1. Last Friday when I got home from work and tried to do some internet browsing, my computer rebooted and couldn't get past the Windows start up screen.
To make matters worse, I had arranged to have the Monday off work as ISP technicians were coming around to my place to install a Fibre Optic connection box, connecting me to Australia's new National Broadband Network. So I needed to make sure I had a functioning computer for them to connect me up.
2. My i7-860 was running at stock speeds and I will buy a new hard disk for it and have it as my back up computer.
I purchased the following gear :
1 LiteON SATA DVD-RW 24X Black @$22.00
1 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM @$95.00
1 SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ PSU @$118.00
1 G Skill 8G(2x4G)DDR3 1600Mhz PC3-12800 CL8(F3-12800CL8D-8GB) @$78.50
1 Logitech MK550 Wireless Wave Combo @$72.00
1 Cooler Master Storm Trooper Black Case @$165.00
1 Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO w Transparent 12cm @$39.00
1 Netcomm NB16WV ADSL2+ Wireless N300 3G Gigabit WAN Modem/Router Voip @$138.50
1 Intel 520S 240GB/SATA3/R 550MBs,W 520MBs/25nm/3.5"Kit @$359.00
2 Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache @$238.00
1 Corsair 64GB Flash Voyager GT USB 3.0 @$98.00
1 Asus P8Z77-M PRO P8Z77-M PRO.Z77 4xDDR3 3xPCI-E16 GBL SATA3 USB3.0 RA @$135.00
1 Intel Core i5 3570K LGA1155 CPU 3.4Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge @$244.00
3. Why leave Turbo Boost disabled? Having said that, I may return my CPU settings back to stock, until such time that I encounter a set of circumstances that need an overclocked i5 3570K
4. At some point just to try things out, I'll take the CPU up to 4.5Ghz to see what the increase in heat output is.
5. In respect of the IGP, I was going to leave the ATI HD5770 that was in my i7 860 system intact(mainly because I am a lazy bastard), and try living with the HD4000 for a while, but it was just terrible. I'm not sure if the main problem was running at 1600 x 1200 on a 2500 x 1600 monitor, but the visuals were even uglier than what my old nVidia 6800GT produced back in 2004.
The only thing I currently need a half decent video card for is StarCraft 2, I'm not tempted by any other games yet.
When Doom 4 and Half Life 3 eventually come out, then I will buy a decent videocard, something equivalent to today's nVidia 6700 in terms of where it sits, but obviously more powerful because a year or two will have passed.
This also means that I will now sit out the Haswell generation for desktop, as I expect that the i5 3570K at stock speeds will give me all I need, let alone if I decide to overclock it to somewhere between 4 & 4.5Ghz inclusive.
Also from now on, I will have two functioning and functional desktop computers and I will take turns in updating their respective innards, with my i7 860 internals to eventually be gutted for something in 2015 I suspect.