Low-end gift build ok? $650 w/ monitor.

[eslav]

I'm replacing my wife's aging laptop for Christmas. The new machine will be for general office use and internet browsing, with no high-end gaming. She wants to blog, so it may need to run Photoshop or something similar later on. The one thing she requested was a larger screen.

Mostly I'm looking for confirmation that I haven't made any big compatibility mistakes. I used PCPartPicker, but don't know how reliable its compatibility checks are.

I looked at some pre-builts, but had a hard time evaluating them and I worry about getting unwanted bloatware, a bad power supply, a bad motherboard, etc. (from bitter experience.) So I am leaning toward this home build.

Approximate Purchase Date: December 15.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com,

Location: Washington state

Parts Preferences: Intel, Asus

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: Not necessary

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150
MOBO: ASUS H87M-E
$159 (combo price)

RAM: G. Skill Value Series 8GB $67

Case: Cougar Volant ATX Mid Tower $45

HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM $60

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX $20

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) $89

DVD: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD $20

Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 27" $166

Basic Keyboard/Wireless Adapter $20

Out of this list, I'm most set on the monitor - not the brand but the specs. I'm pretty open to suggestions on everything else.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You have it well sorted.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($86.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($33.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($165.99 @ Directron)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N600PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($18.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $646.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-07 19:28 EST-0500

minor changes and a wifi card for internet access.
Case is better value with three fans, PSU is better quality and cheaper

 

[nikoli707]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec VSK-3000 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($165.99 @ Directron)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($11.06 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($18.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $647.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-07 19:42 EST-0500

all those gskill sub $60 rams have been sold out since black friday. the vp450 costs less than the bp350. and changed out the older h87 for an h97. though for an office build, you really could just save the money and get the msi h81p33 for about $50 and be fine. though if you did that you would be close to an i5 if you stretched your budget a little bit and have much higher performance all the way around.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.38 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec VSK-3000 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($165.99 @ Directron)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($11.06 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($18.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $696.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-07 19:47 EST-0500

 

[DonkeyOatie]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec VSK-3000 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($165.99 @ Directron)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($11.06 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($18.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $647.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-07 19:42 EST-0500

all those gskill sub $60 rams have been sold out since black friday. the vp450 costs less than the bp350. and changed out the older h87 for an h97. though for an office build, you really could just save the money and get the msi h81p33 for about $50 and be fine. though if you did that you would be close to an i5 if you stretched your budget a little bit and have much higher performance all the way around.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.38 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec VSK-3000 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC e2752Vh 60Hz 27.0" Monitor ($165.99 @ Directron)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($11.06 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($18.74 @ Amazon)
Total: $696.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-07 19:47 EST-0500

The CPU Motherboard was part of a bundle the OP specified.

 

[eslav]

What I actually ordered/built:

Same CPU, OS, DVD, and monitor as in the original post.
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply*: Antec Basiq 350W ATX
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150PCe 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1

*This turned out not to be a good power supply for this build. The cables were too short, and I needed to buy separate extensions for the hard drive and the 4-pin 12 volt motherboard power.

It ended up being $740 or so, counting the extensions.

I also had trouble with the expansion slots on the case; they are the pop-out type and I couldn't get any of the hardware to go through the little holes to secure the wireless card to the case. I ended up threading a twist tie through it.

I'm pretty happy with it overall. The cost got away from me a little bit; I'm sure better deals were out there if I had time to find them/wait for them.