£700 on a new PC

I'm clueless when it comes to specification on pc's. Well more out of date then clueless.
So if you had £700 to spend on a new pc and monitor. What specs would you want or be able to get for that amount. Also to make sure it can run GW2 when its released.

Bearing in mind, i'd most likely need to go to some place like scan or computer planet.

Thanks in advance for anybody who gives any help with this.

are you capable of buying loose computer parts and than putting them togheter?

Scan, i believe do that for you, you say exactly what you want and they build it.

Although I could do it myself I don't want to take that risk. My previous computers are a testament to me staying away from them. lol

If you were able to build it yourself, you would get a better spec for the same money than if they build it for you.

If you really do not want to build the machine yourself though, I would recommend looking at the prebuilt systems on Overclockers UK

Edit: This system seems quite nice for instance and also leaves plenty of money for a nice screen.

here it is:

Coolermaster centurion 5 32.30 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=156451
intel c2d E8400 113.38 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=736334
20'' digimate LCD monitor 107.15 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=816918
gigabyte EP45 DS4 111.97 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=823723
520w PSU coolermaster realpower 58.62 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=631248
2GBcorsair Twinx DDR2-800 memory 31.30 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=255300
400GB HDD hitachi 35.84 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=836831
OS microsoft windows MCE 69.33 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=487364
LG DVD rewriter 15.26 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=816050
512MB Power Color HD4850 116.31 pounds
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=838506
total price : 704.79 pounds

than ask Scan if they want to build it for you and you got a very decent system.

About the operating system, should i go vista or stick to xp.
I've heard people say vista is crappy.

And thanks all ready for the help.

Word of warning, scan sell dodgy grey market products so i wouldnt trust them with making a PC.

Better take the risk of putting your own PC together than letting scan fill your PC up with sub standard parts.

Well it's depend on what're you going to do with vista. Generally it's alright, like a beefed up version of XP. Still a lot of compatibility issues though, like drivers etc., some old games, emulators won't work on it. Dx10 is alright not as good as it could be yet.

I used Vista for a bit..well to play Crysis then after a bit I just rolled back to XP sp3. Then again I might go back to Vista again, depend.

if you want an alternative:

CPU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...)%20-%20Retail £89.29 inc VAT
motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MB-277-AS £82.24 inc VAT
RAM: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...20(OCZ2G8004GK) £58.74 inc VAT
case: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-101-AN £35.24 inc VAT
PSU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...s%20500W%20PSU £52.86 inc VAT
HDD: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...OEM%20(0A33437) £44.64 inc VAT
optical drive: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...ack)%20-%20OEM £16.44 inc VAT
graphic card: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...)%20-%20Retail £117.49 inc VAT
monitor: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...Glossy%20Black £176.24 inc VAT
OS: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...M%20(66I-01939) £62.26 inc VAT

total: £735.49 inc VAT

a little bit more expensive, but you'll probably get more game out of this one.

Just to prove pre-builts are more expensive:

https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...ml?PC-1149&v=1 £762.58 inc. VAT, but exc. OS.

Novatech are another British company I can heartily recommend, by the way; got my Tt Armor+ from them