Help with my build. Can spend up to $2,500

[fire400]

Good choice on CPU cooler, that thing is nice and quite.
If you want budget whisper quite, try the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer i32 CO, it shuts off the fan completely when the computer is mostly idle.
When the gears are kicking, fan will run at 32db vs the 21db, but it may not even matter at that point when you're overclocking, 'cuz your GPU and CPU fans will be kicking at near max when you're pushing the system hard.

As far as the Geforce 1080 or even a 1070-
Not a fan of the reference card(s), which personally, I would almost get anything but an nVidia reference card 'cuz of paperweight restrictions and stock mediocre cooling systems.
I'd stick with the 1080 over the 1070, because in some games that run on 1440p, might as well go all the way and get your 144-Hz 1ms ULTRA-settings gameplay, especially if you're shelling out for that extra nice Dell monitor. If it was a 'regular monitor' then I'd drop it down to the 1070 for the 60 fps.

16gb RAM for overclocking might be easier than 32gb on DDR4 'cuz of high latency, especially if the sticks are 16gb x2.
reason to do 32gb is if you absolutely need the multitasking reservoir to be available, otherwise 16gb is fine for 1440p gaming, as of 2016.

 

[jimrawr]

Good choice on CPU cooler, that thing is nice and quite.
If you want budget whisper quite, try the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer i32 CO, it shuts off the fan completely when the computer is mostly idle.
When the gears are kicking, fan will run at 32db vs the 21db, but it may not even matter at that point when you're overclocking, 'cuz your GPU and CPU fans will be kicking at near max when you're pushing the system hard.

As far as the Geforce 1080 or even a 1070-
Not a fan of the reference card(s), which personally, I would almost get anything but an nVidia reference card 'cuz of paperweight restrictions and stock mediocre cooling systems.
I'd stick with the 1080 over the 1070, because in some games that run on 1440p, might as well go all the way and get your 144-Hz 1ms ULTRA-settings gameplay, especially if you're shelling out for that extra nice Dell monitor. If it was a 'regular monitor' then I'd drop it down to the 1070 for the 60 fps.

16gb RAM for overclocking might be easier than 32gb on DDR4 'cuz of high latency, especially if the sticks are 16gb x2.
reason to do 32gb is if you absolutely need the multitasking reservoir to be available, otherwise 16gb is fine for 1440p gaming, as of 2016.

Which cooler are you referencing because I changed it after my intial post. I am interested in hearing which one you are talking about.

Also, i'd like to know everyones opinion on motherboards. After reading some reviews on the gigabyte gaming 7, it seems its onboard sound is very faulty. The onboard sound was one of my main reasons to purchase this board, so I am back to the drawing board for motherboard..

Any advice on this front?

 

[jimrawr]

honestly at your budget, i'd just go for 32 gigs of ram and call it a day. i did it back in 2010 with sandybridge (16 gigs...which was the equivalent of 32 gigs today) and i never looked back. it isn't about need at your price point, its about ability lol...

of course...unless more ram sticks will negatively impact overclocking, and you are determined to hit a particular OC or bust.

Everything I am reading is saying 32gb is literally overkill and will never get used

 

[Termie]

Everything I am reading is saying 32gb is literally overkill and will never get used

You are correct. 32GB is cool but useless. And this is coming from someone who has over 100GB of DDR4 on hand.

Motherboard sound is fine on my Gigabyte Gaming 6. What negative reports did you read? The sound quality is determined primarily by the sound codec, and all boards over $150 use the Realtek ALC1150. Board makers can add shielding to prevent electrical noise, which Gigabyte does on its boards.

 

[jimrawr]

Both amazon and newegg are littered with reviews that talk about sound issues. I am not one to tinker after the build is done, so I really do not want to deal with a bad mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W03VR9011

 

[jimrawr]

I guess I could give the gigabyte a shot and if I have sound problems then just upgrade to a Soundblaster card...

 

[Thinker_145]

Why won't you just buy a dedicated sound card with that budget especially since you seem to care about audio....

Sent from my HTC One M9

 

[Termie]

Both amazon and newegg are littered with reviews that talk about sound issues. I am not one to tinker after the build is done, so I really do not want to deal with a bad mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W03VR9011

User reviews of all otherboards are littered with negative feedback, often indicative of user error. Anyway, you could try the Asus Maximus VIII Ranger, but it too has lots of ridiculously bad reviews from a few users.

And yes, a $50 sound card is always an option. In fact, don't buy a $200+ board just for audio. Get a $170 board and see if audio is good enough, and if not add sound card.

 

[Thinker_145]

No. 1 reason I still use a sound card is because I can use it's headphone amp from the front panel as well. I did not come across a motherboard that let you do that. While there maybe no sound quality difference these days between motherboard and dedicated audio but you always get far more features both hardware and software through a dedicated sound card.