Yeah, I ditched the SSD as well. I built a new machine early this year before Windows 8 came on. People who talk about the difference between Windows 7 and 8 interface I can sorta relate to; I went from a single core processor on Win XP SP2 to a hex core i7 processor running Windows 7 Pro. I have 64Gb of RAM, and 7 Tb of internal storage (cloud? who needs a cloud?). A definitely noticable change in performance, let me tell you.

Having said that, Windows 8 looks nice, and you can get a 60" touch screen for $4000... although really I'm mostly interested in it for a laptop/tablet hybrid...