I finally finished purchasing everything for my build. I've already got my motherboard (ASRock Z370 Gaming i7 Professional) and RAM (Corsair 2x16GB DDR4 4000). Like most, I'm still waiting on the CPU (i7-8700k). Unlike previous instances, I actually bought hard drives for this build. I used to just steal the ones from the old machine, but I got tired of said old machines never having hard drives when I'd reappropriate them.
Case: Thermaltake Core X9 Black
I had a really hard time choosing a case. I've owned a decent amount of cases over the years, and the best one that I've had is the Fractal Design Define R5. However, I've always wished that it was just a little bigger. Honestly, since I have no water cooling aspirations, I think the Core X9 is probably a little too big for me, but I don't think it's Corsair 900D big. I did consider the new Cooler Master Cosmos C700P. I like that it has USB 3.1 Type-C on the front, because my motherboard has an internal Type-C port just for that. However, the case costs twice as much and seems like they cheaped out on a few parts.
HSF: Noctua NH-D15
My current machine has a NZXT Kraken X61, and honestly, I just don't want to deal with them anymore. I've always been a little hesitant to use such a large cooler due to the added stress on the motherboard. It's likely never going to be an actual issue, but I do have motherboards that have visible bowing due to heatsink weight. However, when you combine this with the fact that my case choice allows the motherboard to lay flat, the cooler's weight won't be a problem. Also, the NH-D15 performs slightly worse than the best AIO coolers, but costs around 60%.
PSU: EVGA SuperNova 850 G3
I already own one of these exact same PSUs, and I've been using EVGA for a while now without any issues. If it wasn't this, it likely would've been a Corsair unit. I usually choose the wattage to keep my max usage around 40-60%, so anywhere from 650-850 is fine, and the price difference between those three is fairly inconsequential.
SSD: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2
Part of my goal has been to reduce unnecessary cabling in my computers, and part of the way I do that is trying to use M.2 SSDs instead of normal 2.5" SSDs. Although, I did have reservations against getting the 960 EVO. Let's be real here... while the NVMe drives are faster
in benchmarks, the real world benefit in normal system use is largely negligible. I mostly went with it for the quality and reliability.
SSD: Crucial MX300 1TB M.2
I usually build my systems with two SSDs. One of them serves as purely an OS drive (with applications), and the other is for games. This 1TB SSD is for games. I debated whether 1TB was useful, because I currently use a 500GB drive, and it's only about half full. It essentially serves as a manually curated cache where I leave some games on there all the time, but install others randomly. The hard part is whether the extra storage is even useful, or if I'll lean toward mechanical storage for most games.
HDD: HGST DeskStar 4TB 7200RPM
This is the mechanical drive that I've designated for games that I don't want to store on the fast storage. I have a rather large Steam library (nearly 1400 games at this point), and I don't normally uninstall them. I went back and forth on whether I needed to worry about 7200RPM vs 5900RPM, but the cost difference wasn't that worthwhile to worry. I use these drives quite heavily in my file server, so while I know they run a bit hot (around +5C compared to 5900RPM drives), they also work quite well.
HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 4TB
I always use a drive for temporary storage and for just random stuff. I've used a 3TB drive for this in the past, but I decided to go up a bit since the cost isn't too major.
I also purchased a USB stick for Windows 10. I bought an OEM disc in the past from a seller on Amazon, but in my experience, you need to be
very cautious there. The discs are usually fakes where they're reusing keys, so definitely make sure you buy from Amazon. I'm debating whether I want to buy a new monitor since IPS G-Sync monitors are a bit better now; however, that's a hefty $600-700 to tack on! I have the original ROG Swift monitor, but the TFT panel certainly looks weak compared to the IPS monitor that it sits next to.