For now, the i5 2500K is definitely the sweet spot for bang:buck - though the i7 2600 is definitely faster, is it £70 faster? I'd be putting that £70 into upgrading the VGA card or maybe a nice
60GB SSD boot drive.
If you're adamant that you don't want to buy bits and build it yourself you might find yourself hamstrung by manufacturers adding bits you don't need (speakers, keyboard, mouse etc) instead of getting you the best core hardware for your money.
Usually these days I tell people to get pre-built hardware / laptops from the
Dell Outlet but their gaming machines don't really seem to be anything worthwhile (unless you go uber flash and get an (in my opinion overpriced)
alienware model. To get a comparative setup to the OverclockersUK machine I'm about to mention costs almost £1400 from Dell! The outlet doesn't have any of the Aurora R3 at the moment, they update stock at 3.15pm every weekday so it might be worth keeping your eye on it - the savings can be daft!
I've gone for a minimum spec of the following bits:
Intel i2500K
4GB RAM (Don't pay through the nose for an 8GB upgrade from the supplier, prices for memory are
rock bottom right now!).
ATi 6950 / nVidia 560Ti
60GB SATAIII SSD
1TB SATAIII HDD
600W (branded) PSU.
Building on the Scan 3XS model you linked, adding the relevant goodies (i2500K, 8GB RAM, ATi 6950, 64GB SSD + 1TB HDD, 650W Corsaid PSU) brings the total, without monitor, to a smidge over £1k. I reckon we can do cheaper!
[looks into it]
OcUK sell systems that are accessory-free, ie you put your money into decent components, much like Scan. As an example, their interestingly named
Titan Triceratop is on offer this week and when specced up with no overclock, ATi 6950, 60GB OCZ SSD and Win7 Home Premium comes out at £882. Spend £40ish on a large
second HDD and you've got everything you need except a monitor.
I was going to mention Palicomp since PCPro gives them generally decent reviews (and they're based in Crewe a few miles from me!) but if you google them the 2nd result is simply '
Do not buy from Palicomp' - There are some horror stories about them not matching hardware to listed specs. And their website is like something hosted on Geocities!
ChillBlast, on the other hand, not only get good reviews but the public seems to like them as well! Their
Fusion Electron can be configured to a similar spec to the OcUK dinosaur for under £900.
You can save a few pennies if you don't need keyboard/mice/speakers etc and sometimes an included monitor is actually a decent one (at a semi-decent price) so it could be worth checking the models slightly
over the price point you're at and reducing the price by unchecking accessories.
Right, I think I've rambled on enough for now.... Hope it's helped as much as it's confused you
(cheapass/homebuild)