I'm amused to see that the same 120GB SSD I bought for my laptop a half-year or so ago for $195 (on sale from $250) is now about $110. I can't tell if that's the normal decrease in price as technology matures and ages, or something related to the hard drive factory floods. As far as CPUs go, I'd be willing to get the non-K's if they're cheaper, but I can't say that features like virtualization are likely to be too helpful here, and I like the idea of future overclockability. You have no criticisms on my mobo, PSU, or memory choices, Kllrnohj?

Factory flood price hike was made up - there weren't any supply issues.



Definitely get the -K then, you *can't* overclock the non-K's.



Nope, all look fine. I haven't been paying attention to mobos - as long as that is the latest Intel chipset you're pretty much good to go. I don't think Asus has any bad boards.

Yeah, the price hike seemed a bit contrived to me, glad to hear you confirm that. And yes, I'm pretty sold on the K-version at this point. Glad to hear the mobo, PSU, and memory look good to you.

But if she plans on using linux the 7xxx series support is rather crap atm, for both the FOSS drivers and fglrx/catalyst. And I don't recall hearing that the 7xxx series cards were that much better, at least not yet due to it being a new core design and driver architecture, though I'm sure as things mature there will be an improvement.

Everything I was reading indicated that the 69xx was still the best power for the money, even over the 7xxx series. But again, let's dispute anything except the graphics card.

Edit: Peep this money-saving plan:
(1) Grab this sweet bro. Same 3570K i5 processor, same 8GB of RAM (in 2 sticks, no less!), 2TB (but slow-rotating) hard drive, optical drive, $680. Save $200 buying an OS.
(2) Replace the pitiful 300W PSU with the $110 PSU I spec'd. Total cost: $790.
(3) Add in the graphics card (that's $237 with shipping, so that makes it $1027, versus $1242 for parts + Windows 7 Home with my previous plan)
(4) Add a monitor. Profit?

*bump* Any thoughts on this, gentlemen?

Nice deal. You get the $15 upgrade to Windows 8 with that too, since it comes with Windows 7 installed. Might want to see what kind of internal expansion options there are (they might be limited), but it's probably fine.

Indeed, I'll try to get a look inside to see what it has in the way of PCIe x16 slots and in fact what sort of motherboard it is, but assuming that it's decent, I think it would be a good way to put this together and save some money.

I wouldn't do it. The motherboard, case, and PSU are all trash.



Perhaps, but judging by the consumer previews you won't want to :p

Kllrnohj, the motherboard is probably not stupendous, but I already know I need to replace the PSU, and I already have a much, much better case for her that I'd be using anyway. The price for the whole computer is still cheaper than buying mobo + CPU + memory + hard drive separately, and much cheaper than that + Win7.

They are also using low quality parts.

But I disagree with your cheaper claim:

WD 2TB hdd: $120
G.Skill Value Series 2x4GB DDR3 1333: $40
ASUS P8Z77-V LX: $140
i5-3570K: $240

Total: $539.96

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but 539.96 is less than 679.99, no?

Add in Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM for $100, and that's.. let's see... 539.96 + 100 is 639.96, which, oh, yup, still less than 679.99

Yeah, but DDR3 1333 is not exactly DDR3 1600. And yes, I know I was settling for lower parts there with the gut-a-computer idea. Sidebar: I think I found the sole difference between the ASUS P8Z77-V and the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro: It looks like the Pro has 4 onboard USB 3 ports instead of 2.

Case: My old case ($0)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V (not-Pro) LGA 1155 Intel Z77 ($190 + $5 shipping at Newegg/$190 + tax at Microcenter)
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core ($190 at Microcenter)
Memory: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory ($52 at Microcenter)
Optical drive: DVD+-RW from my old case ($0)
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750 Watt ($110 + $0 shipping from Newegg)
Hard drive: WD 2TB hdd: $120
Graphics card: HD-695X-CNFC (dual-fan/2GB/6950) ($0 now - present)
Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM: $100
Monitor: $200-$300

Total: $762 with OS, without monitor. Interesting. Of course, $962-$1062 with monitor, plus tax. Either Microcenter or Newegg will require the NJ 7% tax, unfortunately.

The computer you linked to used DDR3 1333, not 1600.

I just wanted to fill you guys in on how this turned out. I got the following parts and put the computer together yesterday:

Case: Thermaltake Level 10, white with blue details
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro LGA 1155 Intel Z77
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K
Optical Drive: Random supermulti drive from old build
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility Vertex 4 128GB SSD
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Graphics card: HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16
Monitor: Samsung 27" LED panel
Keyboard/mouse: Logitech wireless bundle
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium Builder OEM

Here's how it looks; it runs like a charm:

Very cool. What are the slots on the bottom of the case for?

Hard drive cooling and looks.

Yup, it has five hot-swappable hard drive bays, with fans in the vicinity of the bays to push air over the drives.