Shingy

Intel i5 760 @ 3.8 Ghz ASUS P7P55D-E PRO 4GB of Corsair Dominator EVGA GTX 680 4GB Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD + WDC Black 640GB + WDC Green 1TB Antec Nine Hundred Two Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.2 Corsair HX750 PSU Dell UltraSharp U2312HM Razer Carcharias Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth Razer Deathadder 2013 Steelseries QcK Country New Zealand Thanks.

Intel i5 760 @ 4.0 GHz ASUS P7P55D-E PRO Corsair Dominator 2x2GB DDR3-1600 C7 2x Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB @800/1000 in SLI Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB Antec Nine Hundred Two Prolimatech Megahalems Cooling Corsair HX750 PSU Dell U2312HM 23" Monitor Razer Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth Razer Deathadder Razer Carcharias Steelseries QcK Country New Zealand

Had a talk with my brother. Here is the revised build: ASUS P8Z68-M PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68 (supports USB3 unlike the Gigabyte) SILVERSTONE STRIDER PLUS ST50F-P 500W (Modular, cheap, and 80 Plus Bronze) CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR3-1600 Dual Channel Kit CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 LG CH12LS28 Blu-ray Combo 12x Super Multi Blue LightScribe Intel Core i5 2400 Sandy Bridge 3.10GHz 6MB 95W LGA1155 Intel 320 Series 40GB 3GB/s 25nm SSD EVGA GeForce GTX550 Ti FPB 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E Antec Fusion Remote Black HTPC Enclosure (he is going to put it into his TV cabinet, also it comes with a remote which he could really use, and looks amazing) How does it look?

Actually I went sort by lowest price to highest, looked for the first decent looking one and that's how I found the seasonic. NZ currency is pretty low. I'll consider the corsairs. I am also thinking about buying the antec sonata iii case that comes with the antec earthwatts 500w psu. Is that decent? This system isn't going to use much power.

This looks like a decent PSU would you agree?

Oh.. right.. I'll keep it as the z68 then. Also I want all of my parts new because reliability in the long run is pretty important for this build, so I don't know if the marketplace would work for me. Anyway regarding the PSU that comes with the case, they told me "They are just a base PSU from Coolermaster (They normally label it Thermalmaster). It is not a 80plus certified PSU. (This PSU is only good for very basic machines). If you want something that is of a decent quality and reliable then buy a Corsair or Seasonic PSU." Yeah I think I'm going to pick a different case with a separate quality PSU.

Yeah I figured out what he meant by me not using the z68 to its full potential. it is capable of doing many things that I wasn't going to make use of. About the graphics I will get a GTX 460 if I find one that is around the same price as the 550 but at the moment that seems unlikely. I cannot find one that is costs less than $60 more than the 550. What do you think of the cheaper board that I posted somewhere on the top of this page? It costs $114 compared to the $180 z68. Keep in mind this is in NZD

I found this Kingston drive but it including shipping it costs 20% more than the 40GB Intel 320 series. I also have to make an account probably which I can't really be bothered doing. Is it worth it? About the PSU I only chose that CM case was because it came with a power supply. Now that you bring that up I might ask the store what power supply it comes with as it provides no details about it whatsoever.

Not sure if this will help but the stores I am buying from are here and here.

Actually I only chose the z68 because it was the cheapest board I could find at the store I was looking at. I didn't know there were lower end boards for the LGA 1155's. How does this board look? I'm not planning on doing any overclocking or anything like that for this build. As for the CPU I'm sure a 2400 is enough. Oh and I might talk to him about the monitor thing. Surfing the web on a 42" plasma does sound a bit silly lol.

I had a look at the SRT technology. Apparently it has faster performance than a HDD by itself but its performance is inconsistent and the performance of a standalone SSD is much more consistent. I was looking at this. And I just looked at NewEgg for reviews about the Vertex Plus. I am definitely not getting that now. There is a 40GB Intel 320 series for around the same price at the store I am buying from. What do you think of that? Reliability of a drive is important for this build.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I live in New Zealand so product availability for computer parts is ridiculously bad. The 550 Ti that I am buying is NZ$229 and the cheapest 460 on pricespy.co.nz is $294. He also doesn't need much more power than there is in the 550 so I still think the 550 is the best choice. The same is for the RAM. I will be paying about x1.5 at least if I want 8GB of RAM when I'm sure 4GB is plenty. The SSD though, it was one of the cheapest I could find and I've never owned one myself so I don't know much about them. He just does not need that amount of storage. I'm sure a standalone SSD is enough storage with his 3 TB. And what do you mean by slow and useless? Was their speed comparable to a normal HDD?

Just went on Antec PSU calculator and it said minimum wattage 270W with recommended being 320W after adding random extra devices in as well. I think 420W is enough.

I use my computer for 'hardcore gaming' and I have 4GB and I haven't really come across any problems. What is the benefit of more RAM?

The thing is the SSD I chose is around the same price as 500GB hard drives around here. And seeing as he is mainly using this comp for media and has 3TB of external storage I figured he wouldn't be needing any more. Light gaming as in a casual game of CoD or other shooters every now and then or something like that. I think all he would install on the SSD is Windows, Firefox, Office, Nero, VLC player, AVS video converter, and the odd why-not kind of freeware. Doesn't that total to around 25gb? Maybe a game or two on the SSD and the rest on the external would be fine wouldn't it?