KarlFFF

I'd go for 2 but with the mobo from 1. Or do what Sean suggested

SSD is always a great upgrade, however a GTX 980 might be bottlenecked by your CPU (depending on what you have of course). If you have any newer intel i5/i7 or amd similar (sorry don't know their models) then you should be fine.

If you're not gonna overclock your system then I'd say no. Seeing as you settled for a H81 board and a non-k processor then you're not gonna overclock. Stock fans are decent considering that they are free, but insufficient for overclocking.

If you're mainly gonna be gaming then get the i5 - They over-clock the same and the hyperthreading of the i7 doesn't do much for games as they are mainly a single core process anyway. Personally I'd go for a high-end air cooler over a AIO liquid cooler. Performance is the same and air coolers are cheaper and quieter not to mention fewer points of failure. I'd opt for something like the noctua NH-D15. The money saved from going i5 instead of i7 and air cooler instead of AIO liquid can get you a pretty nice SSD for the OS which will make a huge difference!

I'd go for the i5-4690k over the i7-4790k if there is no plans of doing editing or other multicore processing jobs. Games mainly use a single core and the hyperthreading will then just be a waste, additionally the i5 OCs to 4.0ghz with stock cooler with out a sweat and reaches similar OCs to the i7. The $100+ gained from going for the i5 could be well spent on a 120gb SSD for the OS

for a 2-3 monitor setup you might want to consider getting two graphics cards and run SLI/Cross fire And then I agree with DarrenP: get a PSU with a bit more wattage to have a bit of head room, get and SSD and go for i5 if you're not planning to do computations or rendering (games is more or less a single core process so no benefit from hyper-threading in games) Then finally if you get a z87/z97 board and k processor give it at least a tiny OC like the i5-4690k can easily take 4.0 ghz - but then you'll need a stronger PSU for sure! (which you do anyway)

If you want good airflow and are building it your self then I'd consider building it in style with the silverstone ft02 it has a very good airflow concept and I am kinda upset that there isn't more case manufactures doing this. http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=242

Cooler Master GM G750W Should also be quiet, semi modular so I can leave out some wires instead of tugging then in somewhere and it has a bit more head room in the wattage while cutting the PSU cost with almost $50

I'd go for a high end air cooler over the Corsair H80i, they are generally cheaper quieter and does just as well because the AIO coolers don't have a reservoirs. So only go for the AIO coolers if you like the looks, though personally I think the vapor pipes and shiny metal looks way better. Think I'd also shave some costs from the case and ad it to the graphics card and get a 970

That seems pretty good. I would say that you need some large storage drive as 120 gb is good for OS and programs, but will run out quickly when you start installing games. If you have a sata HDD that you can put in it then that should be fine. You'll need some rams to but if you have a HDD around you can use you should be able to find 8gb to fit in the budget. It would be a hard sacrifice but if you need to cut costs to fit a HDD and ram I'd personally consider an gtx 970 over the 980.

Think getting an i7 is a bad idea if the main point is gaming and occasional photoshop. The main reason to go for i7 over i5 should be hyper-threading as the k series overclock pretty equal and stock speeds are also very equal. So $100+ for i7 over i5 is hard to justify for gaming.

I can't find much info on your case (like space for running cables, dust filter etc.) but from the few pictures I can find from a quick search it seems fine. That said an ugrade might be appropriate for better cable management options, airflow and dust filtering. for around 1000$ I'd go for: cheap motherboard with a z97 chipset i5-4690k and give it an overclock to 4.0 ghz with stock cooler gtx970 Some cheap 8gb of ram 1600 mhz or higher (for the cheapes 8 gb set the mhz doesn't matter much when you pass 1600) A HDD for your files and if you can squeze it in then also an SSD for the os Maybe a better PSU though it should be able to power this there isn't much head room

Thanks for all the input everyone, you've all been very helpful. Solution ended up being a combo of cheaper board and a cheaper psu. Only way to save on ram was going for 8gb instead of 16gb which would have had me pay 1.25 as much pr. gb and thus not worth it imo. In any case thanks again everyone!

Sorry $2k was a sloppy head conversion from my local currency, a proper one puts the build budget at $1500. I didn't realize the US$ had gone op by so much again compared to the Danish crown.

No - cost the same, maybe a tiny bit cheaper but very insignificant Don't like the looks of cases with windows, so sex appeal is not an issue (except for airflow) Yea seems cheaper board is the general consensus. I went for the RM for the fan-less operation at low load and modular feature. Is there a cheaper option with similar functionality? The Cooler Master EVO 212 is louder and less efficient than the NH-D15. Not sure it's a compromise I am willing to do. Halving the ram could do, but seems the consensus is going for a cheaper board, as the board doesn't make much of a difference. 2400 and 1600/1866 cost the same for me - But I will consider to cutting the amount. I'll look into those, thanks. Though I do like the good dust filtering in the R5 and the high flexibility of the case with removing bays etc. I'll look into cheaper boards then. Not very helpful as you're basically suggesting cutting on everything Yea people seem to agree that the mobo is the place to cut costs. 1600 and 2400 costs almost the same for me, so no reason to cut it. roughly 5$ difference for going up to 2400 from 1600 and they have the same CAS latency. True Corsair is expencive, but they have silent operation and is modular which I value quite a bit. Only way to cut ram costs is reducing amount, which is a viable option. gold vs. bronze is not as important as modular and silent operation at low loads. That said the gold should pay off the difference over time and no reason to pull more power than needed. I'll give the z97-A a look. 1. I'll find a cheaper mobo 2. 1600 vs. 2400 is the same price for me - but I'll look into smaller bundles with less ram 3. Like the no fan at low load and modular - Already looked at other options and didn't find an option with the same appeal. Ok will look into cheaper SSDs