Base Specs:

Intel Q6600 Processor

Gigabyte DS Range Motherboard

2GB DDR 2 Ram

500GB Spinpoint HD (Samsung? any good?)

D/L +/- DVD Writer

Midi ATX Case

E2 Cool PSU

Internal W/L Card

£500

19" HANN Spree Monitor £124

I'll be putting Vista Business on it and using Virtual PC to run a virtual XP and Vista

Sounds good deal to me, opinions please the floor is open

Spinpoint Hdds are good, any thoughts on your GPU Ian ?

don't really think i need one tbh, on board graphics will be plenty for what i want - expansion capability will allow me to add graphics card if I need too

Its easy to catch the game bug , and remember Vista is resource hungry, a Graphics card makes a big difference to your ram usage

it's only hungry on the graphics if you use aero - which is pretty pointless tbh

ok, i'm gonna add an Nvidia 8800GT card anyways

what about sound card - if i want to use the media centre stuff on board sound won't be enough right?

well, it's ordered;

Intel Q6600 Processor

Gigabyte DS3/4 Range Motherboard

2GB DDR 2 Ram - 667 Mhz

500GB Spinpoint HD

D/L +/- DVD Writer

Midi ATX Case

E2 Cool PSU

Vista Home Premium OEM

19" HANN Spree Monitor

Keyboard + Mouse

also - for £18 of a External HD enclosure, they'll sort my External dive into a new enclosure

aero yes but Even Vista Home uses more ram than XP, an 8800 will be a big improvement with todays applications security etc a GPU is a good buy and if you want a good sound card without paying a fortune have a look at Trust > Trust - 7.1 Surround Sound Card SC-7200

Click image to enlarge

on board sound will be fine for now

It all depends with what your happy with

i'll...."be happy, don't worry"