raaagggggeeeee

u making a return?

Yes sir! But I won't have a computer until the end of the month

should be more than enough to stream tf2 well.

EDIT: rechecking through your build, you need a different psu. 500w is pretty low, i'm pretty sure it doesn't even fit the minimum requirements for a gtx 770. look into getting a 700w at least. your mobo also seems cheap-ish and the reviews for it look iffy. if you're looking to save money, think of what games you're going to play - because if it's mostly just tf2 then a gtx 770 is way overkill

Make sure your cpu cooler works with a micro atx motherboard. Also I would recommend going with a nicer mobo and or getting a non micro atx one. More space will help you system run cooler and will probably be easier to build. 500w should be enough but it wont hurt to go with a 600w psu.

Yeah I kind of figured this build was a bit overkill for tf2. So if playing tf2 and streaming comfortably are my main concerns, how much cheaper should I go? I will probably drop to a 660 like you have then, and maybe upgrade to a 600 watt psu if I still need it.
And I will try to look at different motherboards.
Feel free to edit my parts list... I definitely wouldn't mind going a lot cheaper if I can still stream tf2 without any problems

For a first build that's certainly not bad at all. You shouldn't have any concern streaming/playing tf2 with that.

On to actual parts:

Your ram seems really expensive. If you really want DDR3-1600 speed ram, http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls2kit4g3d1609ds1s00 seems like a cheaper alternative.

I actually used the same case for my girlfriend and i can testify that it is a nice case. My only nitpick is the all plastic construction, but for the price I really can't complain. (Also space behind the motherboard tray for cable management is really tight, but it's what you sacrifice for an m-atx case).

The Gtx 770 is a nice graphics card, but for similar performance I'd recommend the r9 280x. Unless you for some odd reason really want an nvidia card, the 280x could be found around 10 bucks cheaper. Their performance is incredibly similar and really only varies depending on the game and what brand the game is optimized for (battlefield 4 for example is more of an amd title). My personal recommendation is http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100363l

Your motherboard runs on a B85 chipset, which provides extra usb 3.0 ports, 6gb/s sata ports, and pci 3.0 slots vs. pc. 2.0 slots over a cheaper chipset like an H81. In terms of gaming performance, there's almost no difference in pci 3.0 vs 2.0 slots. (http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Impact-of-PCI-E-Speed-on-Gaming-Performance-518/ , for reference). Something like http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h81mhds could save you around 10$.

Do you really need an optical drive? I also think there are ways to get Windows cheaper (somebody with more experience than me should answer).

If you don't plan to overclock than your cpu is just fine.

Also checking if you have a local microcenter could save you a lot.

All in all, very good job on your first try! Actually impressed. This pc is very nice and should run most modern games just fine. If you're literally doing nothing beyond Tf2 and streaming, then i question why you need something so grand haha.

Edit: Was typing this up when you replied saying that you probably wouldn't do anything beyond tf2/streaming. I'll probably make a new post to compensate for that.

Get rid of the optical drive, buy the OS on /r/softwareswap, and install it through USB.

212 evo should fit, it's a relatively low profile cooler and the ram that I linked is also low profile.

PSU requirements are largely a marketing ploy to force you to upgrade to a bigger and better psu and spend more money. For the build he has 500w is plenty, and more than enough when the build is better optimized and "cheaper" (lower performance).

Thanks for the help so far! And #8 thank you, I had no idea about /r/softwareswap... That will save me a lot of money!

Here is my updated build, minus a motherboard:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($73.95 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $615.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-09 01:30 EDT-0400

I removed an optical drive, since I actually have one now that I think about it.

And I am mostly stuck right now on a motherboard. I have no knowledge of what I should get/what I need. I will continue to do my own research, but if someone could point me in the direction of a good motherboard for the price then that would be greatly appreciated!

And I did see your recommendation on that motherboard springrolls, but looking at others' posts they seem to think it is not a good idea to go with a micro atx and that I should go with a better motherboard

And thank you for your suggestions! :)

edit: I may go back to the 500 watt psu since you said that will be all I need. I would like to see what you have in mind for a cheaper build, though.

When I used to play tf2 on my old computer, my fps was unsteady and was usually between 100-140 unless I got into situations (cloaking spies, many explosions, etc.) that caused my fps to drop to sometimes as low as 20-60. I'm not trying to spend a lot of money, I just want to be able to have a high, steady fps that won't noticeably drop when streaming.

There are 3 types of psu's: modular, semi-modular, and non modular. Non modular means every cable is attached to the back of the psu and cannot be removed. Modular means all cables are separate so you can mix and match whatever cables you happen to need. Semi-modular is a nice middle ground where it attaches only the most essential of cables (24pin for your motherboard etc. cause what computer doesn't have a motherboard?), but keeps some of the extraneous ones separate. It makes a world of difference in cable management and it also increases airflow within your case, so in my opinion it is worth it.

I still don't think 600w is necessary, especially now that you've decided to go with a 660. Here's an article (http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/power_supply/how_many_watts_do_you_actually_need/1) where they run a 4670k and a gtx 780 ti "comfortably" at 450 watts and an insane rig (overclocked 3960x+ an r9 280x) and only pull 200-300 watts. What's more important than wattage for a good psu is mostly the brand. Something reliable like corsair/seasonic (off the top of my head, lots of other good brands) makes sure that the psu is of good quality and wont' die on you. There is also a wattage calculator if you really want to use. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp IMO, you should stick with the first Corsair psu you had, that's an insane price with a top-notch brand, and it's semi modular.

Micro atx boards are not inherently "bad", just not as feature rich as full size boards. Obviously they suffer from the same problems, bad brands/bad models etc. that all products face. However I will concede the point that sometimes cable management in a smaller case can be challenging, and if you don't do it right/good enough airflow/temperatures could pose a problem. If you do go with a full size board, do realize you have to get a case that supports an atx board as well. I'd suggest a case but I think if you're gonna look at it for (hopefully) a while, you choose it for the aesthetic value :)

Edit: English is hard. What I meant is the case is what you'll be staring at everytime you use your computer, and it is part of the setting of your room (setting? is that the right description) so you should choose the one you like the best. Obviously, some are better than others (materials, cable management, etc.) but I can help narrow it down for you if you don't yourself.

#12 thanks for the info on the psu. I will probably do as you said and go back to what I started with.

As far as a case goes, I'm not really concerned with looks. I just wanted to go as cheap as possible without causing any problems with airflow, cable management, etc.

I'm actually very interested in this build. Let me know what you decide on. I'm going for a build with similar purposes, and around the same budget. I'm too lazy to search the build thread.

Something like the NZXT Source 210 elite should work nice. Nice cooling, relatively quiet, good cable management, and it's 49.99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146078).

Seems like the MSI B85-G41 PC Mate has good reviews and features. (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-b85g41pcmate)

Also, for 20$ cheaper you can get the r9 270 (not 270x!), which performs very similar to the 660, again depending on what the game is optimized for.
(http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-100365l) (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-270-review-benchmarks,3669.html) for benchmarks.

As far as I can remember, you would need to do a BIOS update on B85 chipset motherboards when you use a haswell refresh cpu, which means you would need to get an older cpu to update . You might want to get H97/Z97 chipsets (in this case, get a cheaper H97 since your cpu can't overclock). You could also take off the after market cooler, though it really wouldn't matter.

Hmm I may go with the case you suggested

And what about the G43?
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-b85mg43
I'm not sure if there is a huge difference but the reviews on this one seemed good as well. I was just curious if you happened to know which one is better/if this one has any problems

Edit// i just noticed that what I asked about was a micro... Which some people said to avoid. So what you mentioned may be better

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B85-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.29 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($73.95 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $667.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-09 03:42 EDT-0400

Here's what I have my build looking like so far. Anyone please say something if you feel like one of these parts should be changed!!

And #16, hmm I'll look into that (about the mobo). Thanks

edit// Thinking about replacing the case with: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-200r

Mainly because of the note that pcpartpicker displayed: "In order to fit, the Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card may require removing drive bays from the NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case. The case only supports video cards up to 230mm in length without removing drive bays, while the video card is 259mm long."

This is part of a review for the MSI B85-G41:

"Now, let's get to the compatibility. If you think this won't work with Haswell Refresh CPUs without a BIOS update, you're wrong. This seems to be a new batch of these boards which include the updated BIOS. Neither MSI, Intel or Newegg state that. I can confirm it works with the i5 4460, which is a Refresh CPU."

This guy is saying it would work with the i5 4460, so my question is does that mean it would also work with the i5 4690?

I also read about cpu coolers after what you said and came to a conclusion that I shouldn't get one. Thanks!

200r is a great value, go for that one if you'd like.

4690 is a haswell refresh cpu, so if it works for the 4460 it should work for the 4690. you can see the list here

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7963/the-intel-haswell-refresh-review-core-i7-4790-i5-4690-and-i3-4360-tested/2

I would replace the 4690 with a 4690k if you think you might overclock. Same thing with a higher base clock, and more precise overclocking. You would definitely need to buy a cooler to overclock though, but you could always buy one at a later date.

If you don't think you'll ever overclock, then your current build seems fine.

Once again, thanks everyone for your help!
I think I have decided what I will go with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B85-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.29 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($73.95 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $699.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-10 00:53 EDT-0400

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that you should get the 4690k if it's cheaper no matter what.

But you can only pick that CPU up at a Micro Center store for that price. Might want to reconsider if you don't have one near you.

Yeah, I had to edit my post and change the merchants from micro center to newegg for the case and the CPU. Unfortunately there isn't a micro center near me :(

I heard a lot of great things about the new Pentium G3258, cheap dual-core CPU with great overclocking capabilities. Most modern games can't use more than 2 cores correctly (tf2 also? not too sure) Use that money you save on a better GPU maybe? Your call
here's linus vid on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfXruwe8w4

1600 ram is useless now especially with frequent deals on 1866 sticks, here's Anand's test on it (with last year's haswell but still applies): http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell
1866 at C9 latency is the sweet spot for current CPUs

Don't buy an OS, especially win8 because recent news seems like microsoft is giving up on it and moving to win9. Get something off a unused PC/Laptop or something and reinstall it onto your new one.

Here's my 2 Cents:
Forget the 4690K. No offense, but I don't think you know enough about overclocking. OC'ing on B85 is really dodgy so I wouldn't recommend it for a first timer. Adding a cooler and upgrading to a Z87/Z97 mobo isn't worth it in your case imho.
microATX is completely fine. Nowadays you should only go ATX if you need the features (you don't) or more PCIe slots (e.g. for multiple GPUs). None of this is the case so the PC would just take up more space if you went ATX.
Add a SSD if your budget allows it. You won't regret it.
You can pretty much ignore the brand of a PSU. Most don't manufacture the PSUs themselves (there are exceptions like Seasonic and SuperFlower) but instead they get them from multiple OEMs. For example Corsair uses at least 5 different OEMs: CWT, Great Wall, Chicony Power Technology, Seasonic and Flextronics. Even if you know the OEM that still doesn't tell you anything about the performance because each manufacturer got different platforms which perform differently. Unless you know which platforms are good and which aren't stick to reviews.

Some minor tweaks:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI B85-G41 PC Mate ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.29 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($73.95 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $664.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-10 04:55 EDT-0400

Cheaper and faster GPU. R9 270 is still an option, don't know which games other than TF2 you are playing so I can't tell you if it's better or worse.
Cheaper and better PSU. 80+ Gold instead of Bronze, Semi-modular, supports Haswell low power states, better platform/performance overall. 450W is more than enough.
If you tell me your budget I'll add a SSD.

#26, Only reason I was going to upgrade to a 4690k was so that I wouldn't regret not getting it in case I decided to ever oc in the future. But it's not a top priority so if it's worth saving the money and getting a 4690 instead then I will

I don't know what my exact budget will be, since I won't have the money until the end of the month, but I'm expecting it to be around $900-$950. I was hoping to having enough money left over to buy a 144hz monitor

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sys/4608658396.html

Just scrolling through craigslist, not really expecting to see anything that I would really be interested til I saw this.
Any thoughts/concerns? It seems like a really good price for the parts. I don't really care for the case but at the same time I don't know anything about it

Feel free to just +frag this if you think I should try to go for it

Here's the same build on a pcpartpicker list

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H97I AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($328.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX Tower Case ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1010.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-14 22:49 EDT-0400

The guy on craigslist is asking $700. Don't know how legit the post is because, well, it's craigslist