New pc for family... thoughts?

[57vroom]

Looking to build a new system and retire our existing Dell to the basement and wonder what you guys think of the following. Here are a few of the objectives that I have:

Uses- surfing the internet, converting videos from camcorder to DVDs, streaming video wirelessly to blue ray player

Budget- $500- $600 with OS

Desires- fast on the internet, able to configure so that if malware/ virus is picked up not having to reload everything on the hard drive. [my wife does a lot of surveys and at times is probably going to sites/ downloading plug-ins that are suspect?]

Here is what was suggested at MicorCenter:

Mother Board- MSi H67MA-E45
CPU- Intel I3 2100
RAM- Pny 8GB 4x2 DDR3 133D
HD- Hitachi 1.5TB 7200 SATA
HD- OCZ 60GB SSD
Power- Coolmast 500W Extreme V3 ATX
Case- Coolmast HAF912 ATX
Drive- LineOn 24x SATA DVDRW
OS- WinXP Home 64


I am not sure of the benefit of the SSD, and if it would be better to jsut have another small drive for the OS and programs and maybe put that money towards something else?

 

[008Rohit]

Still, $185 for a 120GB SSD is too much IMO. They're good on Z68 boards as they can be used as Cache of the Hard Disk(s) on those boards.

 

[57vroom]

So then where would this build 'miss the mark' on performance, as this seems to be less than I can purchase components myself..... ?

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?sku=527465

 

[008Rohit]

^^

You can get better components for a similar price.

 

[jmsellars1]

Yeah it lacks dual channel RAM and the PSU/Case/RAM are probably questionable, not that it matters too much with the case but it does with the PSU and RAM. Still looks ok for the price though, especially for a prebuilt.

 

[57vroom]

.

 

[57vroom]

Ok, I have still not pulled the trigger yet but have been looking on newegg and wonder what the take is on these three:

i3 "corporate" http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.660856

i3 "hdmi" http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.719545

i5 "mainstream" http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.735690

I was suprised to see an i5 at $400 mark!