New Computer Build

About mid October last year I was informed I would be getting some grant money from the Uni. What better time to custom build my first personal computer (built 34 computers for small company before). Since then I’ve been researching components to make this the best computer I’ve had yet; shouldn’t be hard as I’ve only ever had one computer to myself before, which is the one I’m typing this on. Here are the specs I’ve decided on so far:

Cooler Master Storm Enforcer case Mid tower, different and good looking. Has a window to show off guts. Has removable side-loading HDD bays, separate 2.5” SSD bay, PSU located at the bottom for best weight distribution. Has slots and some space on the back for wire management. 2 internal USB 3.0 at the front, as well as USB2. Really like it.

Intel i5 2500K 3.3Ghz CPU Pretty self explanatory, its a good processor, if a bit pricey.

Corsair Vengeance Memory 8GB x2 4GB DIMs. 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM

Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 Motherboard Been bugging me for ages but I think I’ve come to the conclusion that this is the one to go for. z68 chipset, PCIe 3 support, UEFI BIOS, USB 3 speed boost, SATA 6Gb/s, lots of USBs and an optical audio out. It was this or the GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 from Gigabyte. That’s got USB On/Off charge which would be quite useful and I think it aesthetically looks better. But it does miss out on UEFI BIOS which could make it boot faster, no video out, and I can’t find the model in stock at normal retailers. Asus wins I suppose.

OCZ 120GB SSD Looking forward to the fast boot and load times using an SSD :) Will have to take the risk with its unreliability, which is where the next item comes in…

Seagate 500GB SATA-III 6Gb/s Barracuda HDD 7200RPM HDD bought after the factory flooding when the prices sky-rocketed, thought I would get in early, prices are still high but not as much.

Nvidia GTX 570 OR GTX 560 TI Still uncertain about the graphics card, but it will be one of these two. I want to be able to play Skyrim on high settings with mods and texture packs and stuff, should be able to with one of these.

Corsair TX750 PSU A good power supply so far as I’ve seen from reviews. No much else to say, its a PSU.

So there we are, I’m hoping to buy all the parts and build it over Easter, should be fun. I’ll try and keep the blog informed.