Edit:made a few changes
So, what it looks like at the moment:
Motherboard: ASUS H61M-A: Seems to be the finest quality microATX LGA1155 board (for my needs of course), note: I'm fine without USB3.0 and SATA3.
CPU: Intel Celeron G1610: I think there's no more question about it. I found that AMD also uses thermal paste under the IHS, on older models too, therefore I think I shouldn't worry that much about it (I know a few very old AMD systems that still work fine). Also thinking that my 95W TDP Pentium D's original heatsink with it's original thermal paste still working relatively well after 6 years of use, it should be fine right?
RAM: Kingmax 4GB DDR3 1333MHz kit. I'm pretty satisfied with Kingmax, used it in my current system as well without any issues.
Video card: Gainward GT630 SilentFX (GK 208). The only thing that worried me about this revision is the low memory bandwidth, but after finding some benchmarks I'm not worried about it anymore. It'll produce very low heat (TDP 25W), will be completely silent and will run my games just fine. Maybe I'll have to turn down texture settings a bit in some games, but since I use low resolution on a small monitor, it'll be fine. (experimented with those settings a bit already to see how it would look if I have to use them)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200rpm. Cheap, fine HDD. No money for SSD-s at the moment. I see it has SATA3 compatibility, but since it's a HDD it'll run fine on SATA2 as well I guess
DVD-RW: cheap Samsung one, won't use it much, only for a few installations probably.
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000. Just found this one. Looks good, and after reading some reviews it looks pretty convincing. It has a 12cm fan on the front. Rear exhaust would be the job of the PSU.
PSU: Seasonic G series 360. 1 12V rail rated @25A, japanese capacitors, stable output, perfect (even if not cheap, but this is the most important part if I want a long lasting system)
This whole system would cost around 125k HUF (~420€) including Windows 8 (which I'll choose for longer support, also it looks fine imo after seeing more from it)
I was thinking about more expensive systems as well, (starting with an A8/A10 APU as next step, all the way up to an i3 with a GTX650), but really I can't spend more at a PC in these times. This one will be perfect for my needs, maybe the next one I'll buy 6-7 years from now will be a higher rated one.
Still if someone knows more about the IHS issue of Ivy Bridge or using a passively cooled card in that case, I would appreciate the help. It won't be tomorrow when I buy this PC so changes can be made.
So, what it looks like at the moment:
Motherboard: ASUS H61M-A: Seems to be the finest quality microATX LGA1155 board (for my needs of course), note: I'm fine without USB3.0 and SATA3.
CPU: Intel Celeron G1610: I think there's no more question about it. I found that AMD also uses thermal paste under the IHS, on older models too, therefore I think I shouldn't worry that much about it (I know a few very old AMD systems that still work fine). Also thinking that my 95W TDP Pentium D's original heatsink with it's original thermal paste still working relatively well after 6 years of use, it should be fine right?
RAM: Kingmax 4GB DDR3 1333MHz kit. I'm pretty satisfied with Kingmax, used it in my current system as well without any issues.
Video card: Gainward GT630 SilentFX (GK 208). The only thing that worried me about this revision is the low memory bandwidth, but after finding some benchmarks I'm not worried about it anymore. It'll produce very low heat (TDP 25W), will be completely silent and will run my games just fine. Maybe I'll have to turn down texture settings a bit in some games, but since I use low resolution on a small monitor, it'll be fine. (experimented with those settings a bit already to see how it would look if I have to use them)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200rpm. Cheap, fine HDD. No money for SSD-s at the moment. I see it has SATA3 compatibility, but since it's a HDD it'll run fine on SATA2 as well I guess
DVD-RW: cheap Samsung one, won't use it much, only for a few installations probably.
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000. Just found this one. Looks good, and after reading some reviews it looks pretty convincing. It has a 12cm fan on the front. Rear exhaust would be the job of the PSU.
PSU: Seasonic G series 360. 1 12V rail rated @25A, japanese capacitors, stable output, perfect (even if not cheap, but this is the most important part if I want a long lasting system)
This whole system would cost around 125k HUF (~420€) including Windows 8 (which I'll choose for longer support, also it looks fine imo after seeing more from it)
I was thinking about more expensive systems as well, (starting with an A8/A10 APU as next step, all the way up to an i3 with a GTX650), but really I can't spend more at a PC in these times. This one will be perfect for my needs, maybe the next one I'll buy 6-7 years from now will be a higher rated one.
Still if someone knows more about the IHS issue of Ivy Bridge or using a passively cooled card in that case, I would appreciate the help. It won't be tomorrow when I buy this PC so changes can be made.
