Hi guys,

So I'm looking at getting a new box sometime soon. Currently I've stuck to laptops pretty much exclusively for about 10 years but face it, I need something beefier than your average laptop and well gaming laptops complete with their £3000 price tag are kind of a no go. I've probably got about £500 to play around with, though I could push that to about £650 possibly even £700 at a major crunch point.

We're talking I am going to need the full works, a fully functional desktop. I've got a 32 inch TV that could be utilized as a screen if needed as it has both HDMI and DVI inputs available to me (though how in the hell I'll manage to pay attention to a screen the size of my TV without getting major neck pain I've not worked out.

Games wise, I'm not too demanding, I have some basic requirements such as running something like a modded version of Minecraft a bit smoother than my current laptop can and I'd like to be able to play some games in higher graphical settings than I've currently experienced but we're not looking at a "killer" box just yet something basic to get me back in.

What suggestions would you make? Buy something pre-built and modify it? Or go from scratch (a project I haven't undertaken in about 15 years now) and try to build something from nothing?