I'm selecting parts for a tidy little Mini-ITX LAN party rig. Since becoming a student, I'm not into the whole buying the biggest and best of everything as soon as it comes out - I prefer to plan my upgrae path more conservatively.
I will be going for a dual-core Intel Celeron G530 for the time being simply because it's cheap, and I really don't have any games which utilise any more than two cores. It suits my development needs just fine too - no massive projects here! Despite its shady past, the latest Celeron is actually a really nice chip from what I've seen, so I don't feel so bad for going for the cheapest option. The 1155 socket also has some nice offerings, so when this processor can't keep up with my workflow I feel confident that I can pick up one of the i5's or i7's to last me a couple more years at least.
Graphics-wise I am currently running a GTS 450, which for the most part is ok. I am touting a 24 incher though, so sometimes it's just not possible to push the resolution all the way up to 1080p and have smooth gameplay. Regardless, I'll be keeping this card around until I have a bit more money to spend.
RAM, and I'll be picking up a 4GB DDR3 stick. I don't multitask, and I don't believe I've ever seen a game use up more than 4GB. This leaves one slot free on the mobo to upgrade to 8GB at a later date.
Now, the mobo. I am not sure whether to go for a [href=http://www.ebuyer.com/product/282034]cheap mobo (£50)[/href] now and up grade in the future, or splash out on a [href=http://www.ebuyer.com/product/386989]Z68 mobo (£110)[/href] for overclocking. The thing is, the Celeron I am getting hardly overclocks, so if I got the cheapest mobo, I really wouldn't be missing out on much. It's just whether it's worth spending the money now and just upgrading the CPU later, or buying a new mobo and a new CPU at a later date.
Insight would be appreciated.
