Thanks for the input!
I hadn't considered mATX ... I started a paper build but got stuck on the case. The one you suggested is almost there (I could live without USB 3.0 front ports) but it only has a single internal 3.5" bay. If I search for cases that have at least one 3.5" external bay and two 3.5" internal bays ... most or all them seem kinda cheap. Any suggestions there? Despite what follows below, I'm still interested in mATX as an alternative. It would eliminate SLI/Crossfire as a possibility, but as long as a smaller enclosure doesn't compromise cooling then I'm not too bothered about it. Throw out SLI, and then a bunch of other stuff doesn't make sense either - I see an mATX build being about $250-$300 cheaper, nothing to sneeze at.
I need the external 3.5", as well as an ASRock board for my floppy drive.
Yes, I'm one of
those people - I still find having a bootable 3.5" very handy for computer repair (probably not so much for this computer anymore, but for fixing other people's equipment).
As for everything else - The PSU is overkill I agree, but it seems getting a modular PSU starts at around that price anyway. It will certainly laugh at the leftover HD 5750 I throw in there for starters. Plus the 200 watts or so of headroom will be nice for the overclock, aging of the PSU over time, possible SLI or other graphics card upgrade. The 2133 RAM has an instant rebate on right now, it's a bit shy of twice the price, plus with the overclock of the CPU I will get something out it. For basically a $30 premium, I'm okay with it. (As an infrequent upgrader 8GB of ram for $90 still seems crazy cheap to me
) It does seem that at stock speeds there is little point to anything more than DDR 1600.
The build is partly a $50 gamble - the mobo and the memory could possibly accommodate an Ivy Bridge CPU. Whether they'll still be in style when I'm ready for a refresh is debatable, but at least I'll have the option. I know this kind of "futureproofing" has a pretty low chance of actually paying off, but as it only represents a 5% premium, the penalty if it doesn't work out is pretty low.