Are we doing this again?

It's the same everytime.

People yelling "TF2 is dead".
People complaining that "TF2 will never become big" because Valve doesn't care.
Some people (just a few) in NA whining that if not everyone pays for a league TF2 will die.

Reminder: If you define "dead" as "not big anymore" or "has no chance at becoming big anymore" then TF2 died a long time ago.
TF2 was never "big" and it will never be "big".
TF2 will die when you stop playing it, ESEA or not. There is no pay to play league in Europe and we're still playing an awful lot of TF2 for it being dead.

If you're not having fun then quit. There is no other reason to play this game.
98% or whatever of the players will never make any kind of profit with this game, making a living with it is impossible. It's not Dota2, it's not Starcraft, we're not professional eSports and we never will be.

#350
Overclocking yes or no?
Platypus posted a decent overclocking build, although I would'Ve used slightly different parts.
I'll post a non-overclocking build.
Imho overclocking isn't really worth it atm, the 1231 v3 + non-OC mobo are cheaper than a 4690K + OC mobo and that's not even factoring in the kind of cooler you need just get even with the Xeon. I reckon you'd need round 4.5GHz for that.

About PSUs see #349.
You can drop to the 128GB version of the SSD to save some money.
The R9 290 is absolute overkill for TF2 (even a 260X would be enough), but it kind of fits the 1231 and shows what's possible with your budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($238.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card ($249.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.98 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1096.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-09 17:17 EST-0500

#347
Sorry I didn't have the time to look up pricing and availability of monitors in the US like I said 2 pages ago.

Some improvements though:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($172.94 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($31.50 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($75.66 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB DEVIL Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($16.95 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) ($104.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: LG 23MP55HQ-P 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $933.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-09 15:48 EST-0500

There aren't any fully modular PSUs on sale right now, best I could do was semi-modular.
If you don't care about that my budget options are on sale again. EVGA B1 500W (saves 25$), Corsair CX430 (saves 30$)

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
There's 67$ left, so if you want to use up more or all of the budget you can get, depending on wether you want to focus on TF2 or pretty games performance you could get:
A top of the line i5 and a 280
or
a slightly better i5 and a 280X
or
a Xeon E3-1231 v3 (all the tf2 fps)
or
just go to town, drop the cooler and the semi-modular PSU and bring on the pretty graphics with an i5-4590* and a R9 290.
*I changed the mobo to make sure it'll work with the 4590, you can keep the Pro4 and use a 4570 instead.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.69 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II Video Card ($249.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($16.95 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) ($104.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: LG 23MP55HQ-P 60Hz 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $995.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-09 16:09 EST-0500

#348
No hardware related work for me right now, but I used to build servers and workstations in case you were wondering. I'm a bit out of touch with the professional side, but this thread helped me keeping updated on the consumer side of things.

Some minor improvements and put a few deals in there:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-T40-TB 86.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($339.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Tachyon 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1366.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-08 17:05 EST-0500

1000-1500$ is a pretty wide range. It's also a bit excessive just for Source Engine games.
Do you mean he doesn't care about 120Hz vs 144Hz or about 60Hz vs 120/144Hz? Does he care about colours? What about input lag?
Overclocking yes or no?

I'm assuming he's got a steam account, he can add me if he wants to.

Well I did not see that one coming.
It makes things a lot more difficult since the monitor is so expensive in Australia (almost 1/3 of your budget).

I prioritised the CPU over the GPU, it's more important for TF2 and CS:GO and with the case and PSU I picked you can easily put a better GPU in there without having to replace anything else.

It's 5$ over budget though. I could shave off those 5$, even without dropping down to a cheaper CPU, but I'd prefer not to.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($299.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($84.00 @ CPL Online)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($92.00 @ Centre Com)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($86.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.00 @ Centre Com)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card ($249.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($55.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($399.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1405.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-09 00:21 EST+1100

You don't understand my point.
It doesn't work under the conditions it's specified for.
It never should've made it to the market.
It means that neither the designer, nor Corsair, nor Quality Control properly tested any of those units. They just rated them based on "It should work". That's terrifying.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=363
There's a jumper missing. It won't do any damage but that PSU doesn't even meet the ATX spec anymore. Technically they can't legally sell this.

Even though none of this issue would cause any damage they're still showing that QC doesn't exist at all or is not doing it's job. I've seen a similar case. 80% of the units were out of spec by 3-5% to the "good side". Not an issues but it's still out of spec. We almost lost a contract. Heads rolled, I can tell you that.

My point is that Corsair is saving money on Quality and Quality Control while increasing the prices. I'm perfectly fine with them trying to increase their profit, but that's just screwing the customers over.

Agree on noctua, excellent customer support aswell. It's like Seasonic, it might not be cheap, but at least it's good.

Corsair right now is "It might not be cheap, but ... uhm ... it got Corsair Link!"

UK or US? I can never tell with all the fake flags.
1200-1400 USD or GBP?
Budget including the monitor?
Overclocking yes/no?

Rough sketch, I'll adapt it depending on your actual location and budget:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£56.11 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£76.17 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.94 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£269.94 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£29.77 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: BenQ XL2411Z 144Hz 24.0" Monitor (£224.63 @ Aria PC)
Total: £972.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-08 09:19 GMT+0000

#22
That's indeed a bit low.
Set mat_queue_mode to "2", that should enable multithreading. Only if 2 causes any issues should you try "-1".
Don't try cl_threaded_bone_setup 1 at the same time, it's known to cause crashes. Verify that mat_queue_mode 2 isn't crashing, then you can try this to get some extra fps.

#23
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm
I stand corrected, if you're not counting discoutinued units it's only 62% CWT.
3 Seasonic, 4 Flextronics, 2 Chicony, 4 Great Wall, rest CWT.

Current Seasonic units: HX650, AX760, AX860
All 4 Flextronics units are in the AXi series.
HX650 is Gold, Ax1500i is Titanium, rest is Platinum.
Imho none of these are "casual models for your average buyer", but what do I know?

So Corsair stopped rebranding CWT units more than a year ago? I must've dreamt the HXi series then.

#24
Brand name provides absolutely no information about the quality of a PSU. How is it valid for a recommendation?
I'd rather have a PSU that doesn't fail with bad RMA support, than a failing PSU with good RMA support. If your PSU dies it can take a lot of components with it and no brand is going to cover that.

I highly doubt Corsair does any of the actual RMA on PSUs themselves. Look at the rebranded Seasonic units. 7 year warranty. Look at the same models direclty form seasonic. 7 year warranty.

Overheats as in shuts down.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/11/13/corsair_rm750_750w_power_supply_review/4
And you can't change the fan speed without opening it and voiding your warranty.

You can't rate a PSU for 40°C if it's guaranteed to trigger OTP 35°C or if you don't have other fans blowing into it. It renders the passive mode pointless if you need other fans to cool it.
It's also a wrong rating. For me that's the same category as overrating the wattage. Absolutely inacceptable.

I'd rather have the money for Corsair link put into a better platform, but to each his own I guess.

#26
Exactly.

Skip this Corsair PSU rant if you don't care about marketing bullshit.

Sorry I just can't let this stand.
Two thirds of all Corsair PSUs are CWT. That doesn't qualify as "usually Seasonic/Flextronics". They're even phasing out Seasonic now. Look at the HXi series. CWT units at higher prices than Seasonic. Corsair is trying to cash in on the reputation that Seasonic/Flextronics units built up for them.

And don't recommend by brand name. Going by the rebranding (in this case XFX) is absolutely pointless, going by the OEM is pointless most of the time too. Go by the performance/quality of the specific platform and the price.

I'm sorry for this off-topic rant, but I don't want anyone to fall for Corsair's or anyone else's marketing. The RM/HXi series is the pinnacle of that. Corsair got greedy so they went from selling rebranded Seasonic units at Seasonic's prices (->little profit) to selling cheaper CWT units at even higher prices Seasonic (->fuckton of profit) by advertising useless features* and by making people it's still the same quality the Seasonic units had.

*RM series: fan doesn't turn on until 50% load -> quiet, but overheats
HXi series: corsair link -> useless gimmick

#1
http://teamfortress.tv/thread/7598/tf2-benchmarks
Do the benchmark and post the results.
DM servers are pretty much 10 players in one place constantly shooting each other, about as intense as it gets apart from 32 man pubs.

Not even gonna bother responding to #3.

#4/#5
Corsair is not a PSU brand. Corsair is just rebranding. They haven't manufactured or designed a single PSU.
Don't fucking buy PSUs based on who rebranded them.
90% of Corsair PSUs are overpriced.
Quality varies from barely acceptable (CX series) to excellent (AXi series).
The CX series is definitely not one of the best in it's price category at MSRP, however they're on sale very often. For example the CX430M at 30$ is basically like the 212 Evo at 20$. At normal prices (40-50$ respectively 30-35$) there are a number of better options, but at those prices they're hard to beat. That doesn't make them any better though. I only recommend the CX series when budget is very tight and they're on sale, just like I only recommend the 212 Evo when noise is not a concern and it's on sale and I'm trying to shave off another 10$.

#7
What PSU do you have now?
Amuse me.

I'd say take the MSI 4G. Higher clockrate and from what I've seen and heard one if not the best overclocking 970.
Both the MSI 4G and the XL2411Z are my go to recommendations for a 970 respectively 120/144Hz monitor, I really like your choices.

Absolute best TF2 performance you've ever seen -> 4790K
60fps max quality in every game -> R9 290 or GTX 970

Even though it's a micro ATX case the N200 can fit every GPU I know of so you don't have to worry about the length.
If you decide to go with the 4790K I'll look for a good Z97 mobo so you don't have to worry about flashing the BIOS.

Glad I could help.

It shouldn't really affect the lifespan noticably (non-OC lifespan is >10years), but I don't think overclocking is worth it atm, it's mostly for the sake of overclocking.

No SLI, no OC and no full size ATX opens up this path:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (£185.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£55.07 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston Beast 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£61.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£43.00 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £374.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-02 12:18 GMT+0000

I know it's nowhere near your budget, but why spend money on features you don't need. The RAM will run at 1600MHz because of the B85 chipset, but the cheapest 1600MHz CL9 RAM is only 0.39£ cheaper so I figured why not, you might be able to get better timings with this one.

You could also easily get the 4790K, just for the higher clockrates. Even getting a Z97 mobo and using the stock cooler until you decide to overclock would still be well within your budget.

I'd really like to know what kind of logic your friend uses.

Third fan for the NH-D15 while using a silent case with only 2 fans. Effect -> Louder, same temps because even with only 2 fans on it the NH-D15 doesn't get enough air. If you want lower idle/low load temps get an NH-D14. If you want lower high load temps get better/more case fans and/or delid it.

Mini-ITX motherboard in a full-size ATX mid tower. Please explain.

RM650. No. Just no. There are so many things wrong with it, I'd hit the character limit listing them.

A few question:
How far do you want to overclock?
Are you willing/able to flash the BIOS without a CPU (Z87 mobos tend to have better VRMs).
Are low noise levels a priority?
Do you want to go SLI in the future?
Are there any other reasons why you'd want a mid tower?
Do you want a semi or fully modular PSU?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.50 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£74.72 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£107.26 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£62.99 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case (£80.39 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£43.00 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £535.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-02 08:38 GMT+0000