Rollo

That is beautiful. Seriously. If water cooling wasn't so intimidating to me, I'd go for that exact color scheme. Love black and light blue together. Gorgeous.

I like the fact that that case supports an optical drive. Plus it has removable dust filters. I haven't seen that on many smaller form factor cases. Very much appreciated.

Let's put it at an even $1000 budget.

When did these forums get so freaking trolly?

Eh I'm not too concerned about price. She gave birth to me, the least I can do is build her a quality PC of her own. And I want to make sure she can mess around with Photoshop when she has the time. That build looks very solid. Case seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to build in with proper planning too. Just need to settle on a good monitor.

That's a pretty good looking build. Appreciated

Planning a new build for my mom. She's been using a 6 year old laptop since my dad apparently monopolizes their desktop. Budget isn't really much of a concern since this won't be a gaming PC by any stretch. Although I am leaning putting an i7-6700 in since she does photography as a hobby and has used Photoshop quite a bit in the past. I'm shooting for small size and quiet operation for the most part. However, I've read some horror stories about mini-ITX builds. Micro ATX might be a better way to go, but I don't know. Not even sure what size of aftermarket CPU coolers will fit in smaller cases. I've never built anything smaller than ATX before. This will actually be the first non-gaming PC I've ever built even though I've been building PCs for over ten years. Craziness. Won't need a keyboard, mouse or a copy of Windows. Suggestions on a quality case (either mini-ITX if they aren't too much of a hassle or Micro-ATX), aftermarket CPU cooler and a 24"-ish monitor would be very helpful though.

The only one I've found is on newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293 Never used Asrock before. Seems pricey for what it is, but that's how it goes with older tech.

I've looked over craigslist and haven't found hide nor hair of a Z77 mobo in my area. I guess I'll have to scour ebay as well, although I would've liked to have seen the mobo in person first to check for bent pins and such. Guess I'll just have to roll the dice.

I find myself in the midst of a dilemma. I currently use an i5-3570K on a Z77 mobo. Problem being, the motherboard is starting to go south. Two USB ports have stopped functioning and I kinda need them. Second problem, can't really find Z77 motherboards anymore. Especially not for any reasonable price. As I see it, and perhaps I'm wrong, I really just have two options. Replace the Z77 mobo with something used or outrageously priced. Or buy a new CPU, mobo and potentially ram. Thoughts?

EVGA 2GB Superclock ACX 1.0 The 980ti will be a nice boost.

EVGA Superclocked ACX 2.0 version. Currently have a 2GB 770, so it'll be a nice upgrade. Very excited. Except that I have to wait 2 days now. Might have to hold off on finishing The Witcher 3 until after I get it installed.

I'm seriously considering it. Currently have a 2GB 770 that's been pushed hard by Star Citizen and Witcher 3. The rest of my rig is still good to go, but $650 for the kind of performance the 980ti offers is very tempting.

Appreciate all of the responses. @Aniallation Won't need the monitor, keyboard and speakers, but the rest of that will help. Many thanks.

My older brother (retired US Marine) wants me to build him a new gaming PC. I'm more than happy to do it, lots of experience and it's fun for me. He's got $1500 to spend on it. I've more or less pieced out what I have in mind, but second, third, fourth etc opinions are always nice to have. i7-4790 - He uses Photoshop and Illustrator quite a bit, so the i7 is necessary, but he isn't into overclocking so non-K. 16GB of memory - I usually use G-Skill, personally Asus Strix 970 (possibly 980 depending on how much the rest costs) SSD - I've used Intel SSDs in my own builds, but I've read a lot of good stuff about Samsung's 850 series. HDD- 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black for mass storage. PSU - Usually go with Corsair as they've never let me down. I'd think a 650W would cover it. My main sticking point in the motherboard. Since he won't be overclocking, a Z97 board wouldn't be necessary. But looking through H87 boards hasn't been great. I know they're "budget" but eesh... Any thought would be appreciated. Not just about the motherboard, but anything at all.