Trevor Munn - ASUS Master Challenge Top 10

NOMINATED ASUS MOTHERBOARD    P7P55D DELUXE

NOMINATED ASUS GRAPHICS CARD    ASUS ENGTX275

CPU:  Intel i7 860
I have chosen the i7-860 CPU as it is cheaper than the 870.  Though more expensive than the i5-750 it does have the advantage of Hyper-Threading support, making it much more powerful than the i5 for multi-threaded applications which can be assigned to all 8 visible cores (video editing, gaming). The 860 will also result in a power saving over an i5 CPU overclocked to the 860's standard 2.8GHz. The 860 is more expensive than the i5 and in reality I would probably go for the i5-750.  But since this is a theoretical build... and since I am winning the motherboard ;) I think I can splash out for the i7."
    
CPU COOLER:  ASUS Triton 88
Twin Pillared Design, 6 copper heatpipes.  Heaps of headroom for overclocking.  Love the blue led fan, will look great on the P7-P55D Deluxe.

MEMORY: Kingston HyperX 4GB(2x2GB) DDR3 2000
It's lightning fast.  It's heat spreaders will aid system cooling and an overclock (when needed). It also Looks HOT and complements the styling of my ASUS P7P55D Deluxe.

AUDIO: ASUS  Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe
The VT2020 on the P7P55D Deluxe supports 10 channel audio with 7.1+2 channel multi-streaming and is DTS compatible.  In other words it's awesome and third party audio is unnecessary. But if I had spare money at the end of the build I'd throw in ASUS XONAR HDAV1.3 Deluxe.

HARD DRIVE 1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB
It's fast, reliable and affordable.  I've been using Seagate for years and their products are great and their support and warranty is better. This drive will be used in a RAID 0 configuration with drive 2 for maximum performance.

HARD DRIVE 2: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB
It's fast, reliable and affordable.  I've been using seagate for years and their products are great and their support and warranty is better. This drive will be used in a RAID 0 configuration with drive 1 for maximum performance."

HARD DRIVE 3: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
That RAID 0 configuration I have running is pretty risky, hence my third drive here.  A Power efficient drive for which speed is not all important, it will be used to store a backup of my primary boot array,  most useful should one of my other drives die.  This will be updated daily with all files which have been updated during the day (I have an application for this which I wrote a while back after I had a drive die).  I'll also have backup to a seperate pc/external storage in case of worst case (my machine is stolen, or the room catches fire), but we won't go into that :)"

OPTICAL DRIVE:  ASUS BC-1205PT Blu-ray Combo Drive
I want a drive from a reputable company for watching Blu-Ray movies (get the most out of my graphics card and let that XONAR pay for itself).  I'm not interested in writing to Bly-Ray discs as the media is so expensive.  I do still burn DVD discs, so this is the drive for me.

PSU: ASUS G-1000HA

• 80 Plus certified
• Cool and stable with 5 12v rails
• PCIE 2.0 Connectors
• Able to support SLI configuration (So I can throw in another ASUS ENGTX275 when I can't max out my games)
• Plenty of SATA connectors.
  

What more could you want??

CASE: ASUS TA-M2
Multi Way Ventilation for perfect cooling.  Blue LED's throughout complement my motherboard design (and the theme thus far)

MONITOR: ASUS VK246H
Crisp Display (2ms response), stunning visuals, HDMI support and 1080p full high definition.  It also has a webcam (not that I often use it), and I already own this monitor which makes it the perfect match.

KEYBOARD: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
LCD on keyboard display.  Comfortable and responsive.  Build quality and proven track record for Logitech Gaming peripherals.

MOUSE: G7 Gaming Laser Mouse
Ultra responsive mouse for maximum gaming performance.  Build quality and proven track record for Logitech Gaming peripherals.

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 7 Business 64-bit
Brilliant OS for security and performance, 64bit to allow for another 4gb of RAM to be added down the track.  DirectX 10 support. Business edition so I can connect to Domain and VPN for work.

TV TUNER: DViCo FusionHDTV DVB-T Dual - PCI Express Hybrid Dual TV Tuner.
 With this awesome machine I'll be spending less time in the loungeroom, so I need more options for TV in my PC.  This setup will allow me to make full use of the media centre functionality in Windows 7 and make sure I never miss my favourite shows.

CARD READER
I'll also be including a card reader in my machine, will be finding one which matches the styling of my case and take up an optical drive bay.  I hate having to hunt around for cables or a USB card reader every time I need to get photos off my camera, so this is the answer.

ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS CARD: ASUS ENGTX275
Maybe not straight away but as I mentioned previously I will probably buy another ASUS ENGTX275 when I can't max out my games.

ADDITIONAL MEMORY: Kingston HyperX 4GB(2x2GB) DDR3 2000
I will probably also consider another Kingston HyperX 4GB(2x2GB) DDR3 2000 kit to make a total of 8GB of RAM in the system.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

This will not be the cheapest system I could build, but it is a beautiful thing.  It has the power and multimedia inclusions to do just about anything.  It has enough grunt to play the latest games, and games to come (yes it'll play Crysis lol).  It has the storage and multimedia features for home entertainment as well, TV, Video or photo editing with minimum fuss.

The HDMI capable graphics card and XONAR sound board from ASUS also give this machine the capability to hook up to the big screen and sound in your lounge room for maximum enjoyment.

This machine also has enough grunt for me to bring home all of my work in the software delevopment, graphic design and video editing sphere.  It is a very capable high end business workstation PC.