New machine time...

It's been over 3 years since I built a new desktop completely from scratch. Back over the summer I upgraded the desktop I'd had for 3 years, and ended up selling it soon after to help fund a Mac Mini. The Mini has now become the "Family computer" as it didn't quite fill all of my needs, so I built myself a new Gaming/Development rig.

Here are the components I settled on:

• Intel Core i7 3770 CPU
• Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
• ASRock Z77 Motherboard
• 16GB DDR3 1866 Kingston HyperX RAM
• 256GB Plextor M5S SSD
• 1TB Samsung HDD
• Samsung DVD Burner
• 2GB Nvidia Geforce GTX560Ti graphics by EVGA
• Corsair 500W Modular Power Supply
• Zalman Z5 Plus case

I had initially ordered a i5-3570K CPU with the intentions of overclocking it. I got it up to 4.4GHz, but it still didn't feel quite as snappy as the Xeon E3-1230-V2 (similar to Core i7 - 4C/8T) that I'd used over the summer, and overclocking was really too complicated, and I worried about the life of the chip.

I wound up quickly re-selling that chip on eBay for $5 less than I originally paid (I'll never understand eBay economics), and I purchased an i7-3770. I got the regular "non-K" version so I could gain Intel VT-d technology which is left off of the K series chips. I was still able to get a modest overclock to 4.1GHz using the ability Intel give to overclock locked CPU's using the Tubo multiplier. Simply setting the multiplier to 41 for "all cores" gives me a nice stable 4.1GHz chip w/ all four cores active, on stock voltage and manageable temps.