In The April 2006 edition page 74 you contend that building a PC for yourself doesn't save any money compared to the £699 models on test. You then back this up with two elementary errors:

1. You selectively quote extortionate "street" prices, anyone with any "nous" is going to shop over the web.
2. You imagine that everyone plays PC games - I don't - the point of building a PC is not to match some system builder's spec, on the contrary it is to get the balance of features that you want.

However at Ebuyer it was relatively trivial to undercut your £699 target without using the cheapest components on offer even including a £95 graphics card I have no use for when a £25 one would do perfectly well for me and everyone I have ever built a PC for.

I didn't include the cost of XP Home as again it's not something I have any use for. However I do include a modem plus a DVD-Rom drive as well as a DVD writer which is invaluable.

• AMD Athlon 64 3700 CPU Skt 939 San Diego Retail 90949                  £126.82
• AG Neovo F417 17" TFT 12ms 450:1 (1280x1024) Black 52611          £121.99
• Sapphire X800GTO 128mb DDR PCI-E VGA/TVO/DVI-I 99216             £81.69
• Asus A8N-E SKT 939 NFORCE 4 AUDIO LAN PCI-Express ATX 95458 £56.14
• CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN 65719                            £49.36
• Maxtor 6V160E0 160GB SATA300 7200rpm 8MB Cache - OEM 102294 £42.20
• Ebuyer Extra Value All Black Neon Midi Case with 400W PSU 105240   £24.99
• LG GSA-4167BAL 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE (Black) 97237 £22.88
• Labtec Ultra Flat Wireless Desktop keyboard and mouse 88420             £12.83
• LG GDR-8164BL 16x52 DVD-ROM Internal IDE (Black) - OEM 98199   £12.29
• Creative Labs SBS260 Speakers - Powered Set 2.5w RMS  75081        £6.66
• Creative Labs Blaster 56k Internal PCI Modem - OEM 58623                  £6.49
• Newlink AC Power Lead (Kettle Type) Suitable for ATX PSU 20293       £1.19
• Carriage £7.89
• Subtotal £573.42
• VAT £100.42
• Order Total £673.84

Dominic Shields