I also do not "see" the SSD thing. A friend of mine has gone through 3 of them in less than two years. I go through hard drives entirely too fast, and don't need to accelerate the replacement process for a smaller, much more expensive drive. I also don't RAID, but that's a monetary decision. The idea of giving mom your old computer and doing Option 2 with its sub-options to-be-determined-later is good, but I wouldn't wait on the Vega. Besides, what's the "compatibility" factor like? Will it do Linux?? Allows you to fulfill that "I've gotta build something!" urge, and get to enjoy the results. In line with all of that, if you want to, you can adopt me into your family, and I'll take some of you old, unused gear off of your hands, including helping you out with disposing of old builds...