- Nov 13, 2012
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One of my fellow Mod?s over at CB suggested that I should share this with in celebration of the new sub-forum. So here we go.
My old rig served me well, but had seen better days. My wife unintentionally gave me carte blanche when she said ?get what you need?, which I interpreted as ?get what you want? ?
Well, after recently picking up a nice new compact 2-in-1 laptop, I couldn?t go too overboard on a desktop without risking a divorce. So, this is what I settled upon.
Let?s start with the box. Space isn?t really an issue for me, so I went with the big, roomy Corsair Air540. (Carbide Series? Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case) It gives plenty of airspace around the components, comes pre-cabled, and has a nice windowed side panel that begs for LED lighting ? so I gave it some.
A stable power supply is a must, and it helps when it?s almost silent. Hence, the Corsair AX 750. (AX760 ATX Power Supply ? 760 Watt 80 PLUS? Platinum Certified Fully-Modular PSU) And since I want to protect my baby, it?s plugged into an old but stable APC for good measure.
The next piece to go in was the Asus Z97-A motherboard (https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/Z97A/specifications/), i7 4790K processor (Intel? Core? i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) Specifications) and 16GB of cool looking G.Skill TridentX RAM (TridentX - F3-2400C10D-16GTX - G.SKILL DDR3 Memory).
I wasn?t planning on splurging, but the GTX 960 (GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Card | GeForce) was on sale the day I made the leap, and the combination of 3 display ports, HDMI and DVI-I allow me to run up to 4 monitors. (I run 3.)
I went with the Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD (Computing | Memory & Storage | Samsung SSD 850 EVO - 512 GB), , plus a WD Black 4 TB HDD for local storage. Win10 Pro.
I set the new Corsair K95 keyboard (Corsair Gaming K95 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ? Cherry MX Red) colour to match the in-case LED?s.
You?ll note that I haven?t said anything about sound. Well, since I abused the budget as it was, I decided to go with the onboard audio for the time being, rather than downgrade any of the other components. There?s always Christmas, right? But the Z97-A?s audio through my Bose speakers isn?t half bad.
So, the tl;dr: I managed to put together a fast, efficient, quiet package that should last until the next time my wife is in a good mood again. :wink:
My old rig served me well, but had seen better days. My wife unintentionally gave me carte blanche when she said ?get what you need?, which I interpreted as ?get what you want? ?
Well, after recently picking up a nice new compact 2-in-1 laptop, I couldn?t go too overboard on a desktop without risking a divorce. So, this is what I settled upon.
Let?s start with the box. Space isn?t really an issue for me, so I went with the big, roomy Corsair Air540. (Carbide Series? Air 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case) It gives plenty of airspace around the components, comes pre-cabled, and has a nice windowed side panel that begs for LED lighting ? so I gave it some.
A stable power supply is a must, and it helps when it?s almost silent. Hence, the Corsair AX 750. (AX760 ATX Power Supply ? 760 Watt 80 PLUS? Platinum Certified Fully-Modular PSU) And since I want to protect my baby, it?s plugged into an old but stable APC for good measure.
The next piece to go in was the Asus Z97-A motherboard (https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Motherboards/Z97A/specifications/), i7 4790K processor (Intel? Core? i7-4790K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz) Specifications) and 16GB of cool looking G.Skill TridentX RAM (TridentX - F3-2400C10D-16GTX - G.SKILL DDR3 Memory).
I wasn?t planning on splurging, but the GTX 960 (GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Card | GeForce) was on sale the day I made the leap, and the combination of 3 display ports, HDMI and DVI-I allow me to run up to 4 monitors. (I run 3.)
I went with the Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD (Computing | Memory & Storage | Samsung SSD 850 EVO - 512 GB), , plus a WD Black 4 TB HDD for local storage. Win10 Pro.
I set the new Corsair K95 keyboard (Corsair Gaming K95 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ? Cherry MX Red) colour to match the in-case LED?s.
You?ll note that I haven?t said anything about sound. Well, since I abused the budget as it was, I decided to go with the onboard audio for the time being, rather than downgrade any of the other components. There?s always Christmas, right? But the Z97-A?s audio through my Bose speakers isn?t half bad.
So, the tl;dr: I managed to put together a fast, efficient, quiet package that should last until the next time my wife is in a good mood again. :wink: