This was my first build, and I had planned the parts for several weeks before I finally decided exactly what I wanted. I was looking at only spending $600 or so, and I went just slightly over. I intend for this to be a medium-range gaming machine that I will also use for emulation and mild rendering.

The cable management was going well until the very end when I had to plug in all of my SATA cables. They were a pain to try to hide and there wasn't much room behind the motherboard to store cables. It took me several hours of work just to be sure I was doing things right and turned into a 2-day project. I couldn't get the UEFI BIOS to read the CD drive, so I swapped it out with another and am currently using that one until I get an RMA. The fans are a bit louder than I had hoped, but they should work fine until I get the money to upgrade.

I already had both, the SSD and HDD and I don't need much more than 500GB for my personal use. The RAM speed is overkill for my build, but it was a super saver deal and cheaper than most other 1600 RAM kits. I added an old Thermaltake fan to the front of my case until I buy new fans, and that has dropped my temperatures by a considerable amount.

Update: 20 October 2013

I've finally added some extra parts that I hadn't gotten around to. First of all, I added a Cooler Master Hyper 212 which has dropped my temps considerably. I used Xigmatek thermal paste which was extremely easy to apply and didn't have to cure. I also added a 1TB Hitachi Ultrastar Enterprise HDD that I bought from someone for a little over $40. I've also got an 80GB Dell HDD that I pulled from a recycled machine that I use exclusively for Linux and programming. I bought an LG Flatron ultra slim 22" monitor for about $75. I found a quiet model of Cooler Master fans on Newegg, and I purchased two, one to replace the old Thermaltake in the front and one for the bottom (I actually tried to place it on the top, but the Hyper 212 is so large that it blocks the panel). Finally, my roommate gave me his old surround sound system for $25 which still sound great. New pictures of the setup have been added. Overall, I still didn't spend too much over my original $600 budget or so, considering the price of the monitor and that I made a little extra in the time since I did the build process.