Workstation upgrade update! 2

Things are going a bit slower than I wanted. ._. Just a little bit. We'll get to building the thing during this weekend.

YAY

So anyway, the photo. So much beauty. ;v;

Allow me to introduce, from left to right:

• Aerocool DS-200 case - the top panel can be replaced with a meshed one to let some more air into the case. Perfect for those hot, summer days of heavy rendering! Also in my favorite color!
• Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card - never again shall I hear the constant horrible whistling of the motherboard's integrated sound chip, AND with this SPU, along with the included beam-forming mic, there's a chance I'll start doing streams (not sure about it, though, not very confident tbh; but I do listen to a lot of music while arting, and play games when I need a break, so that'll help either way)! Fun fact: the last time I had an actual sound card, was back in MS-DOS times.
• Be Quiet! Dark Power PRO 11 750W power supply - whatever the future of upgrades to this workstation may hold, this PSU will surely blaze through most changes!
• Asus Strix GeForce GTX980 DC2 OC GPU - well holy shit, I don't think I have to say anything about that. XD Aside from gaming and possible streaming, this'll let me efficiently use ActiveShade mode in 3ds Max, which is a very accurate, and very GPU-intensive preview of the scene in realtime. Tweaking lighting and framing has never been this easy! And also, my previous GTX 560 died recently, and I had to use the crappy onboard chip for the last 2-3 months. Couldn't even take a gaming break with that piece of crap. ._. All work and no play makes tchai a very dull hyena.
• Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray writer - not very exciting, but I only had a DVD writer before. Now I'll be able to archivize my projects much more efficiently!
• HGST (Hitachi) Ultrastar 7K600 4TB HDD - my current HDD is 750GB (and roughly 10 years old). This Hitachi is literally 5.33 times bigger, and I know for a fact that they're some of the most reliable HDDs. Need I say more? :D
  
• Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 motherboard - again, not very exciting, but a pretty amazing motherboard, that can boost CPU efficiency by 100%, and has some power-saving features. That's as neat as a motherboard can get, I think!
• 32GB of Crucial Ballistix Tactical RAM - this motherboard can't take more than that. Right now I have 8GB of RAM. I guess a 4x boost should definitely let me render more complex stuff, like ACTUAL HAIR, and characters with FULL BODY TESSELLATION AND DISPLACEMENT. Also generally more complex scenes, too!
• Noctua NH-D14 cooler - something FRIGGEN HUGE to keep the CPU freezing cold! NOTE: I didn't want a water cooler - not yet.
• AMD FX-8370 processor - octa-core @ 4.0gHz will easily beat my current hexa-core Phenom II X6 1075T @ 3.0gHz. And if I overclock it to 4.5gHz (planning to try it), it'll be exactly twice as fast. 3-hour renderings? Nah, I'll do that in 1,5 hours.

And that's your lot! I also replaced my 15-year-old keyboard and 10-year-old mouse a few months ago. They were literally falling apart. XD The replacements - Asus Strix Tactic Pro keyboard, and Func MS-3 R2 mouse - both have programmable macro keys, which really speeds up some tedious processes (not to mention the incredible ergonomy of the mouse).

DID I SAY "THANK YOU" ENOUGH TIMES YET?

HINT: OF COURSE NOT

ONCE MORE, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS UPGRADE A THING! ;A;