I've been on every site I can think of, including Novatech. There's always something not quite right about the pre-builts I've looked at (usually the price).

2 to 3 hours sounds alright.

I can't help fearing that something will go wrong, though. I suppose I'll still have this PC to access help online with if I hit a snag.

Btw, do all retail CPUs come with a fan/heatsink/pre-applied thermal compound? I don't fancy messing about with tubes of gunk.

Yeah, I'll be here.

I've already swapped a couple of components. I've decided to go for an i5 2500k, which is only another £14 extra. I won't be able to overclock it so much with a H61 motherboard, but the extra 400MHz over the 2310 seems worth the £.

I've also ditched the Coolermaster PSU, and opted for a modular Antec unit. Hopefully it'll be easier to work with. The case and (non-modular)PSU I have atm are horrible to work with. Too many cables, not enough space. I want to get all the right components this time. The price has crept up, though, and it's making me sweat a bit.

I finally did order the components, but I made a few last minute changes.

**Coolermaster Elite 335 Midi Tower Case w/o PSU

550W PSU, Antec TruePower New TP-550, Modular, Quad 12V Rails

Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2-B3, Intel H61, S 1155, DDR3, SATA II - 3Gb/s, PCIe 2.0 (x16), VGA On Board, Micro ATX

Intel Core i5 2500, S 1155, Sandy Bridge, Quad Core 3.30GHz, 6MB Smart Cache, 33x Ratio, 95W, Retail

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

1GB Point of View GTX 460 TGT Charged, 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 780MHz, Shader 1560MHz, 336 Cores

500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9ms, NCQ

Samsung SH-S222AB/RSMS, 22x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x12 RAM, SATA, Retail

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit SP1, Operating System, Single, - OEM**

I've opted for a (much less expensive) pre-overclocked GTX 460. I still don't really trust ATI/AMD cards after my Radeon 9600XT driver experiences. Went for the plain i5 2500.

buteman. The above components cost £540, plus £8 delivery, plus £8 insurance against accidental damage. At one point the total was nudging £600, and I cut back a bit.

A lot of the pre-builts I've checked out have a weak spot in their component line-up (eg A £10 PSU in a £500 PC), and I've seen loads of supposed gaming PCs advertised that are next to useless for gaming. Also, I've blustered on at friends/family for years about how I'm going to build a PC, and it's about time I got on with it.

I've checked out each component for suitability. The motherboard is basic, but has everything I need, apart from maybe a couple of front mounted USB ports, which I can add cheaply enough later on if I want. I don't need a massive hard drive. My main priorities were a good CPU that'll hopefully last me a long time (the CPU and motherboard I'm using now have been in use for nine years), plenty of RAM (which is very cheap atm) so I never have to buy any more for it, and a good quality PSU which will be up to the job of powering the inevitable graphics card upgrade in a couple of years time. It's actually been fun picking out these components!

Probably the longest post I've ever made on here..........

I know I already ticked the topic, but......... I assembled the PC today, and it's up and running with everything essential installed. Only had one problem with it. The case fan was far too loud, so I unplugged it. Almost silent now.