It’s been two years and some odd months since I put together my gaming rig: the SSM1 (Sonokamome System Model 1) and I’ve decided that it would be fun to think about the specs for the next rig, SSM2. Now, given that the economy is really bad in most parts of the world, and that due to calamities in the weather that have affected the production of some hardware components in key manufacturing plants in the world, I can’t really enact in being active with purchasing hardware. Plus, I’ve already spent enough on the current rig for hardware and software (the former lately being hardware).

In the last two years since putting together SSM1, I’ve upgraded the video graphics card: first started the build off with a Nvidia GTX 260, followed by a year later with an upgrade to a GTX 460, and then a year later with the current GTX 570. Each card as relatively set me back a bit during the time that they were purchased, I’ve learned that for upgrading something important like a video graphics card, it’s best to go back to budgeting and planning ahead…sort of.

Not to say that I’ve spent the money on the hardware on a mere whim as each upgrade addressed a two problems that the GTX 260 had in my build: heat and power consumption. The GTX 260 was a good card…for something as back as 2006 (which really did not make sense to buy in 2009 if you think about it). So the power consumption and heat dissipation were things that I was not entirely a fan of so the GTX 460 upgrade addressed that quickly. And the GTX 570 later on addressed the issue of providing the same power consumption levels but with more processing power than the GTX 460. In other words I get the double the power and then some with just one single card replacement – a pretty sweet trade-off.

But when going on to looking for an overall system overhaul, you have to seriously consider – as I’ve pointed out in my ongoing slow DIY PC guide articles – in planning ahead. With the latest Intel releases of LGA 1155, and now more recently LGA 2011 which replaces the LGA 1366 CPU line for the top-tier platform spot, it’s time to go back to do some research. The reason to do research now in contrast to a year and a half ago when LGA 1155 CPUs came out is simply because the options found at the top-tier of Intel CPUs is where most of the interesting innovations are put into by Intel and it’s usually going to be something very good for the money’s worth (sometimes). Then again, given that Haswell will take some features that will come from the upcoming Ivy Bridge – which is a revised version of Sandy Bridge, it makes sense then to do research now in order to gain insight to what will likely be in store later on and start preparing a budget ahead of time significantly.
Sure developments may change: I could just sack the entire project in favor of a smaller and cheaper one (like building a home network server for various network applications or building a small micro-ATX solution for practice and yuks). And then of course could be in me breaking my own original plan and just upgrade my system a tad (particularly in storage and graphics along with the purchase of two more monitors, a new desk and monitor mounting fixtures).

But enough of that, here’s the ideal hardware specification that I would get for SSM2 (mind you there are some borrowing from the SSM1 build).

• The Case
  • USB 3.0 Support
  • Able to have six 120mm fans in direct front, bottom, top and rear. All Scythe running at 3000 RPM.
  • Anodized Black exterior and interior paint finish
  • Case can hold six HDDs (or SSDs) with very good ventilation for them
  • Can support E-ATX – in particular SEEC sized motherboard such as the ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer
• The Motherboard
  • USB 3.0 and lots of them
  • 7 PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes
  • 6 or more SATA 6Gb/s HDD/SSD support
  • 2 SATA 3GB/s Controller
  • 32 GB DDR3 RAM support (1600 speed or better)
  • Haswell CPU support
  • Two RJ-45 controllers and adapters
  • 64GB DDR4 support
• The Storage
  • 5 4TB SATA 6Gb/s HDDs (or SSDs)
  • 1 2TB SATA 6Gb/s SSD (boot drive)
• The Optical Drives
  • 2 x Blu-Ray Double-Side Re-Writable Optical Drives (Samsung? Sony?) with SATA 6Gb/s connection
• The Central Processing Unit
  • Intel Haswell or Ivy Bridge architecture-based CPU (hexa or quad core model)
• The Graphics Solution
  • 2 x Nvidia GTX 570 (for triple screen outputting) in Sli*
• The Sound Card
  • HT Omega eClaro Sound Card*
• The Memory
  • 12 GB of DDR3 1666 Mushkin Redline**