I'm Rob - about to turn 26 at the end of the month and also moving from Iowa back to my native Missouri. I really wish they had Google Fiber where I was moving too!
I've been screwing around with computers for awhile now but after my ex dumped me a year ago I decided to blow my tax return and all my extra pay checks on computer parts! My build at the beginning of the year was:
Rosewill Ranger M case / Corsair TX650W PSU
Gigabyte GA-Z68M / 2500k / Hyper 212
16GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600MHz / Asus EA HD6850 1GB
2x WD 500GB HDDs
I also had an old build which I ended up giving to my nephew, he's 10 and just got into PC gaming.
Silverstone 500W PSU / Asus G41T-M LX Plus / E6850 Core 2 Duo / 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
PNY GTX 550 ti 1GB / 2x WD 160GB HDDs, Antec H2O 620 Kuhler / Creative Audigy
I wanted to replace my old computer it with an ITX system but didnt have much experience with them so I started off with an Asus P8H61-I and a Celeron G550 with 8gb of memory and a Sapphire HD6670 LP card in an Antec ISK 300-150 case with a 128GB SSD. Was kinda neat but I decided I wanted more performance like an addict so I gave it to my mom.
Second build was with an Asus P8Z77-I and an i5 3450S in the same case, used the same HD6670 (didnt think my mom was going to need it!) for that as well. Had some heat issues and the power supply was getting stressed so I started messing around with other cases, ended up going with a Thermaltake Element Q and a XFX HD7750 1GB Core video card. I still wanted more so I swapped the parts into a Cooler Master Elite 120 with an EVGA GTX 660 2GB SSC, unfortunately In the process of moving parts around I bent some pins on my P8Z77-I so now it's sitting on a shelf, I don't have steady hands so bending them back is proving very difficult.
My Thermaltake Element Q build I ended up with is another P8H61-I with a G630T, 8GB memory, and the XFX HD 7750 and a 500GB WD HDD. I gave that to a friend for help with a website we run since his old PC was on its way out.
My current ITX/HTPC build is:
Silverstone FT03 Mini / Silverstone ST450W SF modular PSU
Gigabyte H77N / i5 3450S / Corsair H70 / 2x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600MHz
EVGA GTX 660 2GB SC / Crucial M4 64GB SSD / WD 320GB Scorpio / Silverstone slot DVD
hooked up to my LG 50in plasma
I ended up parting out my old desktop and now I have a couple
Cooler Master Elite 430 (probably going to replace with a Silverstone TJ08) / Corsair TX650
Asus Maximus V GENE / i7 3770k (4.6GHz OC) / Cooler Master V8
I had the Corsair H70 on this but was disappointed with the performance so I decided to just go for looks and went back to air)
4x4GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer Blue/Orange LED 1866MHz / Asus GTX 660 ti 2GB
2x Samsung 830 128GB SSDs / 2x WD Scorpio Black 500GB HDD's / Asus N15 wifi
Samsung T260HD / Logitech 5.1 speaker system
Then for the workstation I have:
Silverstone SG04 (Silver) / XFX Modular Pro 750W
Gigabyte GA-H77M / E3 1230 v2 / Intel Liquid Thermal Solution
4x8 (32GB) G.Skill Ares 1600MHz / EVGA GTX 650 ti 2GB SSC
2x Sandisk 120GB SSD / Asus Xonar DGX
I guess I went a little overboard on stuff, I'm still working on the Workstation I'm going to get the Asus MX279h monitor when it comes available, I think it'll look nice with the Sugo SG04 case. I think total I've gone through 7 motherboards and 14 cases.......I guess just 9 cases if i dont count duplicates. Sure learned a lot as far as computers go and started to form my own opinions on stuff based on experience and a ton of research, but I always like to see what other people are doing too! I'm not a hard core gamer, BF3 is far and away the most demanding game I play but with CoH2, Rome 2, and Sim city 5 coming out this year I'll be able to put my new rigs to some good use! I'd post some pictures but I don't do cable management so their isn't a lot to look at. That's one of the things I'd like to get good at, might get into case modding as well.
GF's PC: Sunmilo ITX / ST45SF-G / Gigabyte A88XN / AMD A8 7600 / Silverstone AR06w/Noctua 92x14mm / ADATA 2x4g XPG / Sappire R7 370 2GB Compact / Crucial BX100 250g / WD 2.5 1TB HDD
My PC: FT03-T / ST60F-PS / Asus P5G41T-M LX Plus / Intel Q9550 / Intel Liquid Cooling Solution / 2x4g Crucial Tractical Tracer / PNY GTX 550 ti 1GB / Crucial M4 64gb SSD / 2x WD 3.5 1TB HDD / Samsung T260 Display