems to be pretty good.

Id get the following:

Monitor: 22" Samsung SM2233BW Black, Widescreen, 5 ms, 1680x1050, 1000 :1 http://tinyurl.com/luy6wr
Case: Coolermaster Storm Scout Mid Tower Black Case w/o PSU (Gaming) http://tinyurl.com/l8blcz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R http://tinyurl.com/ncm8fh
CPU: Intel i7 920, D0 SLBEJ S1366 http://tinyurl.com/m5py6o
Memory: 6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 (1600MHz) http://tinyurl.com/lclc5c
Graphics card: 896MB Gainward GTX 260 GS 55nm 216 Cores, + 3D/Batman http://tinyurl.com/nefb4o
HDD: 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 http://tinyurl.com/6sgf2t
PSU: 700W Coolermaster Real Power Modular http://tinyurl.com/nrydk7
CD/RW: Samsung 22x DVD±R http://tinyurl.com/kupfan
Mouse: Razer Salmosa 1800dpi Gaming Mouse http://tinyurl.com/mgpgmm
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse II Wired Keyboard BackLit Purple, Red + Blue Keys http://tinyurl.com/mx6dms
and some red cold cathodes to match the case fans. http://tinyurl.com/m35tdj

Total cost £1007
much better than pc world

I take it you already have an operating system?

if he does not he can have windows 7 rc

Which is no longer available for download from MS and will expire early 2010...

yeh iam going to buy windose 7 when it comes out, untill then ill either have a ganders at linux or stick xp on it

that set up looks very nice, apart from the mouse and keyboard, i currently have a habu and g15 and ill takes these over to my new pc, the old pc will get a cheapo bundle unless i can find the original bundle that came with it

GTX275 is a cracking card (I have one!). Get one for around £150 e.g. this and overclock it easily to one of the more expensive models. I have read it can match the GTX285 when overclocked? Get that or a 4890.

Overclockers also have the D0 stepping i7 920 clicky. Says it can hit 975 speeds. Not bad for over £500 less.

I would look at this and the GTX275/4890 as the basis for a new system.

Both my i7's hit 4GHz easily with low temps (it's a crime not to overclock them)

if he takes the keyboard and mouse out like he said he could get a gtx 275