Andrew Carr - All-rounder PC

Andrew says his PC achieves the purpose of an all-rounder because of its fast and stable file transfer rate, its disk reading and writing capabilities, its temperature and large HDD capacity. He says: "It also has the ability to run graphics-hungry games with ease while keeping the price in mind."  Andrew is a computer fanatic who loves to test new gadgets and whatever technology he can get his hands on.  "I like to program in Visual Basic and currently have a website from which you can download some of my projects."  For this build, he says he recently needed an all-rounder computer that had the ability to play graphics challenging games but was fast and reliable for all of his everyday use. "By building this system I have succeeded in making just what I needed that was inside my price range."

CORE SYSTEM

CPU: Intel Core i5 650 Processor LGA1156 3.2GHz 4MB Cache - $250
This CPU choice was mostly based on performance and price. I wanted a CPU that could handle a lot but would not make my total price sky-rocket. The Core i5 fulfilled that purpose with flying colours.

COOLING: Stock cooler - $0
The iCute case comes with two built-in fans (with blue LED's) which are practically silent and provide a terrific airflow through the whole system to keep components at a constantly cool temperature.

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P7P55D P55 -$175
[4DDR3 FSB2133(OC) RAID GLAN 2xPCIEx16 SATA ATX]
This specific motherboard was perfect for all of my needs so I was solid on getting it. But what really made me lean towards this motherboard was not just that it has the brilliant function of being able to overclock components well but it has loads of extra ports, which means higher upgradability.

GRAPHICS: Sapphire ATI HD5770 Vapor-X OC Ed 1G GDDR5 PCI-E - $206
A cool PC is a good PC. With the Vapor-X cooling, I could run my system without being worried by overheating while playing games or watching HD movies.

RAM: Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 6GB (3x XMS3 2GB) - $216
[PC-10600 (1333MHz) XMP DDR3 riple Kit]
I needed the 6GB of RAM for all of the work I do at once. It is very suitable for an office, where you could be running many programs at once or possibly for just for everyday use where you would benefit from fast loading times.

HARD DRIVE 1: Seagate SATAII 500GB 7200RPM (SV35 Surveillance) - $114
As my primary HDD this hard drive needed to be extremely reliable since it holds all of my important operating system files and  my program files. So with this fast and stable hard drive I could rest assured that my data wasn't going anywhere soon.

HARD DRIVE 2: Western Digital 1TB SATAII 32M 3GB/s(WD1001FALS) - $119
Western Digital has always made the cheapest, fastest drives around. So with this in mind as well as the capacity of the disk, this hard drive was a no-brainer. It could hold my tremendous amount of data and transfer it from A to B at an amazing speed.

OPTICAL DRIVE: LG H22NS50 SATA 22X+- Super Multi DVDR Black with Software - $40
It was the price of this product that mostly grabbed me. The brand is good, the speed is good, and the reliability is good. That's all I need in an optical drive.

PSU: CoolerMaster 650W Extreme Plus - $99
Coolermaster PSU's were recommended to me by a friend, so I gave it a try and it runs like a breeze. I wouldn't expect anything less from Coolermaster.

CASE: iCute S901-5GA Black - $99
The iCute case is spacy, luxurious and has a good natural air flow. With this case I didn't need to buy any extra fans, which appealed to me, or be disappointed with the amount of USB 2.0 ports available. With 4 USB 2.0 ports on the front of the case and 25cm fan on the side, this case was perfect.

Cost of core system: AUD $1,318

EXTRAS

MONITOR: LG W2253TQ-PF  - $186
[BLK Glossy 21.5 Wide 2ms DVI 50000:1]
A big, cheap monitor with exquisite touch-activated buttons! What else could a computer fanatic need?

KEYBOARD/MOUSE: Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 700 V2 Retail - $40
Very cheap and effective keyboard and mice have always been my favourite. So with this great deal, I just couldn't resist.

OPERATING SYSTEM    Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
With the newest release from Microsoft, this system runs smoothly with no lag, errors, malfunctions, compatibility issues, etc. Its start-up time of approx. 30 seconds amazes me. Also, with my 6GB of RAM the 64-bit version was the only way to go.