Keeping active in the cold (Nov-Dec/2010)
Decided it was time for a new computer. Ingredients in the mix were:
Case: Thermaltake A60 mid-tower case
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H 880GA
RAM: Kingston 4GB (2×2GB) DDR3 1333MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit CL9 1.5V *2 (8GB RAM)
GPU: Sapphire HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort HDCP PCI-E
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W – 80+ & SLI Certified – ATX12V 2.2/ EPS12V
HDD: Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
Monitor: Benq G2420HDBL 24” LED Monitor 16:9 Widescreen Full HD 1920×1080
and of course, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Some pics:
PSU installed into the case, the new trend is to put the PSU at the bottom instead of at the top
CPU and RAM installed onto the motherboard and installed into case, just using the supplied cooler on the CPU as I don't intend to overclock. Probably just as well because the leftmost RAM stick is probably too close to the CPU socket to allow a 3rd party cooler.
Up and running with an old monitor, running memtest86+
The case was good to work with, plenty of room for my clumsy fingers and easy to isntall the drives (pilfered a perfectly good DVD/CD rewriter out of the old machine)
All complete and in it's home at the edge of the desk (shame about the silver card reader not being black (also pilfered from old machine)
The dual monitors - old LG 22" LCD on the left and new Benq 24" HD LED-backlight monitor on the right. and a right mess in front of them...
New case runs much quieter than the old one and in general a big boost in performance. And we can watch HD TV over the internet on the new monitor.