£500 budget for a new prebuilt desktop

[Jackarias]

Hi
The time has come to upgrade my old computer, and I've got a £500 budget to play with. I'm pretty out of the loop with new components and have been looking around for various deals and can't really make up my mind what to do with it.

I already have all the peripherals + screen.

The things I want from my computer would be gaming, office and movies. Since my old pc sounds like a hoover when its switched on, I'd ideally like my new one to be as close to silent as possible!
I've toyed with the idea of getting a dell but I'm put off by the poor choice of graphics card (unless i doubled My budget for an alienware). I like scans value range, but I don't know which one to pluck for. I'd like an i5, but that would mean sacrificing a graphics card. Would choosing an i3 + graphics card really be the best option long term? I'm not completely against building a computer myself, and I know I'd get better value, it's just it would be my first attempt and I don't really want to mess it up.

Any input or advice would be much appreciated
Cheers
Jack

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Building your own PC will probably be the best option IMO.

Regarding prebuilds,these ones don't look too bad:

http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming...roductId=53180

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...85&subcat=1270

You can do the second one with an HD7770 too. Anything under a GTX650TI or an HD7770 such as a GTX650 or HD7750 I would not get.

You can get Windows 8 for around £25,although you would need to install one of the previews and then the upgrade over it.

Once you get to 20 relevant posts on Hexus,you should be able to get free postage from Scan.

Edit!!

I have come up with some suggestions for a DIY build too. You will need to add £25 for Windows 8 too.



The parts are from Amazon and you can also get Nectar points on Amazon purchases too. The case can take longer graphics card and the PSU is made by Seasonic. The CPU cannot be overclocked and neither can the motherboard be used for overclocking either,but it is full ATX and has SATA3.0 and USB3.0 ports too.

The HD7850 1GB is also pre-overclocked from 860MHZ to 1GHZ.

This HD7850 1GB does have a better warranty though and comes with some games too:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...50-1gd5oc.html

I suspect one of the games is Farcry 3 which you can sell for around £15 on Ebay,but you will need to check.

If you want to get a better graphics card,you can get this CPU and motherboard:

http://www.dabs.com/products/amd-fx6...-95w-8BXH.html

http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...e%20970&src=16

The motherboard can be used for overclocking the CPU at a later date if required with a better cooler,and there should be enough budget to get a GTX660 2GB or HD7870 2GB.

[Jackarias]

That's absolutely amazing, thanks. I'm going to read and digest this properly, and then post again. I'm increasingly drawn to building this myself. I also have a copy of windows 7 that I could probably use to shave off a bit of the budget that can be reinvested elsewhere.

[big_hairy_rob]

abico has this base unit. Seems reasonable, but £500 is not really a lot, especially when you look towards gaming. The main issue is the cost of the graphics card. The one bundled here is not the best, but would probably suffice

http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-Core-...mputer-p-.html