The Scratching the Chronic Itch.

It's been 3 full years since my last PC upgrade. Now, my rig is by no means weak in terms of computational or gaming performance. It can compute Bitcoin hashes at a decent rate of 500 MHashes/second  and can run most games at native resolution (1920x1200) with most of the eye-candy on. But running "most games" with "most setting" maxed-out is, while tolerable, is not acceptable and certainly not becoming of a PC that I own, if I say so myself (and I do).

I could quote more such excuses to justify my scratching the "upgrade itch", but I'll spare my readers of that (you're welcome!). Rather than quote the failures of my current system to cope with my demands, this time around, I am actually upgrading to fulfill some of my desires.

For example, I've been wanting to use Solid State Drives (SSDs) since they came out couple of years ago. Now that the cost of the SSD drives have started to slowly fall, I want some of them solid-state goodness in my computer, now! At the time of my last upgrade, the WD Velociraptor drive had much better performance/price ratio with the added bonus of extra storage space at the same price point as a small SSD. But now, I could go with a cheaper-yet-performant SSD for the OS and a couple of Hybrid drives (or, SSHD) in Raid-0 for programs and games. I will finally see fast boot-up, hibernation-resume and game load times!

Another thing that I've wanted to try is water/liquid cooling the core components of my PC. Now, I won't be running high-overclocks on my CPU/GPU(s) to justify a move to liquid cooling, but I DO bench my PC components at least for a few months after purchase. I had a not-too-bad kinda standing in HWBOT with my current rig, way back when.
But even this is not a compelling reason to switch to water cooling as I won't benchmark my system after the first month or so. The water pump will be an added power drain on the system of around 8W to 20W. But, this is more of a fulfillment of a long-standing desire and learning experience than a "need".


I have not committed on a specific configuration now as I am going to wait a month or two to let some new products get released and also due to some personal situations right now (involving project deadline and planning to move to a new apartment). So, without further ado, here's what I am thinking of getting:

• Core:
• Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Ivy Bridge CPU
• ASUS Maximus V GENE mATX Motherboard
• 16 GB (4 x 4GB) 1866MHz CL9 RAM
• ASUS Nvdia GTX 690
• Drives:
• OS Drive: Samsung 830-Series 128GB SSD
• Programs/Games Drive:  2x Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB SSHD in Raid-0 with 64GB Intel SRT Cache SSD
• Three more 1TB HDD for Installers, Music and Downloads.
• Case:
• CoolerMaster HAF X (or, similar)
• Seasonic SS-860XP PSU
• Cooling:
• Custom Water Cooling Loop for CPU and GPU (Parts still undecided).

 So many brands, so many choices, so many compromises...