Help me optimize this build

[tobiderfisch]

Hey guys. I was helping my friend put together a build and me and my other friend came up with this

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4gwbf7

But the friend who this pc is for said that he doesn't want to do any over clocking so I think tha the liquid cooler is a little overkill and a good air cooler would be cheaper. Also I will be selling him my NZXT H440 for cheap so he can safe on the expensive Corsair case. His budget is $1300 and I just want to know how we could optimize this Build with the money he saved. He wants to use it mainly for gaming but also video editing and Photoshop. Any help is appreciated.

[SWAGGA]

nzxt h440 is the best looking case if you ask me, I'd get an nzxt x31 140mm rad, it should be enough, no Corsair VS/CX PSU they have a higher fail rate

[LucaL2]

If he don't want to do any OC you could go with a CPU without the K (maybe Xeon E3 1231v3) and the H97 chipset.

[Dzzope]

+1 for the xeon, drop the AIO to a hyper 212 or whatever, and get him a reasonable dual monitor set-up at least 1 of which to be IPS for his content creation and maybe a 144hz TN..

[Goldensapling]

Do what Dzzope says. He's very accurate. 

[tobiderfisch]

I switched a couple of the components here.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JPYZK8

I switched the CPU to the Xeon that Luca suggested and chose a air cooler for it. I also changed the PSU to a slightly larger and more efficient one and I switched te case to the H440 and the price I am selling it to him for. I also went a head and tossed the optical drive since the case does not have bays for that. But then I realized that the Asus mobo is not compatible with the case and after a bit of research selected the MSI one since it had good reviews. I don't know if this is the best alternative though and I could not figure out if it supports all the front IO (2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, Microphone and Speaker). If you have any other suggestions or alternatives for the mobo please let me know.

[StainlessSR]

I switched a couple of the components here.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JPYZK8

I switched the CPU to the Xeon that Luca suggested and chose a air cooler for it. I also changed the PSU to a slightly larger and more efficient one and I switched te case to the H440 and the price I am selling it to him for. I also went a head and tossed the optical drive since the case does not have bays for that. But then I realized that the Asus mobo is not compatible with the case and after a bit of research selected the MSI one since it had good reviews. I don't know if this is the best alternative though and I could not figure out if it supports all the front IO (2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, Microphone and Speaker). If you have any other suggestions or alternatives for the mobo please let me know.

 

Yes it will support the case front inputs.

 

If you are concerned about cost then the MSI Krait Edition only has one less pcie slot and does not have gaming audio but saves you $20

Also, G.Skill Ripjaws X series is cheaper ($17) and has a better CAS (9 vs 10) with the same 1600 speed.

 

Since overclocking is not looked for and if later SLI (there are none that support sli only crossfire is supported) is not something that is wanted you can save even more going with a H97 motherboard   but that is only another $15-$19

[No Nrg]

I switched a couple of the components here.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JPYZK8

I switched the CPU to the Xeon that Luca suggested and chose a air cooler for it. I also changed the PSU to a slightly larger and more efficient one and I switched te case to the H440 and the price I am selling it to him for. I also went a head and tossed the optical drive since the case does not have bays for that. But then I realized that the Asus mobo is not compatible with the case and after a bit of research selected the MSI one since it had good reviews. I don't know if this is the best alternative though and I could not figure out if it supports all the front IO (2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, Microphone and Speaker). If you have any other suggestions or alternatives for the mobo please let me know.

I balanced you out a bit, I think I got you better performance for the budget. Honestly if you don't plan on overclocking then the most expensive chip you need is the i5-4590. Also no need for anything other than the Intel stock cooler unless you hate how it looks. I took it off, but you can certainly add it back, just puts you $20 over budget on the below. I also lowered you to 8gb of ram, you'd be better served putting the extra $50 into a video card. If you want to SLI in the future then you need to stick to Z87 or 97, may as well keep the Gaming 5 you have on there, it is solid.

 

With these saving I was able to upgrade to a GTX 980 and stay within budget. You could crush 1080p or comfortably play 1440p with this build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($188.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI Z97-GAMING 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($134.99 @ Amazon)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($66.98 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($94.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card  ($549.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($50.00)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ NCIX US)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($86.89 @ OutletPC)

Total: $1301.81

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-24 16:55 EDT-0400