psyopper ... thank you for your reply, I should have put at least some comments next to the pictures, here we go:
1) The
CPU ... was hard to get. It was everywhere out of stock and when I called the store where I got it from, they confirmed to reserve it for me but it was the last one in stock.
2) The
memory modules are not easy to get either, not because they're in short supply like the CPU, but it seems that they're just not popular enough.
Well, I found a store who have them in their product range and ordered just these modules from them ... nothing else.
3) The
motherboard ... well it had to be mATX, and this one seems to be the best mATX there is at the moment. Many performance fans still don't believe that this mATX can compete with high class full ATX boards - but it's true.
4) The
CPU cooler ... hasn't got the best performance in cooling, but I needed a very low profile CPU cooler. So the choice was very limited.
Was thinking of a Zalman one, but didn't like the way it was fixed onto the socket ... with a lever. This one looked much more stable. Anyway ...
5) The
hard drive ... first I thought about 500GB, but as the prices are constantly falling I just went with the 1TB version. By the way, the Samsung F series is very attractive too because they use only 3 platters instead of 4 for this size but the WD runs with a lower rpm, so is quiter ... I think.
6) The
power supply ... I was thinking of Corsair HX520W modular, but then changed my mind in the last minute with this one because it is specially made for SFF cases, with short cables = less clutter.
Besides this, the performance / quality is very good too.
7) The
graphics card ... I was thinking for a long time between the 8800 GT and the 9600 GT. This one does run very hot, but the performance doesn't leave any space for complaints - so far.
I was playing a few games on my old low spec PC and boy, the difference now is massive. I didn't even know what graphics quality there was sleeping in the games I had, until this card showed features which my old PC was not able to show.
For example the layers of floor, rocks, tanks, cars, water, sky, clouds ... everything looks 100 x better now ... of course while running smooth like silk.
The
monitor Samsung SM2493 HM really is special.
I couldn't make my mind up before, was thinking between four different brands ... thanks god I went with this one. The Samsung is awesome.
Should have bought it earlier.
9) The black
optical drive looks funny in the silver case, but you know what ? ... I don't mind anymore.
10) The
keyboard was a surprise ! ... no, not a present. I bought it by the looks of the picture, more or less just out of fun. And good I bought it, this one not only looks awesome, it is the best keyboard I have ever typed on too !!
The setup was painless.
Just two little problems:
1) I did not have any sound in the beginning, for no obvious reason.
Tried everything, until I decided to install XP over Vista to see if that makes any difference.
Before that I installed SP1 for vista and after the installation was finished, I suddenly got sound ... incredible.
2) The first game I tried out on this PC was Halo - Combat Evolved (from 2003), I play it online a lot but now I noticed that I could only play one cycle. When one cycle was finsihed, the computer froze and I had to go into Task Manager and exit Halo in order to get out.
This problem resolved itself as soon as I installed the external graphics card instead of using the onboard VGA. Suddenly the speed as well as the max resolution went up.