Max 1200USD Planning

[zeo_nanomus]

The idea behind this build is primarily 1080p or more gaming and school work on a single monitor with maybe an upgrade to 2 monitors. The motherboard has to be mini-ITX or micro-ATX and the case has to be the Bitfenix Prodigy M or the normal Bitfenix Prodigy. That's really the only stipulations.  This is a completely new build from top to bottom. I don't plan on overclocking anything. I really need help with choosing a motherboard. I find it really had to figure out what features are with what chipset.

 

This is what i have so far. I only picked the motherboard as a place-holder

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/zeo_nanomus/saved/fRxTwP

[Hyttech]

PSU is pretty overkill, 450-500 W should serve find with some headroom. Also, as a fellow student, I have a ton of tabs open on chrome, usually hogs my ram, so I suggest getting 16GB of ram. Also if you don't play on overclocking, getting the unlocked version of the CPU is pretty useless besides a higher base clock.

 

Does your school work include any sort of editing or 3d work or whatever? 

[zeo_nanomus]

No editing or anything. Is the PSU really overkill? I picked the recommended wattage for a GTX 980.

[Demons Wrath]

No editing or anything. Is the PSU really overkill? I picked the recommended wattage for a GTX 980.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.99 @ Micro Center) 

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X OPTIMA CPU Cooler  ($14.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: *Team Zeus Yellow 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($67.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: *Toshiba Product Series:DT01ACA 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: *Zotac GeForce GTX 980 4GB AMP! Edition Video Card  ($548.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Case Fan: BitFenix Spectre 97.8 CFM 230mm  Fan  ($16.99 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-S4S-10AK-GP 60.9 CFM 140mm  Fan  ($5.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $1159.89

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 19:49 EST-0500

 

Chose an SSD with Sandforce controller, they're not too bad at all. mITX system and Prodigy in white. 230mm and 140mm fans for the case, remove the two 120mm fans that come with the case and put them in the roof as exhaust and use the 230mm as intake. CPU cooler that is both affordable and well priced at the moment. H97 mobo because there is no real reason to choose Z97 for as mITX build, they all overclock with a bios update. 4690k instead of 4670k. That's about it.

[brob]

Here is an mITX alternative.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($569.99 @ Amazon)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1180.90
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-02 20:18 EST-0500