£500 Windows 7 Gaming PC : Build or Buy

Windows 7 is particularly well suited for gaming partly because it is an evolution of Vista rather than a completely different platform which means that game developers and hardware makers are in familiar territories with Windows 7.

There's also the fact that Windows 7 comes with DirectX 11 which includes features such as Tessallation, Multi-Threading and DirectCompute all of which help make a more efficient usage of existing resources.

But DirectX 11 is a relatively new technology and has yet to become mainstream and most games are still either available in DirectX9 or in DirectX10. But even then Windows 7 is better than Vista at gaming overall.

The difference between platforms however is more pronounced between Windows XP and Windows 7 both quantitatively and qualitatively. This, according to review site Driverheaven, should give "gamers using XP a great incentive to upgrade to Windows 7".

We've allocated £500 to build a Windows 7 Gaming PC using parts widely on sale in the UK. The prices include delivery and VAT as well as the price of the OS - Windows 7 Home Premium OS 32Bit OEM - which can be had for £72.28 here.

Let's first find out what gaming computer can one can get with £500. The most important factor in this particular configuration will be the graphics card. The Fujitsu Amilo DP3/Pi 3635 is our downright favourite at £488 delivered.

It comes with a Quad core CPU, 4GB RAM, 1TB storage, a mid-range ATI HD4850, Blu-Ray and Windows Vista Home Premium which can be upgraded for a small fee to Windows 7. That's a tough one to beat.