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#11
They include the PCI slots since there are still people who have working PCI cards, especially sound cards and dial-up modems. Many of those old PCI sound cards were pretty good and can hold their own against the newer ones. However, there are plenty of good MOBOs in the same price range that will replace those PCI slots with PCI-e x1 slots (the old PCI was the bandwidth equivalent of PCI-e x1).
I know what you mean about remaining Win 7 licenses. I have two retail licenses—one Ultimate and one Home Premium—gathering dust.
Sorry I didn't get back but have read and appreciate the comments. This is the supplier I typically use
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I think the PSU options I have are good quality and modular isn't that important with a decent case to hide unwanted cables. As to the case I'm still unsure.
Mother board is pretty much between (Australian $):
- AsRock H97M-Pro4 - $109
- Asus H97-Pro - $158
Admittedly the AsRock is micro but seems to get really good reviews. I've used a basic AsRock before and it's still going strong.
Blues are great drives and have the same reliability as the WD blacks (have same specs on component lifetimes, even though the warranty period is different). The 1 TB blue are one platter and are pretty fast: 190 MB/s peak on the outer edge of the platter and 142 MB/s average. I have 3 of these running on my system now and several other on my families for quite some time with no issues and great performance.
Seagate pretty much suck in my book. Their data center enterprise class drive are all right, but hteir consumer drives have high failure rates in general.
Another good option are the HGST (Hitachi) drives. But they are more expensive than the WDC Blues and I don't think you buy much for that.
Fractal design cases are a good bang for the buck.
If you are not going modular, pay careful attention to the depth of the backside of the case where you will route the cables. PSU cables are relatively stiff, especially for non-modular PSU, so it isn't easy to route the cables without ample space.
Funny as all my hdd issues have always been with 2.5" WD and I like WD drives as well but I have to tell you I'm running about equal numbers of both WD, Hitachi and Seagate in 3.5" and I've had zero issues with any of them and it all boils down to purpose and cost. I believe we are literally just months away from seeing the hdd manufacturers shaken to their very core with the new ssd platforms cost to performance ratios and larger than 1-6 tb sizes.
My final build:
Mobo: Asus H97-PRO
CPU: i5 4590
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
PSU: Corsair RM550
Case: Corsair 300R
DVD/Blu Ray combo: Pioneer BDC-207-DBK OEM
RAM: GSkill RipjawsX (1600) 2x8GB
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
HDDs: WD Blue, 1TB, Seagate 1TB (old/existing)
GPU (old existing): GTX750
I consider it a good mid range general purpose/gaming PC. The graphics card can be upgraded but I'm not paying for it. At least that is what I tell my son who is the new owner.