The first and only PC I had self-built was almost 10 years ago, in 2003. Back then, SATA was a brand new interface, the WD Raptor HDDs were what SSDs are today, and the AMD Athlon 64 was the first consumer 64-bit CPU on the market. I paired them up with a ATI Radeon 9800 XT All-in-Wonder, on an Asus motherboard. All installed in a behemoth case that by itself probably weighed 50 pounds (felt like it). I still have it, but its been sitting in the box since 2006 when i switched over to the Mac. I still use a circa 2007 15" Macbook Pro for work stuff, and have a PS3 for gaming. But release of Diablo 3 changed all that. And being out of the PC side of things, I had no idea what was new, what was good, and what was compatible.
So, deepest thanks to those who posted replies in this thread and helped me narrow down the following parts:
Intel Core i5 3570KAsus Z77 motherboardSilverstone Grandia GD4B caseSeasonic 620W modular PSUEVGA 670GTX FTWSamsung 830 128gb SSDWD 500gb HDDCorsair 4x4gbWin 7 Home 64Logitech KeyboardStill deciding on the mouse, but that is not important. I have an old wireless mouse I can use until I decide. So all the parts were ordered. The case is half the size of my old behemoth, and the PC installed in it is probably 10x as powerful. Here is the case disassembled.
With the HDD and DVD drive cages removed, there are three case fans, front USB and audio ports, and power, reset and HDD indicators wiring left.
The DVD drive cage is on top, the HDD cage on the bottom.
Here is the motherboard installed.
The motherboard came with right-angled SATA cables, which created a problem with my SSD and HDD. I could not connect them with those wires. So I went to Microcenter and purchased a straight-end SATA cable, a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for the SSD, and SATA extension cable so HDDs and DVDs can run off one cable. Here are the storage drives mounted.
And the DVD drive mounted in its cage.
Big honking power supply is installed. Glad I went with modular. Space is extremely tight in the small case, can't imagine a regular power supply in there.
Here is the single most expensive part of the build, comprising about 1/3 of the price.
Here is it installed.
Drive bays installed
Two additional case fans and every thing hooked up.
Build complete.
And here is where the PC resides, next to the receiver, and below the PS3.
Ignore the USB cable. My wireless keyboard is on order from Amazon, so using an old wired Dell keyboard. i could not get the Apple BT keyboard to work properly, so waiting on the logitech keyboard and will decide on the mouse as well.
While I have not gamed much yet on it, been busy with other home projects and work. But at idle, the PC really is whisper quiet. I added couple of
Enermax 80mm case fans. And noise is barely noticeable. Only had couple of hours of Diablo 3, but will truly enjoy it once I have wireless keyboard and mouse. May be next week. Certainyl over the July 4 weekend, since i have taken 5 and 6 off.