My last PC is a Dell from 2007 that is still going. It does pretty well because I maintain my things and tweaked what I could out of it. Not sure if this is impressive, but I was able to crank out an average of 30+ FPS from the source engine with the 256MB of graphics processing fury that is the ATI Radeon X1300. Every part in that computer or that was included with it still works well. The backstory hopefully illustrates that I value quality and reliability, and that I will take care of things that take care of me. Warranties are nice and warranties I never have to use are nicer.

Regardless, it's finally time for an upgrade and I want to, for the first time, build my own. I am willing spend $1200 for a PC plus monitor. That total cost is not a maximum; feel free to exceed it if there's a lot of value per dollar to be gained. Quality and reliability should not be compromised to fit a hard maximum. I'll have to get other peripherals, too, but those won't be in that budget.

So, I've read a couple of guides and some other build threads here, but I'm still a scrub. Logical Increments has given me basic ideas, but here are my desires and concerns:

CPU: Intel please. I read that in some cases you can get better deals if you're willing to sacrifice the ability overclock by not buying an unlocked processor; if that becomes applicable here, I am willing to give up my ability to overclock.
Motherboard: I haven't read enough about motherboards to get picky. If the build includes 8GB of RAM and it was able to accommodate more someday should it become a good idea, that would be great. USB slots are nice, a pair in front would be sweet. A cat is fine, too.
RAM: 8GB minimum, I would even do 16GB (2x8GB) if it weren't too obnoxious.
Storage: It would seem and SSD + HDD is the way to go these days. I'd be lying if I said that I knew very much about SSDs, though I hear they're better at not dying as much over time these days. For the HDD, I very much doubt I will need more than 1 TB of space, as I didn't even come close to filling 250GB in 7+ years.
GPU: If I can run games at reasonable settings at 1080p, that would be great. I might do some streaming and video editing, too. Dual monitor support would be nice, but I do not have a firm stance on the single versus dual monitor choice yet.
Case: The case on my old computer turned into a vibrating annoyance over the years where I had to keep putting slight pressure on certain spots shift the entire tower by a fraction of an inch every so often to get the damn thing to shut up. I realize that's anecdotal and probably not a problem for a quality case these days, but it's important that my case is non-agonizing.
Power Supply: Very important because as someone with a PC that's still going since 2007, I've developed an affinity for PCs that don't die or start fires. Efficiency is nice. 80+ Bronze is good, Silver or Gold if it won't be a compromise of quality and reliability.
Optical Drive: Decent DVD-RW drives are what, like $20 now?
Monitor(s?): After living in a world of 1024x768 for too long, 1080p would be nice. I wouldn't complain about having more, especially in a single monitor setup (1080p windowed would be sweet), but word on the street is that 1080p is a standard for most games and such. If it's not too troublesome, a separate build for a dual monitor setup would be neat, too.

HSF: I am not sure if extra cooling is necessary or worth it, since I am unlikely to overclock. The average summer high temperature is 91°F or ~32.78°C if that influences the choice. Stock cooling is likely sufficient, but I'm open to the idea.


And now some other stuff that is outside the main budget:
Keyboard: Recommendations and advice for a wired keyboard would be appreciated. The free Dell standard of 2007 served me well and while two or three keys became faded, it was still working nicely.
Modem (purchased): As with the keyboard, recommendations and advice appreciated. Then I can stick it to the ISPs with their equipment fee nonsense.
Wireless Router (purchased): Recommendations also appreciated. Yes, my PC will be wired because I'm not a scrub but I have some wireless things.
OS: Builds that I seem to not mention this as a cost. Windows isn't freeware these days, right? Anyway, did Windows 8 become sufficiently less terrible with 8.1 (for someone who will spend time tweaking just about every setting, that is) or should I go for Windows 7? (Really, they should just make Windows XP 2, they only stopped supporting it because they know nobody would buy anything else and they were mad that they can't do better, silly Microscrub. Long live WinXP, best Windows.)
Power Strip: Anything worth fussing over with a power strip? If so, recommendations are appreciated, otherwise I just buy one with a surge protector that looks decent from a hardware store. Please yell at me if this is a bad idea.


And general concerns:
1. This is a from scratch build. Will all necessary cords and cables be included? (and should any be upgraded?)
2. Do I need any tools or gear other than basic screwdrivers?
3. Any recommended guides on assembly would be appreciated (actually, Logical Increments has a bunch so I might not need them), general advice on not being an idiot, as well as anything that I may have overlooked as this is my first build.


Looking forward to your questions, builds, and advice, SEN. Thanks in advance.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jul 19 2014, 6:08 pm by Mini Moose 2707. Reason: Updates

While I don't have a build for you, I could give you a mini-review of the peripherals that I use.

The Razer Nostromo:


The Razer Sphex


The Razer Anansi:

The Razer Naga Epic:


Post has been edited 10 time(s), last time on Jul 10 2014, 8:51 pm by Generalpie.

Since you recommend razer, I would like to say something about this.
Every computer mouse by Razer I ever had was quite excellent and lasted ages. Still, the price is high. Logitech is more neutral, good in quality, cheaper (most of the times) and have an incredible life span.

However, keyboards by Razer are not good.
The worst one I had (from 2(?)) from Razer looked amazing. It even had a "touchpad-media-center" for volume, play pause etc. After some months (2-3), the keyboard started to act all wrong: sometimes, while typing normalle, it got 'stuck', assuming that you kept pressing that key (for example you just type and suddenlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy (...) till you plug it out and in again). The media center permanently registered button-clicks which were not actually made. Like, it randomly stopped music, started it again, muted, lowered volume and the like. I stick to logitech there.

TLDR:
Mouse by Logitech: excellent. By Razer: maybe a bit more than excellent, but expensive.
Keyboard by Logitech: more than excellent, for everything you could need. By Razer: not even a chance; expensive, unreliable. Design is good though.

This is not necessarily the perfect final build for you. Check the notes section and comment where necessary.
While it's not a gaming build, it will do fine with any game on high settings @ 1080p.It will do stellar at any advanced office tasks, uses quality components where it matters and has 2 IPS monitors.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: *Asus B85-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.46 @ Mwave)
Memory: *Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: *Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: *Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: *Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($133.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: *Cooler Master CM 690 II (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.24 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: *Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: *LG 23MP55HQ-P 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: *LG 23MP55HQ-P 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1191.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria

CPU is plenty overclockable, but it's not recommended with the stock cooler. If you actually want to OC add this for $29.99
Mobo is pretty basic but has all you need. It's more expensive than competitors because it's high quality.
RAM - just something fast and cheap.
SSD is not the cheapest, nor the fastest, but a reasonable mix of both. Also I don't trust non-Samsung SSDs.
HDD is close to being cheapest, a bit away from being fastest but its selling point is that it's really quiet.
GPU - well you didn't seem to need an uber-gaming card. But this one will still do nicely while being very power efficient.
Case - went a little more expensive here to make sure it ages well. It's also quite large and has top mounted USB slots and buttons. (Not recommended for putting on the table)
PSU - 550W is plenty enough. Gold efficieny means >= 90%, very stable voltages even close to max output. And while it has mediocre (compared to other PSUs) ripple and noise it's still well within allowed limits. Semi-modular design means no/less useless cables lying around your case.
ODD is one of the best for the price.
Monitors are IPS, which means no color gradients over a full screen of the same color. Still cheap and 23" is fairly standard size.

Keyboard and mouse are highly subjective. Get out of the $15-20 zone to get some good quality but don't overdo. Get something which you like design-wise.

Modem/Router - I have no idea about the US market but here you get a AVM Fritz!Box when you want something good. Also I guess it's the same for you: Get one device for both/all functions. I hear Netgear is good.

OS - get Win 8.1.

Power strip - make it so.

The only thing to watch out for is static discharges when handling components. Ground yourself and preferably the components you're handling before getting them out of the anti-static foil. It should be enough to touch/hold them against a heater for a second.
The only other hazard is sweat. Don't let drops fall on your components.
Make sure you apply thermal paste on the CPU or the CPU cooler before joining them, but it's usually pre-applied.

I was just giving a review of the stuff I used. I bought the pad when its price dropped, which got me into the whole thing to begin with. I wouldn't recommend buying the Naga at full price, nor the Anansi at full price.
That being said, I do enjoy using my Nostromo, and the Sphex isn't half-bad at all ^^

EDIT:EDIT: Fritz is awesome. The router my ISP gave me was terrible.
Also, my ISP in the states forced you to take their modem. The router was the component that you paid monthly for.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 10 2014, 10:11 pm by NudeRaider. Reason: merged posts

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3W1726/

The 250gb samsung 840 evo is a much better deal than then 120gb
(But that version has no mounting kit)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790S 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($321.97 @ Newegg)
Haswell Refresh CPU, super new, super fast, super efficient. There are cheaper choices and probably better bang for buck choices, but this is one area I never like to skimp in since it usually becomes the most problematic to change.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.08 @ Amazon)
OCing or not, the Hyper 212 coolers are scored highly both for their cooling performance and insane value. ~30$ for one of the highest performing air coolers on the market.
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($85.58 @ Newegg)
I was surprised to find a decent quality Z97 board under 100$. I have slight misgivings being that MSI has burned me personally, but I know others who swear by theirs and have had them a very long time. My alternate solution was probably going to be a very similar Gigabyte variant.
Memory: PNY XLR8 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($143.36 @ Amazon)
16GB at a decent price. I can't get blood from a stone like rockz when it comes to finding deals, but it looks good to me. RAM is sort of just RAM at this point.
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($139.08 @ Amazon)
Samsung SSDs are pretty much king right now in terms of speed and quality. The 120GB version wasn't much cheaper so I figured we'd go with this one.
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.83 @ NCIX US)
Get this. I can't even begin to explain how insane the EZEX drive is. I own two, and if you pay attention to how picky I am with components for myself that should speak volumes. Fast, reliable, plenty of space, just the ideal harddrive IMO. Not to mention the price.
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($288.88 @ Amazon)
When it comes to GPUs and CPUs you go big or you go home. No worse feeling than starting up a new game, maxing the options out, and getting frame lag on the first level. The 280X is a killer, it contends and sometimes beats a 770, and offers substantial value given current market prices. Although the 750Ti is a strong performer for its price, I still feel its a little weak for more demanding titles.
Power Supply: NZXT HALE82 V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.88 @ Amazon)
There are only three brands you need consider for PSU: SeaSonic, XFX, and NZXT. And XFX is just SeaSonic by proxy. NZXT also is very reliable though I forget their OEM off the top of my head, might be SS, might be Superflower or something. Whatever the case, they make a reliable and fully modular PSU at a good price, and if I didn't already own a SeaSonic I'd probably own an NZXT PSU.
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($16.02 @ OutletPC)
Cheap, effective.
Monitor: BenQ GW2750HM 27.0" Monitor ($224.68 @ NCIX US)
We need to step up your monitor game Moosey. Every kid on the blocks got a 1080p screen. So go one better and do it at 27". I like BenQ monitors a lot, I see them used quite widely, and I'm probably buying a pair of them myself soon. There are plenty of good choices being that the 1080p monitor market is so over saturated with tons of models and variants. I'm sure someone might have a better recommendation on this but be careful of monitor snobbery as I've seen it become a case where no one wants to buy a panel because it isn't X type with X feature that does X thing when you spend X time calibrating it to X values so that in the right light at the right angle it just happens to look slightly better.
Total: $1385.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
All prices and merchants are based on shipping to my zip, YMMV.

You might notice I left one important field out of this: Case.
A computer case is a hard thing to pick, even if you don't particularly care about it at the start. I've built in about thirty cases by almost as many brands. And maybe four of them impressed me at all. Therefore I offer you a list of what I know to be cases of quality material and quality engineering, so your build experience might be one of ease and enjoyment.
My current case: The NZXT H440 (Available in White, Black, Green, Blue, Orange, Red)
If there were ever a case so well thought out that it seemed to be actively modifying itself around my build this would be it. Perfection in every aspect, inside and out. Materials are very good for the price, cable routing and mounting systems are the most thought out and user friendly I've ever encountered. The SSD trays are amazing and the PSU shroud is something that only case modders used to be able to have in their builds. I love this case. Its only applicable downside is that it doesn't have an optical drive bay, but being that I have no use for optical media, it isn't an issue for me.

My previous case: The Fractal R4 (Available in Grey, Black, White, Blackout, window variants as well.)
Sleek, refined, and silent. The R4 is IMO one of the most sophisticated cases on the market. It is nearly as well thought out as the 440, but I feel it just isn't as good. Very popular case and with good reason, its solid and can keep your build together securely and quietly in a very attractive package.

A case I almost bought: The NZXT Phantom (Available in Black, White, Pink, Gunmental, and more. Has size and window variants.)
The NZXT Phantom is a case that comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors, but all with the same concept. A slightly futuristic but still respectable looking case, it makes a good midpoint between flashy LEDs and sophistication. I was seriously considering the 830 window variant until the 440 came out and changed all my plans. I think in the case market right now NZXT is paving the way and no one, not even Corsair, seems to be able to keep up. The Phantom cases all have various features with some having removable or repositionable HDD cages, dust filters, windows, and other cool stuff. Probably one of the most interesting case lines to me personally.

I like Ex's alternative build (especially because he picked a lot of same/similar parts as me (well I learned from him after all ) but showed alternatives where applicable. I'm particularly impressed by the The NZXT Phantom. Just looks awesome and knowing Ex I rest assured it rocks where it matters.

2 things to note though:
Sounds like a really bad deal on paper compared to Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ NCIX US). The i7 has a little larger cache and hyper threading which gives it an edge of up to 30% for applications that can use 8 cores. This is partially offset by 9% lower clocking. And will be reversed for applications using less than 5 cores, which is basically everything (today) except good video editing and rendering tools. It's also not overclockable and still $100 more expensive. I just don't understand the reasoning here. I will state though that investing in an i7 4770k might be worth it when you have applications using 6 or more cores.

http://www.legitreviews.com/nzxt-hale82-v2-550w-white-psu-review_128393/8 vs
http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-cs450m-power-supply-review_132526/8 (Note that it's the lesser 450W variant which is a little worse in most respects to the 550W unit I recommend.)
From the review it's clear the Corsair is on par and on some regards even a bit better (most notably the "terrible" efficiency of only 80%) than the NZXT. Keep in mind the 550W variant is a tad better than the 450W one according to a German review. The NZXT has only full modularity (against the semi modularity of the Corsair) going for itself which just doesn't justify the higher price.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 11 2014, 5:33 am by NudeRaider.

In their quest to better accommodate the budget PSU market I feel that Corsair's build quality and QA testing is not where it needs to be when being considered for the kind of ultra-reliable build Moose would like to have.

I ended up talking to him later on and suggesting a SeaSonic if he doesn't mind the price tag, because when it comes to reliability no one beats SeaSonic.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Seasonic-X-Series-KM3-650-W-Power-Supply-Review/1690

The i5/i7 argument is always there, and benchmarks say what benchmarks say, I'm not going to argue with numbers. The 4690k is a pretty good deal and definitely a good alternative to save around 100$. I guess after coming from an FX-8350 and having eight cores at my disposal, going 'back' to a non-HT quad just doesn't make sense to me these days, even though the Intel chips still kick the FXs all day.

I haven't started ordering stuff yet, but I'm glad to have some feedback.

The processor and motherboard I'm still not sure of. The i5 in Nude's build is cheaper and doesn't seem that much less powerful. The i7 in Ex's build is more expensive but also uses less power, I'm just sure if it's a $100 difference to me. The 3.0Ghz Pentium D I'm coming from didn't really feel like a bottleneck in my system, though I suppose it could have been, so I might just pocket the $90. As Ex said, it would be a good alternative to save the $100. I can justify $30 on additional cooling.

Regarding memory, does it particularly matter which I get if it's of decent quality?

SSD, get a 250 GB Samsung 840 Evo, they're good, sure.

HDD, the builds agree. 250 GB of SSD may even be enough for me, but I can get 1 TB of storage at a good price. Plus, I should be backing up my data, right?

Video card, the 750Ti might be the better choice for me, as I'm not sure if the jump to something like the 280X is worth the money to me. If I want to upgrade the card in a few years, it won't be too difficult, so this might be a good alternative for me to control the budget.

Power supply feels like something that's a good investment, so I might jump for that SeaSonic that Ex suggested to me.

Optical drive, it's $20 for a decent CD/DVD-RW these days, not even an issue.

Ex also suggested a relatively cheap sound card that I might want to try. I haven't heard much about sound cards since the 1990s and early 2000s due to the improvements in onboard sound, but I'm curious as to how investing in one will improve audio quality and they are not very expensive.

As for the case, I liked the NZXT H440 up until the no optical drive bay part. The R4 also appealed to me. (just look at those damn air filters!) Ex cautioned me that it's heavy, but being built like a tank only made me like it more. At this point, the Fractal R4 is my choice for a case.

Monitor, I was hoping to grab one or two of the Asus VE247H 23.6" Monitor that Roy suggested in another build thread, but the price on those appears to have jumped up. Not sure how strongly I feel about kicking the ass of every other kid on the block, so I have to soul search regarding a 27" panel.

Dual-monitor build:


Single-monitor (hardcore gaming) build:


Yeah, the only thing I changed was the GPU. I have a 770 myself and it's ridiculous, so I'd opt for the dual build. Or get a 760 if you just want a slight edge over the 750 Ti but don't want to commit to a high-end card. All three of these cards will do you well for games in 1080p, though.

Anyway, detailed analysis:



Fight, fight, fight, fight!

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jul 13 2014, 2:46 am by Roy. Reason: Formatting

Deals like these 240 GB SSD for $70 will become more commonplace until black friday where the prices will bottom out. I don't expect SSD prices to drop to less than $.20 / GB anytime soon on sub $100 drives. If you feel like waiting around for a deal you can save a decent amount on your build.

$30 Gold Modular PSU has come up in the past before. It may well come up again, but I would consider this a benchmark. It comes highly rated from many reviewers and is unlikely to have the same issues as the CWT cheapo models corsair makes which frequenly go for $15. You can read more about PSU reviews here but generally buying from a few brands is OK to do. I'm all about saving cash. 450W is enough to power any single card with ease, especially with your recommendations. Generally good manufacturers also configure their over-current-protection at a much higher rated value, so even if you go over by a bit every once in a while, you're not going to kill your computer.

Just going to point out that here's a less than stellar review for the OLD version of the NEX 650W, and the new one hasn't been reviewed yet. It's still a great PSU, and FSP is a good PSU manufacturer. IMO, Seasonic, CWT, FSP, Enermax, and Super Flower are all top tier manufacturers, all of whom I would generally trust. NZXT uses Sirtec, FSP, Super Flower, and Seasonic. XFX uses Seasonic exclusively. Corsair uses mostly CWT. Antec uses everything from everywhere.

The problem with dumping money into Motherboard and Power supply are they are both the least noticed and the most important part of the build. Extra money thrown at these parts is wasted. Extra money thrown at GPU or CPU is directly rewarded with a performance boost. The difference between at $10 PSU which works for 10 years and a $100 PSU which works for 10 years is $90 and some marginal other things like efficiency and component health. If you get a bad one though, it hurts, and these two parts are the most likely to go bad in a computer.

Case: Honestly, until you figure out what you want, it's best to re-use your old case or buy the cheapest one you can find. Personally, I get the $20 cases in my builds since it just doesn't make much sense to get anything more expensive unless you're looking for a certain level of class in your build. Hence why I like Lian Li and aluminum, which make for easy maintenance and installation, especially the removable motherboard tray.

Also, newegg has this 10% off up to $200 deal going on now with masterpass, or a $15 off using an iOS app + google wallet, which makes awesome deals that much better.

In case you were wondering: All (so far) suggested builds are fully interchangeable, meaning you can swap any component with one in another build as they are all using the same technologies (ATX Haswell board, PCIe graphics, SATA drives).

A few things need clarification here:

- Maybe I didn't point it out well enough, but the i5 is the faster CPU in most cases! That might seem counter-intuitive but that's because it's the fastest of the i5 line while Ex's i7 is a midrange model that can't be overclocked. The i5 can also be made to be way faster by overclocking which the Core i's are known to do very well. 13% faster than stock clock is guaranteed, safe and doable for complete overclock newbies.
If you want to spend more money on an actually faster CPU you need to opt for the high-end of the i7 line:
CPU: *Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Amazon)
The only scenario where Ex's i7 would be faster is if you are using 6 or more cores, which not many applications are able to do.

- The TDP value you're probably talking about means absolute maximum allowed current through the CPU. By no means does it say something about normal operation. The maximum current has to be larger because the CPU can clock much faster while having the same number of cores. Since the makeup and technology in the i5 and i7 are basically the same the actual power consumption should be pretty much the same when both models run at the same speed. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7003/the-haswell-review-intel-core-i74770k-i54560k-tested/2

- Under normal desktop operation todays CPU's are heavily throttled drastically reducing power consumption. This shouldn't be a deciding factor.

Not much as whatever you pick won't bottleneck you. It still improves speed by ~1% to get decently clocked RAM (which we all suggested). Ex will tell you that you need heat spreaders, but personally I never bothered.

SeaSonics are the best.

I don't hear a difference. Other people do. Best you go to a local computer store and have them show it to you.

Get an IPS panel, stay away from TN panels. The latter are cheap crap and I immediately regretted "upgrading" to my TN-panel from a decent CRT. At that time IPS had bad response times and weren't quite as affordable so I kinda had no choice but now they are fast and affordable. Ask Shadowflare for even more variants, and technologies maybe even better suited for your needs.
Size and number of monitors depends on what you use it for. A few examples:
- If you do a lot of image editing, text reading or watching movies a large monitor will be useful.
- If you're doing a lot of multitasking (e.g. chat while ingame) get 2 monitors.
Keep in mind a big screen, or even 2 big screens means more eye/head movement during multitasking.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jul 13 2014, 10:17 am by NudeRaider.

I'd also like to point out that I absolutely love my 27" screen but having 3 21" screens can be significantly more productive in the long run. 21" monitors are also very light, so you can get away with using cheap desk mounts for improved space.
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=114&cp_id=11401&cs_id=1130703&p_id=10509&seq=1&format=2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005363&cm_re=ips-_-24-005-363-_-Product
2x 21" monitors will run you $210 after masterpass and promo codes.

Personally I strive for the smallest pixels possible, so I will only buy 21.5" 1080p panels or 27" 1440p panels.

A Bit after posting this I realized that Ex probably wanted to link to a different CPU.Maybe the k variant instead of s? Would have to check the model list for the i7s to be sure.But from the looks of it Ex mistakenly chose the power saving variant over the overclockable. That would make a lot more sense and is an actual faster alternative.

A plant that produced 10% of the world's supply for DRAM exploded last year.

And so did RAM prices after that.

I haven't really kept up with current models and I only personally own just one IPS LCD monitor (if you don't count my 42" TV), which is probably unavailable now and back then it cost about $100 more than when they first started getting priced more competitively in comparison with TN LCD monitors. From just a quick search, it looks like there are a lot more of them to choose from these days. I also recall hearing of something better than IPS, but I don't recall the name.

PLS is better but has a big premium. Hard to buy outside of korea or ebay.

Oh, I forgot to comment on this.

Back when I last looked at Classic Shell, it didn't have a Windows 7 style start menu programs list available, but it looks like they finally added that in. StartIsBack is another good one and probably has the most authentic look to it, but it does cost about $3 (discounts available for multi-computer licenses). Note that I don't actually use any Start Menu programs, though I have tried StartIsBack a little bit on a Windows 8.1 live CD made by a certain Windows 8.1 live CD builder.