Is this a decent PC build?

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cuddlefish

Honorable
Apr 27, 2012
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I am building a PC for my sister and her family. I want her to have something that will do anything they need and be something that they wont have to replace or upgrade for several years. The kids may start doing some gaming as they are becoming teenagers. She likes to edit pictures and stuff.

This is what I have put together. After all the rebates it comes out to about $1060 which is really about the max. I really wanted a second opinion on this before we make the purchase. Will all these components work well together? Are these quality components? Is there anywhere you would cut back to save some money without sacrificing much performance?

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LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM
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Rosewill REDBONE U3 Black SECC Steel USB 3.0, eSATA, 3x 120mm Fans Mid Tower Computer Case
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WD BLACK SERIES WD1003FZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
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ASUS VE247H Black 23.6" Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor
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MSI N660 Gaming 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card
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Thermaltake TR2 TR-500 500W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
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Transcend TS-RDF5K USB 3.0 Support SDHC (UHS-I), SDXC (UHS-I), microSD, microSDHC (UHS-I), and microSDXC (UHS-I) Flash Card ...
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G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
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GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
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Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646I54670K
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Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan
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OKGEAR 18" SATA 6 Gbps Cable, Straight to Right Angle W/Metal Latch, UV Blue, Backward Compatible with 3 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps
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BYTECC Model SATA-118C 18" Serial ATA-150/300 Cable w/Locking Latch
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Solution
HiTechObsessed
Since this is more for general use, I would go with an SSD as well. You definitely don't need an unlocked CPU and overclockable board. I also really don't like Thermaltake's TR2 series, they don't last very long and are poorly built. Something like this would last a very long time:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)...
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HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed

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Dec 3, 2013
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Since this is more for general use, I would go with an SSD as well. You definitely don't need an unlocked CPU and overclockable board. I also really don't like Thermaltake's TR2 series, they don't last very long and are poorly built. Something like this would last a very long time:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($236.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($134.99 @ NCIX US)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN3800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($24.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $1039.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-15 15:57 EDT-0400)


If you definitely want to stick with whatever site your on, everything looks very good, great quality parts except for that PSU. I would switch that out. Other than that, looks good :)
 
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Solution
C

cuddlefish

Honorable
Apr 27, 2012
61
0
10,630
I was wondering myself if the unlocked processor and overclockable board was a little over the top. My thoughts were that in a few years when this computer starts to become a little obsolete they could get some more juice out of it. The kids are starting to get into games and stuff so I want to make sure it is up to par for that. What kind of falloff is there from the 4670 to that 4440?

Is a small overclock easy to do? I built myself a computer that is similar to this about a year ago except I have the 3570k/7850 and I have yet to over clock my system. Is it something I can just set and forget it or is that something that needs to be monitored? I'm wondering if that may be too much for them to handle.

Thanks for the heads up on the power supply. I only chose it because it is on sale. I will switch it out.

Will a microATX limit what they can do with the computer in the future? Does a microATX perform any worse than a full size board or is it just a smaller package?
 
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C

cuddlefish

Honorable
Apr 27, 2012
61
0
10,630
And about windows I definitely know that I would prefer windows 7. I cant stand that tablet like stuff. Is there a downside in performance with choosing windows 7? Will there be issues with running future games/programs on windows 7?

Does windows 8 have a classic mode to run like windows 7 just in case she hates windows 8?
 
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HiTechObsessed

HiTechObsessed

Splendid
Dec 3, 2013
5,430
0
24,960
Windows 8.1 has boot to desktop, so essentially the start button takes you to the metro tile screen. Windows 7 is a tad slower in games, but not noticeable for the most part.

Overclocking is pretty much a set it and forget it, as long as you don't go crazy and make sure it's stable first. I only recommend not Overclocking because it decreases the life of the CPU.

For what it will be used for, and for gaming for the most part, the 4440 will give you about the same performance. The increase of 0.2GHz isn't much at all.

MicroATX is usually perfectly fine for 95% of people. You still get 4 expansion ports, which gives you room for a full size 2-slot graphics card and 2 more expansion slots. Most people use 1 or 2 expansion ports.

In the future, the 5% increase in performance you get from Overclocking won't turn an unplayable game into playable, Overclocking is really just for getting the last few % of performance out of something.
 
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