I havnt bought a monitor yet but have several in the house, all flat screens - two with HD capabilities . I already own a copy of windows 7 and all I'm really looking for from the pc is for it to be able to play modern games aswell as a console ( I already own xbox and ps3 ) , word processing for coursework, Internet browsing , and storing / playback of my music
thanks
Well, that makes this a bit more feasible.
Could you list the specific games you want to play at, and at what quality settings? Modern games is a tad generic.
Here's a base system common to either an AMD or Intel build in this price range. This does not include the video card.
G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB $110
Samsung F3 1TB $70
DVD Burner $20
Antec Three Hundred $60
Antec PSU $60
Total for base: 310
And here's parts for either an AMD or Intel build.
Phenom II X4 955 $160
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 $100
Amd build w/o video card: 570
i5-750 $190
Ga-p55-ud3 $140
Intel build w/o video card: 640
Then for video cards, a reference 5770 or a 5850.
5770 160$
5850 310$
So basically, the core system remains the same, and you can choose between the AMD/Intel system and the 5770/5850 depending on the specifics. I would go for the AMD+5850 personally, which totals 880 USD, or ~593 pounds (according to google).