Gaming rig for little brother

[manofchalk]

My brother has finally realized that his rig is quite outdated and wants a new one. Being the family tech support, it's up to me to design, build and maintain the thing when he eventually breaks it and blames it on me... yay.
Anyway, I'm fairly confident in the parts I'v chosen, but I'd like to see what the community thinks. Its always good to have more sets of eyes on something.

Approximate Purchase Date: This week
Budget Range: ~$1000
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (DayZ, TF2, Total War type games) and General Usage (Microsoft Office, Internet browsing).
Are you buying a monitor: No
Parts to Upgrade: Just the tower except HDD and optical.
Do you need to buy OS: Yes
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: PC Case Gear only, for simplicity when purchasing.
http://www.pccasegear.com/
Location: Victoria, Australia
Parts Preferences: None.
Overclocking: No, but might tweak the base clock a wee bit to push some extra frequency out of the locked CPU.
SLI/Crossfire: :lol: No
Your Monitor Resolution: He plays on a 720p something ridiculous" TV
Additional Comments: Would like a window, that's pretty much it.
And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: He's playing on a LGA775 rig with a HD5670 and 4GB of RAM, with a generic PSU that smells as if its going to blow any day now. He's finally realized an upgrade might be in order.

What I'v got down so far.
https://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=wish_lists&wlcId=151403&action=wish_lists

CPU: Core i5-3470
Mobo: AsRock H77 Pro4
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2x4GB) 1600Mhz CL9 1.5v
PSU: Corsair CX-500
GPU: ASUS HD7850 2GB
SSD: Samsung 840 120GB
HDD: A Samsung 1TB drive I have lying around
Case: Coolermaster Storm Enforcer
OS: Windows 8 64bit OEM

Total comes to ~$980 including postage.
There will also be my old 212 EVO on the rig, because why not.

Let me know what you think, and if I should change anything and reasons why.

 

[xAdam]

DO NOT BUY WINDOWS 8!

and look at buying a i5 3570k, will be worth it for the overclock, which is easy with that mobo.

 

[SHORYUKEN]

That's a good build, except I would get the SanDisk Ultra 128 GB or the 840 PRO if you really want Samsung.

 

[manofchalk]

DO NOT BUY WINDOWS 8!

and look at buying a i5 3570k, will be worth it for the overclock, which is easy with that mobo.

Any reason why not?
I intend to install various programs to bypass the new interface and restore it basically back to Windows 7 functionality, just with 8's much better back end.

I intend to overclock it to ~4Ghz through altering the baseclock and Turbo boost. Besides, the 3570k is $45 more than the 3470, and grants performance I feel would be wasted given the circumstances.
Also its a H77 board, I couldnt overclock it (through the multiplier) even if there was a 3570k in there.

That's a good build, except I would get the SanDisk Ultra 128 GB or the 840 PRO if you really want Samsung.

The Pro is another $50 and my brother wouldn't notice the difference anyway, the Sandisk Ultra isn't available where I live, just the Extreme (which is $15 more expensive than the 840).

 

[SHORYUKEN]

It's not the difference he should notice. It's the build. The PRO has better parts in it making it live longer.

 

[burritobob]

This should suit what you plan on doing much better...


CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.00 @ Scorptec)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($229.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ Scorptec)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Other: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM ($99.00)
Total: $996.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

All of this is from PCCaseGear as well

 

[xAdam]

I've had friends 'upgrade' to windows 8 and they said its the worst OS theyve seen. Ive got one that runs snow leopard and windows 8, and he would rather use apples crap.. it does run faster, but given that everything is so different and made for touch screens its rubbish for a regular PC, its just awkward and nothing is where it should be. Ive also got alot of friends that work in computer stores and they absolutely hate it. It is personal choice but everyone i know 7 > 8 . and look at ASRock's Z77 pro4-m board, got good functionality and its cheap and good for o'clocking.