About to press the "BUY" button, but would like your opinions, please

**CERuppel** · February 25th, 2012, 07:42 PM

It has been a long and aggravating six (!) months since I first started out to purchase/build a new computer. (I can't believe its been that long!)

I have had both ups and downs along the way, of many sorts. I started out with a much smaller budget to begin with, and have been an AMD fan since way back. But times have changed both of those two issues, since we have a much bigger budget now and I have gotten over my "Intel is evil" phobia. The environment here at work has changed enough that I will not 'need' this system to be my work computer (boss is letting me upgrade the systems here at work

). And it looks like AC (my wife) will be house bound rather than returning to work

.

All of which (plus more) means that the computer that I was looking for has been changing and changing and...

Well, to get to the point, here is what I have:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K

Mother Board: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

GPU: XFX Double D HD-687A-ZDFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

PSU: OCZ ZT Series 650W Fully-Modular

HDD: Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s

SSD: Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive

Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 912

Extra: Rosewill RC-216 PCI Express eSATA II x 2 / ATA 133 x1 RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD mode Controller Card

DVD: LITE-ON DVD Burner

Monitor: Asus VH238H Black 23" Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit - OEM

I linked to the CPU and HDD and Case thru NewEgg, but was able to pick those up much cheaper at the MicroCenter (on sale) over the last week.

Any suggestions, Please?

(Edit: Forgot to include the OS)

**JLK03F150** · February 25th, 2012, 08:21 PM

Looks like a really nice build. What's the PCIe Controller card's purpose? Do you need the PATA port for something? Also, unless you have a specific need, save yourself $40 & get Win7 Home Premium. It meets the needs of most of us.

**CERuppel** · February 25th, 2012, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by JLK03F150

Looks like a really nice build. What's the PCIe Controller card's purpose? Do you need the PATA port for something? Also, unless you have a specific need, save yourself $40 & get Win7 Home Premium. It meets the needs of most of us.

Yeah, I am going to be using the PATA port to connect my older hard drives, at least long enough to copy the data over to the new HDD.

And with the discount/promo I am able to get the WIN7 Pro for the same price right now (promo ends at midnite saturday).

They ARE (?) both the same, just some added networking stuff in the pro, right?

(I was sort of hoping to use that extra networking to securely connect home and office, so that at least some of this stuff could be done in something resembling comfort).

**Taxmancometh** · February 25th, 2012, 11:50 PM

The Intel Core i5-2500K is overclockable. Do you plan on overclocking?

**CERuppel** · February 25th, 2012, 11:53 PM

I DID IT!!!!

ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED!!!

(Finally...)

**CERuppel** · February 26th, 2012, 12:00 AM

Taxman: Yes, and no. I got a really good deal on the CPU, and was looking ahead for the lifespan of the system. If it becomes necessary to over clock to keep the system up to par, than I want the ability to do so (thus the 2500k and the asrock extreme3 gen3 combo). But also, no I am not planning to do so in the near future.

Got to go, my ride is here.

(I'm nervous as all heck)