New Upgrade

[jnorland]

Here is what I currently have:

i7 920 2.66 Ghz Overclocked to 4.0 Ghz
Corsair Hydro H50
Corsair Force F120 SSD
MSI 660 TI OC
Corsair 850-Watt Power Supply
Patriot Viper Xtreme Series DDR3 24 GB (6 x 4 GB) PC3-16000 2000MHz
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower

Spare parts:

XFX HD6870 R
Corsair 650 Watt Power Supply
Old Dell 920 Motherboard
5 x 2 TB HD @ 7200 RPM
Old Dell, Mid ATX Case
Wired Keyboard and Mouse


Here is what I’m considering, Either New Egg:

i7 4770k $339
32gb Ram gskill 2133 $310
Hyper 212 $35
ASRock Z87 extended ATX board $250 after rebate
Windows 8 pro $69 student
Total $1050

Or Dell

i7 4770
8 gb 1600 + 16 gb with 200 dell student gift card
Dell motherboard and heatsink
+GeForce GTX 645
+1TB 7200 HD
+Dell Micro ATX tower
+DVD burner, keyboard, mouse and windows 8
$849

I would like to end up with two Desktops, one to use as a Media Center and one for my primary gaming machine. I’m really considering the new egg option even though I get less for more. I just feel like the quality of the machine is something I’ll be happy with and one that I can expand on later. The second is a good option but I can see myself upgrading components on it sooner than later.
I’m just hoping to see what your opinions are or if there is anything you see I should swap out. Is the new egg option overkill? Thanks!

[MiRai]

Here is what I’m considering, Either New Egg:

i7 4770k $339
32gb Ram gskill 2133 $310
Hyper 212 $35
ASRock Z87 extended ATX board $250 after rebate
Windows 8 pro $69 student
Total $1050

Or Dell

i7 4770
8 gb 1600 + 16 gb with 200 dell student gift card
Dell motherboard and heatsink
+GeForce GTX 645
+1TB 7200 HD
+Dell Micro ATX tower
+DVD burner, keyboard, mouse and windows 8
$849
First, don't go with the Dell.

Second, here are some questions:

Is a $250 E-ATX motherboard necessary?
Is 32GB of RAM necessary right now?

Here's what I put together very quickly:

988

You can add $70 to that if you want the 4GB version of the video card (which I would probably recommend, but it was OOS at the moment). Start off with 16GB of RAM and add another 16GB later if you need to. That motherboard was just a quick pick from Newegg in the ASRock section, but it's half the price of you've currently got listed. With money being saved on both the motherboard and RAM that leaves you wide open for a GPU upgrade (if you want it).

That's just my 2 cents.

EDIT: Sorry, the RAM is wrong. I'll look at this later when I have more time to pick out components.

[MiRai]

Alright, my list from above still stands because there's GSkill 1600 RAM for the same price (or $10 more if you prefer it in blue). If you really want the 2133 RAM (I see it's the same price right now), then go for it, but it's completely unnecessary and I prefer to keep my timings low. There's also a plethora of motherboards to choose from (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600315497%20600438204%20600009016%20 4017&IsNodeId=1&name=%24100%20-%20%24200) in the same price range.

So, even after $70 for a 4GB GPU and $70 for your copy of W8, my shopping cart fits into the same $1050 budget assuming you're not paying for Newegg tax (and you're not already accounting for shipping) -- And you get a new GPU.

[jnorland]

Great! Thanks for the advice, I wasn't sure if it was over kill and I really didn't want to go with dell. That's what I'll go with, I'll upgrade my videocard as well and use the 660ti on the second computer. Thanks MiRai!

[MiRai]

To further clarify on the video card...

Here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600030348%20600451269%20600453362%20 600007787&IsNodeId=1&name=4GB) are all of the 4GB versions of the GTX 760 that Newegg currently has. I'm a real fan of the exhaust/blower models and that list shows that they only carry one from EVGA which is currently out of stock. It seems that most sites are showing the 4GB model out of stock.