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« Last post by Ath on July 21, 2011, 03:59 PM »
A quick much longer then I expected reaction:
Case:
Looks just fine to me, though I don't like all those 'Christmas-lights' it has
CPU & Mainboard:
If you don't need SLI you could choose the MSI P67A-G45, it's about $20 less, but the second PCIe-x16 port has only 8 PCI-lanes instead of 16. MSI is a fine brand of mainboards.
GPU:
Use what works in your set-up. Personally I've had lots of trouble with the ATI-based cards (on MSI mainboards, amongst others), so I'm sticking with nVidia chips, unless there's a 0/0 swap policy available. The eventual speed-per-cost differences are quite small and dependent on the games you want to play, and what chip-brand the games are optimized for.
RAM:
I'd go for Kingston or another known brand, and not any of them 'over-clocking' DIMM's as they're (imho) not worth the extra money.
Do get a set of 4 pre-matched DIMM's, you can then rely on the supplier to have matched them for working properly together. (All using chips from the same production-batch, usually)
<will update in about 1 hour>
PSU:
You will want a silent one with a big fan, and about 450 - 500 watt, 80-plus Gold, from a brand like Cooler Master, be Quiet or Antec. It has to last for probably 4 or 5 years (looking at your current system), and you could spend the extra $20 you can save on the mainboard.
A modular PSU usually means it has connectors on the PSU casing and you just mount the cables you need. Connectors make it extra expensive, and introduce an extra possible point of failure, so unless the looks of the inside of the case is really important, you won't need a modular PSU.
MISC:
Monitor(s): Ok.
Harddisk(s): Be sure to either pick a 7200 rpm disk or a SSD for the boot-drive. If having a SSD, then get at least a 7200 rpm model for your applications-disk [D:], and if storing large amounts of data, like Virtual PC images or photo's, that could go on an energy saving 5400/5900 rpm disk [E:]
SSD: 64 GB is rather small for installing WIndows 7 and some applications, so 120 GB or bigger would definitely be preferable, but the cost will be the limiting factor.
Sound: Ok. Speakers/Headset?
Keyboard/Mouse: If they're not worn out then just re-use that, and replace when worn out or defective.
DVD: Ok if it's SATA, if not, just spend the extra $30 for a DVD-burner or some more for a BD-reader/DVD-burner combo drive. BD-burners are still quite expensive, and DVD's can hold enough photo's for archiving. Backups either go on external harddisks, 'the cloud' or tape.
WiFi: Sure you don't want wired network? Usually the ping-delays are lower and transport speed higher when playing on-line games.
After-market CPU-coolers: If over-clocking: When going for <= 5% extra speed, the standard Intel coolers are usually fine, at least when mounted properly (and on i5/i7 processors). When going for 5 - 10% get a big but silent cooler. When aiming beyond 10%, get a water-cooled setup, and also cool the GPU with it.
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And now we all suffer with all this idiocy of counter measures because MS never enforced the available security.