Re: What's your Rig(s) Technical Specs.
I love these threads on all the forums that I use. I just finished building my new machine last week. Here are the specifications:
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Case: NZXT Phantom 410
I moved the front fan to the bottom, replaced the rear fan with a Cooler Master LED fan, and put two more CM LED fans in the front. I also added a second 140mm top fan. This PC is amazingly quiet for having nine fans in it.
(2xFront, 1xBottom, 1xRear, 2xTop, 1xCPU, 1xGPU, 1xPSU) All in all, this is a great case for $100, and I only paid $80 after promo code.
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
After days and days of painfully extensive research, and my own firsthand experience thus far, this is easily the best LGA1155 socket motherboard for the money. It great for gaming, moderate overclocking, and general everyday use.
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
If you don't need the Core i7's hyperthreading, this is the best CPU in existence. Period. Unless you're building a budget, or parents/grandparents PC, I wouldn't touch AMD CPUs. They just don't stack up unless in very specific circumstances, in my novice opinion.
Cooler: COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
This cooler is an absolute champion for it's ridiculously low price point. This thing is in an entirely different league than some coolers even three-four times its price. Unless you plan on some serious overclocking, I am not aware of a better cooler that currently exists on the consumer market.
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ 4GB
This is the best graphics card I have ever used, and is definitely a bit overkill on a single monitor set-up for games on today's market, as should be expected from spending over $550 on a GPU, but I needed the power for heavily modding Skyrim. All in all, I got lucky with a very well performing 680, and this thing rarely goes above 60°C/140°F.
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
There isn't really much to say here. I mean, RAM is RAM. I guess there are a couple things to note. The low voltage isn't a problem on my motherboard, and probably helps keep temps 1-1.5°C lower than with 1.5v RAM. It also looks really cool; it's got sniper sights on the the heat spreaders.
Optical Drive: ASUS Black OEM BD-ROM Drive
There is something to note about this drive. It is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) drive, so it ships with the optical drive itself and nothing else, so your on you're own for finding software that plays Blu-Ray disks. Luckily I got VLC to recognize Blu-Rays with some tweaking.
System HDD: Crucial M4 256GB SSD
It's $30 cheaper than what I paid for it in April 2012, so it is even more enticing than it was then. This is a great 256GB SSD, and CrystalDiskMark reports that I am getting read/write speeds slightly above what is rated on the Crucial website and packaging. I couldn't be happier. It's fast enough for me and helps cut back on loading times for gaming.
Media HDD: Western Digital My Book Essential 4TB External USB 3.0 HDD
There's not much to say here except that it's got a MASSIVE amount of storage, but I don't think I will have any trouble filling it up after finding this website. :P
Sound card: ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channel sound card/headphone amp
It's the best sound card in existence for the money easily. A lot of people would argue that a sound card at this price point isn't worth it, because the sound quality is not noticeably different to onboard sound on modern motherboards. That may be true, but I primarily use headphones for my audio, and this thing functions as a 5.1 headphone amp as well, so I definitely can tell the difference.
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750
It's not modular, but you can't beat it at the price for its known Corsair quality. The mountainous pile of cables aren't a problem at all, because the case I chose has very efficient cable management.
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
I got a "genuine" copy for $0.00 on sale
. There's not much to note about Windows 7 that you don't already know, aside from the fact that it is better in every way to Windows 8 for desktop computing. I wouldn't touch Windows 8 unless I had a touch screen, and I will take a guess and say 99.9% of desktops don't.
Monitor: Vizio 60" 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV
I got this beast for $680 on Black Friday. Most people would advise against using a TV for a computer monitor, but this thing works out extraordinarily well. It doesn't have any of the weird blurriness or text distortion you would expect to see in a TV hooked up to a PC. It seems to have been designed as on optional monitor, rather than throwing in the option as a gimmick. This thing has a great picture, but less than stellar sound. I refuse to consider its sound a con though, because you can only have so much sound quality in a super slim TV. I use headphones anyway.
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse II Illuminated Keyboard
This is an absolute steal for the price. I was a bit skeptical buying a keyboard from a no-name company (I think it is, I've never heard of Saitek.), but it is a great keyboard. The keys feel really nice, and the illuminated keys are absolutely critically invaluable for nighttime usage, even though I no longer look at the keys when I type. I don't know how I survived without the backlighting. You can switch the illumination from blue, red, or purple. It's worth noting that it defaults to blue when you turn on/restart your computer, but it's not that big of a deal.
Mouse: Logitech Performance Mouse MX
This is hands down the best mouse I have ever owned. There are some pitiful Logitech fanboys that try to pretend the obsolete Logitech MX Revolution that this mouse replaced is better, but pay them no mind. All the buttons are programmable with the included software, and it's virtually hassle free. It's worth noting that this isn't really that great of a mouse for gaming if you're the type of person who likes tons of mouse macros, but I use a wired Xbox 360 controller for most of my games anyway.
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All in all, I am extremely satisfied with this new PC, and I don't regret the money I put into it at all. The PC minus the peripherals is under $1,500, and I can't imagine building a PC that performs much better at this price range. If you're looking for a gaming PC for under $1,500, I personally vouch for each of these PC components.
It's kind of funny though, I almost didn't even put the monitor, keyboard, and mouse up there, and I ended up writing the most about them :D.
EDIT: Holy crap this is a long post, lol. Anyway, I will put up pictures sometime tomorrow. I can't seem to find where I placed that camera.