My system is a little over a year old now and I expect it to continue to be a solid build for at least another year. While CPU technology continues to improve, the i7-2600K continues to compete favorably with the latest from Intel. The price to performance ratio is exceptional.
But as games become more complex and other peripherals grow old, they can be replaced.
I recently upgraded my graphics card from the triple-wide GTX 570 ENGTX570 DCII to the newer, abler, double-wide ASUS GTX670-DC2-2GD5. The latest generation Nvidia cards are more efficient. They use less power and temperatures are lower in general. This allows a more graphically powerful card to require less cooling. This means the new card takes up less space, is quieter and runs cooler. It's a win on three counts. No, make that four counts as it also performs somewhere between 16% and 25% better than the 570 did (depending on the performance category).
I also upgraded my old BENQ monitor to a new BENQ monitor that is capable of handling 120hz. It's also MUCH brighter and more configurable than the previous model.
Finally, the Logitech Anywhere MX mouse I purchased a year and a half ago is still going strong. This is a big deal to me because I burn through mice. If a mouse lasts a year with me, that's good. This one shows no signs of wear and the buttons and wheel feel the same as they did when I first unboxed it. That's solid quality. I am tempted to purchase another just to have. I worry that Logitech will change or discontinue the model and when this one finally dies I will be out of luck.
That's it for now. As a post script, I am running the Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation version. It's full blown Windows 8, but with a time limited license that expires in a few months, basically when Windows 8 is released to the public at large. Good stuff! No going back to Windows 7 for me.
