MOTHERBOARD:
MSI P45 NEO-F £76

PROCESSOR:
CORE 2 QUAD Q6600 £130

MEMORY:
OCZ PLATINUM XTC DDR2 800MHZ, 4GB £47

3D CARD:
LEADTEK GEFORCE 8800GTS 512 £152

HARD DRIVE:
2X SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F1 500GB £102

CHASSIS:
COOLERMASTER CM690 £38

PSU:
PC POWER & COOLING 610 £60

This month pcgamer magazine (uk) suggests this gaming build on a budget. How do you rate this build?

Looks pretty good, except for around the same price you can get an ATI 4850 which is significantly faster than the 8800 GTS.

Looks like a decent build. Should run just about everything really well.

Looks very nice, with an HD 4850. Also change the motherboard to Asus P5Q Pro. For 9 pounds more, you get the ability to add a second HD 4850 later. Your PSU and case are already perfect for that.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145751

+1 ^

+1 to aevm

This graphics card?
Sapphire HD 4850 1GB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146870

What I had in mind was something like this one: (HD 4850, £118, 512MB RAM)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145524

The HD 4850 you found there is £150 and has 1GB of RAM. On a 20" or 22" monitor the extra RAM doesn't really do enough to be worth the extra cost, IMO. On a 24" or larger it is worth it.

Then there's the HD 4870, £170, 512MB:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146429

Any of these would be great. The HD 4870 is better, but probably overkill. Here are some numbers:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/for [...] ew-16.html