But who will monitor the monitor?

oh budget. well budget isn't an issue really. but i won't buy something when there's nothing i can use it for (for example, a 6 gigs of ram).

my budget is like.. as high end as possible with value for money in mind.

OK then.

Core i7 920

2x Radeon HD4870 in Crossfire

X58 motherboard

3GB DDR3 RAM

£1177 (600W PSU, DVD Drive, 500GB HDD) custom built at pcspecialist.co.uk

And you can trust the vendor; I've had two computers built by them.

oh i'm going to a computer store near my house. i don't specifically trust online shipping (things get lost, i get hit by some bogus charges, etc.)

i just actually need info on which parts to get coz these guys can detect easily that i know nothing about computer parts, so they're bound to sleaze the hell out of me.

what's i7? is it better than quad core?

Big online sites are about as reputable as your local stores and they have a better selection with regard to choice and they can have better suport. That site was pretty big so im pretty sure you can trust it.

Do not buy a video card right now. Wait for the Radeon 800 and Geforce 300 cards coming out later this year.

i7 is the next thing...each core working 2 processes at same time...or sumthing like that...not sure...it's quad core though..but acts just like 8 core

Two threads per core actually. Not big deal really, even the X360 has two threads per core...

Man, I really dislike building PCs as timing can mean a lot. Stuff like when the Radeon 9800 released, then Nvidia 8800, then Radeon 4850/4870 ment you knew it could kick ass for some time and you were probably getting the best value for money. Also with the Athlon 64 etc.

Planning on buying a PC possibly next year when i7 tech matures, DX11 cards and Windows 7 drops.

Goodluck with your purchase.

so is the gap between regular quad core and i7 that large, and is it practical? (like, does any program even benefit from it right now?)