wow......a big thanks to everyone whos posted
........a great help and no pi$$ take
this is to be his main pressie from mum and dad, so we have to choose what to buy together, this could be harder than deciding what parts we need when knowing very little about them
so......had a chat to mrs red and had a quick look at all the links mentioned here and a visit to PC WORLD.....
we have decided to buy a package deal from pcw, tower, screen, keyboard and mouse,8gb memory,1tb hard drive , integrated graphics......no sure about the graphics !!!
we have an ageing family desk top PC which we will replace in the new year,he can use this to upgrade, build and learn....and have the advantage of choosing the parts himself, if the build goes horribly wrong we have not lost a lot
think that might just work
.....now, what do I get mrs red