Check This Out Computer build.

Base your build around the LGA 1151 standard and the new Skylake CPU's. There's no strong reason why you shouldn't go up to Skylake, unless a $40 change in price means that much to you, in which case you can modify your purchase since you're already spending around $1850.

Change the Hard Drive; you shouldn't be using a 5400rpm HDD in a desktop computer. Those are for laptops. You should honestly do a SSD + HDD setup, or pure SSD if you're spending this much money.

Are you an audiophile? If not, then save your money and skip the sound card. A sound card is a want, not a need, for most people.

I'm guessing the desktop will be reliant on a wifi connection to access the Internet?

I'm imagining you're planning to play PC games on this computer. If so, pick a better keyboard and mouse. What's interesting is you got a stain/spill resistant keyboard that's $10 via NCIXUS, but anywhere else it's like $40 (guessing the other retailers don't sell or have access to it anymore). Either way, it's silent keyboard (makes less sound when typing) and has surface to resist spills. For gaming, there's no real reason why you should use this. There's a lot of available keyboards to choose. As for the mouse, well, you got a mouse wheel, and 3 total buttons (left/right/wheel). My deathadder has 5; left, right, wheel, thumb1, thumb2. May not mean a lot to some, but it does make a difference to me.
 
In my honest opinion, its complete overkill. I have put together a computer (with OS and everything) for less than the price of your graphics card, and there is nothing in my steam library I can't run (with good frames and high settings). The other people's suggestions so far have also seemed useful.
 
In my honest opinion, its complete overkill. I have put together a computer (with OS and everything) for less than the price of your graphics card, and there is nothing in my steam library I can't run (with good frames and high settings). The other people's suggestions so far have also seemed useful.

Even tho I'm not a fan of that GPU especially at $500+ for a stock GTX 980.

Building a (new parts) computer with an OS at sub $550 is a tough order for a build that can run triple A games on high settings.
 
Few things..

1. Change out the HDD with a 7200 rpm drive or SSD
2. Change the USB WiFi to an internal pcie card. The USB WiFi cards are really poor performance in real world.
3. Consider a 700+ watt power supply.
4. As others have mentioned, check out the new Skylake architecture
5. Connecting those speakers to that sound card is a waste on money. On board will do you fine. Unless you have a high end set of headphones you're looking to use.
6. I don't see a CPU cooler on your build list. I'd go with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - great cooler that's not overly expensive.
 
No one has mentioned this but if you stick with an i7 processor you need to break those 2 sticks of RAM into 4. This will optimize the potential of an i7 processor. So basically you need 4 x 4gb RAM sticks.
 
No one has mentioned this but if you stick with an i7 processor you need to break those 2 sticks of RAM into 4. This will optimize the potential of an i7 processor. So basically you need 4 x 4gb RAM sticks.

Eh?

Unless he is doing some ram intensive things like CAD or video editing with heavy effects...

Gaming wise you will not see a difference what so ever with 4gig sticks vs 8gig sticks.
 
Chocolate you are correct. This has brought up a very good point. Badtothebones what exactly are you intending to do with this build? Just gaming only? If so you really do not even need an i7 cpu then which could save you some coin.
 
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Chocolate you are correct. This has brought up a very good point. Badtothebones what exactly are you intending to do with this build? Just gaming only? If so you really do not even need an i7 cpu then which could save you some coin.

Getting rid of the sound card would save a lot already. I'd keep the i7, even if you don't fully use it. Just because you don't need it now doesn't mean he might end up wanting it in the future for future projects or activities.
 
No one has mentioned this but if you stick with an i7 processor you need to break those 2 sticks of RAM into 4. This will optimize the potential of an i7 processor. So basically you need 4 x 4gb RAM sticks.

Thought you needed a proc with X for quad channel memory? Think servers/workstations benefit from it much more than desktops. Also for the difference in price, I don't think its worth it.
 
I misread his board. Thought it was a X97 board not Z97 (can only do dual channel). I would think servers would benefit the most from quad channel.

My i7 4820k runs quad channel on X79 2011 board. But I chose that because I do video editing here and there (little bit of future proofing too). Only $329.99 for the 4820k. Not too bad. Was thinking about doing some mining (bitcoins) with my rig too at one time. Wear and tear was not worth it tho.
 
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I misread his board. Thought it was a X97 board not Z97 (can only do dual channel). I would think servers would benefit the most from quad channel.

My i7 4820k runs quad channel on X79 2011 board. But I chose that because I do video editing here and there (little bit of future proofing too). Only $329.99 for the 4820k. Not too bad. Was thinking about doing some mining (bitcoins) with my rig too at one time. Wear and tear was not worth it tho.

Well Intel does make it confusing sometimes! I agree, if there is any content creation going on, it might be worth taking a look at a quad channel setup.
 

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