After my last PC was struck by lightning, I decided to do a system build instead of buying an off-the-shelf computer. This is the primary desktop at home, and is used for some casual gaming, sound editing and mastering, and Android / Windows development.

The target budget for the system was in the $1000 ballpark. Deciding last minute to upgrade the graphics and hard drive capacities put me slightly over. Let's be honest, Intel Integrated Graphics is good, but doesn't do much for gaming.

System Thoughts:

• i7 - performance is really nice. I can easily run multiple VirtualBox VMs / large builds and the system doesn't feel sluggish at all. Running at stock speeds, I'm not happy with the integrated HSF, I'd prefer to see peak temperature in the 60s, this guy is currently posting into the 70s under load.

• MSI Gaming 5 - Not my original planned motherboard, but I got a really good deal on the i7/MSI combo, and this one advertised some musician friendly features. I generally use a USB soundboard, but the isolated headphone out on this guy is fairly nice. The "Killer" network device uses by default the "Killer Network Manager" which DOES NOT play nice with other network devices. Doing some googling, I found the network drivers-only binaries posted by MSI on their forum. They get me decent performance without more crashy bloatware. I ended up completely tossing the whizz-bang driver & utilities CD, and downloading a limited selection of software from the MSI support site.

• Intel SSD - Makes the whole thing tick for lightning fast builds. So far, no problems. We'll see if I change my mind in a few years after the drive is getting older.

• Corsair PSU - It's quiet and does the job. I spent a bit extra for the "semi modular" option. I like the idea of a modular PSU, but find myself a bit frustrated over the modular cable selection options. In the end, I've got an extra cable for one blasted connector, and haven't yet figured a way to get rid of it.

• Cooler Master Case - For the price, this is a great case. Easily fits the R7 260 with plenty of room to spare. Some nice mounting options for hard drives, and some decent support for cable management. I opted for the non-window option of the case side. If you have a preference, pay attention to the retailer / option at checkout!

• Windows 8.1 Pro - Using the latest version of Windows and Microsoft tools for development. I'm using Stardock's Start8 and Fences to make it more tolerable / less stupid.

Power Consumption: I see measured steady current use of 60W while running, when idle, it can get down to ~50W.