Hmm, having read this : http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte- ... 0-review/8

It would seem I may need more watts for these new components... if the processor requires 90 watts, the card requires 500w and the mother board requires around 90w I think, does that mean I need 700w PSU? Do I require a modular PSU?

Another £80. It is very expensive this upgrading PC business....and I want a blu ray burner.

New list

Part list permalink: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57vW
Part price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/57vW/by_merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£166.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£80.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card (£136.42 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 700W ATX12V Power Supply (£79.02 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes108-29 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£75.79 @ Insight UK)
Total: £571.19
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-02-26 12:53 GMT+0000)

My friend has told me that he has a virus on his computer and needs to do a reboot. I've asked him to diagnose the problem specifically and will ask if he's run a virus check with MSE in safe mode; while I wait for him to reply is there anything else you can advise me to tell him before we give up and go for a re-install of Windows?

My old PC is acting up for my parents. The display went all distorted with coloured lines and froze (except mouse). I turned it off and left it a bit. Next day it worked for a while then did the same thing and went to a blue screen with white horizontal lines.

I presume that would be the graphics card strawberry floating up?

Thanks for the help chaps.

In the end I went for

Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W Modular PSU - Single 12V Rail with 50A - £79.02 @ebuyer; opted for this in the end if I decide to get more power hungry components in the distant future.
Intel Sandybridge i5-2500K Unlocked Core i5 Quad-Core Processor (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache, Socket 1155) - £160.50 @amazon
XFX ATI Radeon 6950 HD 2GB PCI-Express HDMI - £209.98 @dabs Seems pretty good for what am after, just above my price point which is how it always ends up being seems there may be new graphics cards coming soon, but eh thats always the way I assume.
Gigabyte S1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 ATX - £74.98 @dabs
8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX Blu DDR3 1600MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 - £33.99 @dabs

Total = 479.45

dabs 2% cashback, just missed out on there £25 off on orders over £200 Not sure what to do about storage. I will probs opt for a solidstate drive in the near future for important storage and in the future if I get strapped for bytes I may opt for either a blu ray burner or a TB hard disk drive, see what happens!

Now you can all help me install it all when they arrive

No game is worth going prematurely bald over.

I always find this guide to be quite useful: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

I wouldn't jump straight to a full re-install just yet, unless there really isn't anything on the PC that he wants to keep. You can always try system restore instead and that will put the PC back a few days.

He mentioned that he had to order recoevery CDs from HP but has worn out the product keys at the bottom of his laptop. I recommended the CPP Product Key Finder on CNET in case he needs it.

The thing is, I ran this myself and I checked the results against what they should be. Tiberium Wars and Microsoft Office matched up but the key it showed for Windows is different to the one under my laptop. I used Microsoft Product Key Viewer on CNET to double check this; it gave me the same key as CPP which was different to the one under my laptop.

Should I be worried?

Its not impossible afaik. There are a few apps that will get it back, and Im sure you can dig it out of the registry.

Thanks for the replies. Does this mean that if I completely format my laptop and re-install Windows, I'll have to use the key under my laptop during the installation process?

My friend managed to sort out his problem with a recovery disc but I've been meaning to completely format my laptop at the end of this term so that I remove the pre-installed Dell software. I realise that I should have done this when I first got it

Assmung you ever get one that is.