Need a clean install... Want to build new system instead

[safehaven]

Windows is acting very wonky on my current rig and probably needs a clean install. If I am going to go to all that trouble to do, I am going to build a new rig to replace my very outdated E6320 system.

There are two combo deals on Newegg right now for cpu/mobo.
Core i5-4690K/Asus Z97M PLUS-LGA ATX. $300
Core i7-4790K/MSI Z97-G45 ATX. $395

I would like to hop on one of these tonight if one of them will suit my needs. The deals expire tonight, so some quick advice on this would be appreciated.

On to the rest of it.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, dabble in photoshop, dabble in autocad, video encoding

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$800, no taxes in oregon

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Portland Oregon

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, mobo, SSD, psu, ram, case, cpu cooler (if needed),

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
MSI 7850 1gb, possibly a Sonata3 (i could sacrifice a case at the moment if I needed the funds for something more important, WD Red 1TB hard drive, 500 GB hard drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
I would like the ability to. Air cooled only.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Immediately.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Only the ability to overclock.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win7 Pro 64 bit

The only other thing to note is that I definitely want to go with a SSD of some sort.

 

[Dangman]

Ehhh, neither combos are particularly "safe" choices for you for a few reasons:
First combo: Good CPU but the Asus mobo is still rather new to the market and therefore its short-terms (let alone long-term) stability and reliabiltiy haven't been established yet. After the bad batches of the budget Asus z97-P mobos I saw at work this week, I'm a bit hesitant to recommend budget Asus mobos.

Second combo: You're not doing enough AutoCAD, Photoshop, or Video encoding to justify the Core i7 4790K. But the MSI mobo is a bit more trustworthy than the Asus.

The lesser of two evils is the first combo but again, still an evil of sorts and you really have to overclock ASAP to justify the risk with the first combo.

So that leaves you with $500 left for the rest of the system:
$70 - Kingston HyperX Blu KHX1600C10D3B1/8G 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$130 - Samsung 840 Evo Series 250GB SSD
$60 - XFX TS Series XFX TS 550W PSU
$65 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Case
$50 - Cooler Master Seidon 120V Liquid Cooling System
----
Total: $375 shipped

Though I highly recommend spending the extra money for a second set of that Kingston RAM since DDR3 RAM prices are only going to go higher from now on.

 

[safehaven]

So, your reply came after I had crashed for the night and I did not get either cpu/mobo ordered. By what you were saying, it sounds like it might nit be a bad thing.

If i have to make sacrifices because of my budget, I do not want to sacrifice on the cpu/mobo. I would much rather have to reuse my current case or psu.

I would rather not, but if needed, i could probably bump my budget to $1000.

Thanks.

 

[Dangman]

Nah, you don't need to bump your budget to $1000 just yet:
$239 - Intel Core i5-4690K CPU
$140 - Asus Z97-A Intel Z97 Motherboard
$140 - 2 x Kingston HyperX Blu KHX1600C10D3B1/8G 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$130 - Samsung 840 Evo Series 250GB SSD
$60 - XFX TS Series XFX TS 550W PSU
$65 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Case
$50 - Cooler Master Seidon 120V Liquid Cooling System
----
Total: $824 shipped

Although if you want a GPU upgrade as well, the cheapest card IMO that would provide a decent noticeable performance increase over your current card would be the ~$300 R9 280X as seen here:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1076?vs=1041

 

[safehaven]

Thanks so much. Going to get that stuff ordered.

Have one question though. Can you recommend a good case that can hold 5 hard drives and at least one optical drive?

I did not think it was important at the time I answered the questions to note that I might have 5 hard drives in total. But looking at the specs of the case you suggested, it only holds 4 hard drives. I use additional drives as internal backups for my work documents and photos.

I suppose I could get an adapter to mount a drive in one of the 3.5" slots, but if there were a decent, lower cost case that would hold them all appropriately, I would like that better.

If not, I could probably sacrifice a drive.

 

[Dangman]

Gotta spend a bit more though:
$100 - Corsair Carbide Series 500R ATX Case
$105 - Antec 1100 V2 ATX Case
$110 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Gunmetal Black ATX Case
$120 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$120 - Corsair Vengeance Series C70 Arctic White ATX Case
$130 - Corsair Graphite Series 600TM ATX Case
$150 - Corsair Obsidian Series 750D ATX Case

Do note that the 230T includes a separate 2.5" for SSDs. So you don't have to use any of the 3.5" bays to hold a hard drive.