#472
An upper limit for the budget would be good, just in case.

Doesn't have to be huge could be anything. Some consider 240GB huge on the other hand 1TB is a standard size nowadays. Are we talking about 30, 60 or 120GB?

This doesn't make any sense. On a budget you're not in the position to get "good overclocking options" for the sake of overclocking. You'll be choosing by price to performance ratio and price. Either you won't overclock soon then you can't afford to take overclockability into account or you go by the price to performance ratio when overclocked in that case you have to overclock to make the parts worthwhile. There are also no good CPU overclocking options right now. The only thing that is low budget is the Pentium G3258 and you absolutely have to overclock it, not just some day in the future but right after you build it or the whole build becomes pointless.

ATX isn't small form factor. mATX is cheaper.

Probably not much I can do for efficiency, you get what you pay for.

Does he have an ODD already?
Like Pheesh said, will any parts be reused?

Talked to him on steam and got a general idea but since he'll be buying it in August/September I told him to wait until the 390X/980 Ti and Skylake are released.

There's the build thread for this.
http://teamfortress.tv/thread/12714/pc-build-thread/

Also a bit more information would be good.
What country? You've given a budget in € but used pcpartpicker uk.
What does he want to do with this build? If the goal was to spend 1236.60£ this build is perfect, if it's about performance not so much. You could get a "solid" build for less, but what exactly qualifies as solid? Without knowing how much performance he needs I can't give you any advise.

#388
Link/Source?
I'd guess it would have lower input lag compared to the 3D Vision hack, but versus the ToastyX Lightboost Utility that doesn't have that overhead I'm not so sure.

#468
We've been there before. http://teamfortress.tv/post/409047/pc-build-thread
Using benchmarks with settings other than your own to guess how many fps you'll get is a bad idea.
Also like I said before (see link) the GPU would be a massive bottleneck at max settings and not tell you anything about performance on low settings where the CPU is the limiting factor.

#465
We discussed the details via Steam, here's the list for anyone interested an future reference.

CPU: Xeon E3-1230 v3 243.50€
RAM: 2*8GB 1600MHz CL9 110.21€
Mobo: ASRock B85M Pro4 64.45€
GPU: GTX 960 224.85€
Case: Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 64.33€

Total: 706.98€ + shipping

Before anyone asks, yes the old PSU (Corsair HX750) will be reused.

#466
Well he got an i7-920. Even overclocked an almost 7 years old CPU might be due for an upgrade.

#384
Name, model number or a link?

#385
Eizo simply counts the backlight turning off as another frame. Et voilà 120Hz become 240Hz.
Welcome to marketing.
I've said this before and I'll say it again, it's lightboost.

Those monitors are interesting for a different reason though. They are VA panels, not TN.

#462
Where did you read that?
In theory the 4690K can beat it if you overclock it really high. But with this being your first build and more importantly only a 212 Evo I don't see that happening.
Save some very weird situations in any application that uses 8 threads (-threads 8 in launch options, apparently there's a bug in CS:GO right now so it only uses 4 threads by default) the Xeon will win even against a 4690K with a decent overclock. Against a non-overclocked 4690K or a 4690 I'd take the Xeon anytime.

Out of the box it's faster
In CS:GO it's faster
Pretty much anything: It's still faster.
Really weird situations: The 4690K might be faster if you overclock it.

If the Xeon were more expensive it would be different, but as it is it's a no-brainer imho.

You don't need an SSD. You don't need 60fps or more for that matter. It's simply much more enjoyable. Single-digit seconds boot time, programs starting instantly, all that stuff. For day to day computer usage, basically everything not gaming/rendering, an SSD is the most noticable upgrade.

I can just suggest the usual stuff to save money: Go microATX and ditch overclocking.
You could also pirate windows 7/8/8.1 since you'll be able to upgrade to a legit version of windows 10 in August for free and use that money for an SSD.

So the changes are:
Overclocking -> No overclocking:
i5-4690K -> Xeon E3-1231 v3 (same or better performance except in case of a hard single threaded bottleneck)
212 Evo -> stock cooler

ATX -> microATX:
N400 -> N200

Both:
Z97 PC Mate -> H97M Anniversary

Using the money saved on those changes you can make some upgrades:
CX430 -> CSM450 (way better PSU and semi-modular, definitely worth those 7$)
260X -> 270X (significant GPU upgrade, ~+50%)

Windows->BX100 120GB SSD (you can skip this if you want to)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($68.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($53.10 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($66.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.98 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $688.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-14 03:31 EDT-0400

Are you absolutely sure about overclocking?
I know it gets old but Xeon E3-1231 v3...
Saves you ~100$ and performs pretty much the same or better in everything except unmodded Skyrim (scales better with clockrates than with HT). Once you mod Skyrim you'd be limited by the GPU so it wouldn't matter anymore.
NH-U12S for 65$ doesn't make a whole lot of sense, the NH-D14 is only 5$ more.
RAM and SSD aren't ideal.
Any specific reason for a nVidia GPU or specifically the 960? You can get the same performance for less.
You could save some money on the case aswell, I'm not really sure what you're looking for exactly though.
Never buy the CX series at RSP. Between half the RSP and RSP there's better options and they go on sale so frequently it would be a waste of money. Also you don't need a 600W PSU for a 300W build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($68.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($53.10 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($96.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 2GB WINDFORCE 2X Video Card ($162.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $737.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 07:35 EDT-0400

Or you could ditch the cooler, get a cheaper motherboard and an i7-4790K for the same price as your config. Beats the 4690K unless you overclock it past 4.5GHz and that's with the 4790K on stock clocks. If you overclock it even sligthly (or get a cooler later and overclock it significantly) it's over.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($53.10 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($96.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 2GB WINDFORCE 2X Video Card ($162.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $828.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 07:39 EDT-0400

Both of these builds got a way better PSU, more powerful GPU, a faster SSD (twice the size too) and aren't even close to your budget yet.

IT'S MSPAINT TIME!

I've rotated and exaggerated it a bit, in the vice it would obviously be upside down, but you get the idea.
You just have to keep in mind that the die and SMD stuff are moving with the thing you're hammering. The human brain usually thinks along the lines of "we're removing the lid, therefore the lid is the moving part".

http://i.imgur.com/GNv7BTD.png

I'm doubt my vice looks any better, but if you've got tape at hand then go for it.

Could you clarify the question, I'm not exactly sure what you mean.

You don't need to tighten the vice that much. You're not putting any pressure on the CPU from left or right, you could literally hold it against the edge of a table and start hammering. The only reasons why no one does that is because you'd need three hands and you'd leave an IHS-shaped dent in the table.
I didn't get any marks on the IHS but I guess I was careful.

I skipped a few sentences, I guess. What I meant was: The voltage regulator isn't monolithic. It's an arrangement of parts. What you need is basically:
-Capacitors: SMD stuff, would be there anyway
on package

http://techreport.com/r.x/core-i7-4770k/3770k-vs-4770k-bottom.jpg

3770K on the left, 4770K on the right
on the mobo

http://techreport.com/r.x/core-i7-4770k/socket-pins.jpg

-switching devices
-control circuitry
there's plenty of both of those in a CPU anyway so adding a few more doesn't change much, the benefits far outweigh the cons (except when overclocking), all of that is on-die so you can't see it.

-inductors
That's the only change. Most of them are on-package, that's where the "mostly on-package" comes from.

Now here's the stuff you should be worried about:

http://i.imgur.com/NwY18Ue.jpg

Those gold contact points are pretty much indestructible.
Those tiny little SMD thingies aren't.
They are far enough away from the edges that you're not likely to hit them if you're careful, but if you're not (put a pillow behind the vice) you might and they won't take it kindly.
Looking back at the picture you want to hit the bottom side. Or if the writing is right side (right as in correct, not as in left/right) the left side.

Hair dryer will get sticky and messy.

I don't know about the electrical tape. I never used it and haven't damaged any CPU yet. Not sure what it's supposed to do in this case anyway.

Nope
This is the most important part. Those thingies on the package (they're mostly on-package inductors btw, the voltage regulator is the whole arrangement of parts both on-package and on-die), you want them facing the hammer.
If you get the amount of force just right the package won't move at all, just the epoxy will crack. Since it takes quite a bit of force to do that you can slowly work your way up. If you're less gentle however it might move more than 1mm and guess what happens with the inductors facing the side the package is moving? They'll hit the lid. *insert crunching noise*

Isopropyl alcholol >75%. Higher concentration -> evaporates faster.

Intel doesn't care about delidding afaik. They want the lid (called IHS, internal heat spreader, just so you know if it ever comes up in an RMA talk) because the batch/serial number is on there.
However they don't cover hardware/overclocking damage and any other kind of damage is really unlikely.
The question is does the overclocking warranty (PTPP = Performance Tuning Protection Plan). As far as I know they will replace a CPU killed by overclocking no questions asked, even if it's delidded, but I'm not sure if anyone tried to get a CPU replaced that was killed by delidding.

Performance over colours is a form of function over form I guess and I'm firmly in that camp.

Not necessarily better mobo, just a few bucks cheaper. Doesn't matter now since you're sending it in anyway. I'm relieved to hear about the RAM, suboptimal RAM in high end builds is one of my pet peeves.

Depends on which models you're comparing them with and how much you value noise levels and overclockability. Keep in mind even 40$ is less than 10% of what you're spending on the GPU. Just wait for a sale like you planned on doing, even for 20$ I don't think it's a question anymore.

#26
Tell me, which two cores was TF2 running on?

http://i.imgur.com/Eelw9IZ.png