Think I'm finally in the market for a new desktop.
Insurance is covering my stolen Mac Mini for the price of a new one, $600. I liked my Mini as a backup fileserver and for recording audio (since it's so quiet), but it's really not worth buying a new one at full price.
So my thinking -- after spending yet another day of my life yesterday trying to beat my
2006 Mac Pro into shape when my graphics card decided to crash it yet again -- is that I'm going to use my Pro as the audio/backup machine (because it'll be pretty flippin' quiet too if I revert it to the 7300GT video card it came with and an SSD, with maybe a couple platter drives to use as a software RAID for backup that I can temporarily disable when I'm recording) and build a new desktop as my primary machine.
I don't need a new video card; my GTX570 can run Arkham City at 2560x1440 with all the shit cranked up to max (except vsync), and that's with the card underclocked so it won't crash my computer. I also don't need a new keyboard, monitor, mouse, or speakers.
But I haven't built a new desktop in 4 years, and that one was a budget Pentium that I built for watching videos. (Actually, I probably AM going to buy a new video card for that one, as it's running an old Radeon HD 2600XT; it's good for video, and games like Arkham City and Brutal Legend will run playably at 1080p but tend to sputter a bit. If anyone can recommend a good sub-$100 video card that'll play recent games at 1080p without too much fuss, I'd like to get one of those. GT 630 doesn't seem like it'd be too bad a deal for that machine, though an AMD card would be more convenient since it's already got AMD drivers installed.) I could use some advice on what parts would be good for a solid mid-to-high-range PC (keeping in mind that, with the occasional graphics card, RAM, and drive upgrade, my current machine has lasted me 6 years and would probably still be a perfectly cromulent computer if not for all the weird little compatibility issues you get when you buy Apple).
I'm thinking maybe something in the i5 range but if I can get a good deal on i7 I might go that route. (And if anyone can give me a good reason to go AMD, I'm willing to listen, but my last AMD card had pretty serious cooling issues and from what I understand the gulf in quality between Intel and AMD has only gotten worse in the years since.) 8GB RAM seems about right. I'd like a case that's decently cool, not too complicated to put together, and not fucking hideous. (Something black or silver and boxy would be just fine. Glowing lights and too many angles are things to avoid. USB3 slots would probably be good for future-proofing, though at present I have zero USB3 devices.) Still want an optical drive that can burn dual-layer DVD's, but don't need Blu-Ray; fuck Blu-Ray. Don't need a wireless card either, as it's going to be sitting right next to my router and I prefer wired speeds on my desktops anyway.
I think I'll probably get at least one new SSD for the new machine (and leave my current SSD in the Mac Pro), maybe also have a 500GB platter drive for Linux storage and a 1TB for Windows/gaming. I've probably got some of those around the house. I'm keeping an eye on SSD sales (of which there always seems to be at least one going on) and I usually go WD for hard drives. An internal card reader wouldn't be bad, but that's one of those things I can always buy later.
Sound needs to be 5.1, because I've got 5.1 speakers. I don't really have any exceptional requirements beyond that, and indeed I suppose that's not entirely necessary as I've already got an external 7.1 Diamond sound adapter, but I'd rather have it be handled internally.
Power supplies -- I'm open to suggestions. Something not too loud that's not going to die on me, doesn't produce cable hell, and has the juice to support my GTX570 (which is the main issue I've got with my MP).
I expect I'll buy this stuff around the time Cyber Monday sales hit. $600 is a ballpark figure since that's the use-it-or-lose-it value my insurance will cover; I can go a little higher but I don't want to stretch my budget too far. (I'll be looking at the usual holiday crunch, too, and I've got other stuff I want to replace -- I'm thinking get a new phone to replace my stolen iPod. And the tricky part is that the insurance only gives you a depreciated value for an item upfront and reimburses you for the new purchase value only after you buy an item -- so, for example, they've given me the not-very-much-money that a G4 Mac Mini and an iPod Photo were worth and, if and only if I buy a $600 computer and a $250 music player to replace them, they'll pay the difference. Which is a good deal, but I need to space out my purchases so I can afford the upfront cost.)