Congratulations on the decision to go SFF over laptop, in your case it appears to be the better solution.
With that said I'm not sure who gave you some of your specific part list but as has already been pointed out some of the items just don't make much sense together unless you received a significant discount by which I mean having chosen appropriately selected parts would have been more expensive than what you ended up with.
The H87 motherboard series will not allow you to overclock your K model CPU, whether or not you wanted to at some point is now irrelevant because the only way you can is by changing out motherboards. And while it's generally not a great idea to overclock in this form factor due to heat issues as pointed out by Quiz the link I provided shows fairly clearly if done properly you absolutely can do within more than acceptable temps.
The other odd item I noticed was the ram. Normally you want to avoid large heat spreaders in SFF systems. I realize you will be using the stock CPU cooler so it's probably not going to be an issue but in the future If you should ever decide you want to overclock the the CPU (once you trade out the motherboard to one that allows it) you'll need a better cooler and most will have issues with the extra space taken up by the heat spreaders on the ram you have selected.
Other than that it looks to be a pretty sweet system I'm sure will meet your needs better than "gaming" laptop of similar price ever could have.
What motherboard do you guys recommend? (As a hardware noobie, I'm all ears) I was referred that motherboard because it was 40 dollars off with that CPU at Microcenter. Though I don't want to skimp on it, if its going to prevent me from overclocking (which I may want to do 1-2 years down the road once new games come out and I need to up the performance). So it's no prob to go back to MC and switch it out for another.
Side note: Thanks also for the case recommendation, I've ordered all the parts and hopefully get it in this week. The mobo swap (yeah I learned the term "mobo"!!) won't take long as its just a short trip to MC (yeah MC woot!!, more lingo) and back again since I didn't open it and kept the receipt.
IMPORTANT: Please keep all replies to my posts about GAMING. Please no negative or backhanded comments directed at me personally. If you are going to post a reply that includes how you feel about me, please don't bother replying & just ignore my post instead. I'm on this forum to talk about GAMING. Thank you.
So best of luck on your decision, which sounds like you pretty much made already. I just wanted to throw in that I am a global traveler and last summer I bought an NP9170 to sate my gaming needs. I love it for the most part but two things I do not like, and no need to read more if you are staying SFF, are the power supply and large size of the laptop. I did not consider when laptop shopping the huge power brick and I really should have gone 15" vs 17" as this thing is a beast in size. Anywho, I just wanted to share my expeirence with you in case you change your mind and migrate back towards a laptop.
What motherboard do you guys recommend? (As a hardware noobie, I'm all ears) I was referred that motherboard because it was 40 dollars off with that CPU at Microcenter. Though I don't want to skimp on it, if its going to prevent me from overclocking (which I may want to do 1-2 years down the road once new games come out and I need to up the performance). So it's no prob to go back to MC and switch it out for another.
Side note: Thanks also for the case recommendation, I've ordered all the parts and hopefully get it in this week. The mobo swap (yeah I learned the term "mobo"!!) won't take long as its just a short trip to MC (yeah MC woot!!, more lingo) and back again since I didn't open it and kept the receipt.
Overclocking in a small form factor system is a bad idea to begin with, and Haswell chips don't overclock that well, anyway. But in order to even have the option to overclock, you need something with a Z87 chipset. New Egg has four such Mini ITX motherboards, one from each of the main four vendors, and the only one that looks like it's built to handle much of an overclock is this one:
If you choke on the price tag, then consider that heavy overclocking in a small form factor system is a very small niche market, which is why only one motherboard vendor could be bothered to enter it at all this generation.
Furthermore, if you want to overclock, you'll also need a good aftermarket heatsink that physically fits in the case. You're on your own there, as most of the good heatsinks that you might get for overclocking in a mid-tower won't physically fit.
I wouldn't bother with overclocking. By going with a desktop form factor, you already get CPU performance that easily beats what you'd get in a $1000+ laptop processor. There's a good chance that you get CPU performance that beats what you'd get in a $1000+ laptop processor that you buy four years from now, too.
Nothing against those on these forums with greater computer knowledge than I but some of them are showing how long in the tooth their understanding of modern SFF is. OCing in SFF systems based on mITX boards has come a LONG way since yesteryear. I won't bother loading this post up with a ton of links that back my statement as they can EASILY be found with a quick Google search. Many of which will be specific to the case the OP has chosen due to it's popularity.
Obviously physics has not changed the reason this used to be an issue but smaller/more efficient cooling technology certainly has. However with that said I won't argue that it doesn't cost more to reach similar levels of performance but such is the way of technology as it stands today.
Comments
Congratulations on the decision to go SFF over laptop, in your case it appears to be the better solution.
With that said I'm not sure who gave you some of your specific part list but as has already been pointed out some of the items just don't make much sense together unless you received a significant discount by which I mean having chosen appropriately selected parts would have been more expensive than what you ended up with.
The H87 motherboard series will not allow you to overclock your K model CPU, whether or not you wanted to at some point is now irrelevant because the only way you can is by changing out motherboards. And while it's generally not a great idea to overclock in this form factor due to heat issues as pointed out by Quiz the link I provided shows fairly clearly if done properly you absolutely can do within more than acceptable temps.
The other odd item I noticed was the ram. Normally you want to avoid large heat spreaders in SFF systems. I realize you will be using the stock CPU cooler so it's probably not going to be an issue but in the future If you should ever decide you want to overclock the the CPU (once you trade out the motherboard to one that allows it) you'll need a better cooler and most will have issues with the extra space taken up by the heat spreaders on the ram you have selected.
Other than that it looks to be a pretty sweet system I'm sure will meet your needs better than "gaming" laptop of similar price ever could have.
What motherboard do you guys recommend? (As a hardware noobie, I'm all ears) I was referred that motherboard because it was 40 dollars off with that CPU at Microcenter. Though I don't want to skimp on it, if its going to prevent me from overclocking (which I may want to do 1-2 years down the road once new games come out and I need to up the performance). So it's no prob to go back to MC and switch it out for another.
Side note: Thanks also for the case recommendation, I've ordered all the parts and hopefully get it in this week. The mobo swap (yeah I learned the term "mobo"!!) won't take long as its just a short trip to MC (yeah MC woot!!, more lingo) and back again since I didn't open it and kept the receipt.
Overclocking in a small form factor system is a bad idea to begin with, and Haswell chips don't overclock that well, anyway. But in order to even have the option to overclock, you need something with a Z87 chipset. New Egg has four such Mini ITX motherboards, one from each of the main four vendors, and the only one that looks like it's built to handle much of an overclock is this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132028
If you choke on the price tag, then consider that heavy overclocking in a small form factor system is a very small niche market, which is why only one motherboard vendor could be bothered to enter it at all this generation.
Furthermore, if you want to overclock, you'll also need a good aftermarket heatsink that physically fits in the case. You're on your own there, as most of the good heatsinks that you might get for overclocking in a mid-tower won't physically fit.
I wouldn't bother with overclocking. By going with a desktop form factor, you already get CPU performance that easily beats what you'd get in a $1000+ laptop processor. There's a good chance that you get CPU performance that beats what you'd get in a $1000+ laptop processor that you buy four years from now, too.
Nothing against those on these forums with greater computer knowledge than I but some of them are showing how long in the tooth their understanding of modern SFF is. OCing in SFF systems based on mITX boards has come a LONG way since yesteryear. I won't bother loading this post up with a ton of links that back my statement as they can EASILY be found with a quick Google search. Many of which will be specific to the case the OP has chosen due to it's popularity.
Obviously physics has not changed the reason this used to be an issue but smaller/more efficient cooling technology certainly has. However with that said I won't argue that it doesn't cost more to reach similar levels of performance but such is the way of technology as it stands today.