#2653
I'm totally going to spend an extra 600€ to get red LEDs. Definitely.

#2654
Well that's difficult. IPS panels are out, won't get that 1ms he wants, and there are no 1440p 144Hz TN panels with other forms of strobing, which leaves only those with G-Sync. And those are always expensive. Right now there seem to be only 2 available and those are the same.
https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product/tN4NnQ/acer-predator-xb271hua-270-2560x1440-165hz-monitor-umhx1eea01
https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product/MTkwrH/acer-predator-xb1-270-2560x1440-165hz-monitor-umhx1aaa01

#2610
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($279.00 @ Scorptec)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370M D3H (rev. 1.0) Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($181.50 @ Skycomp Technology)
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($259.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($122.00 @ Shopping Express)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card ($1095.00 @ IJK)
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($58.28 @ Skycomp Technology)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $2195.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 21:35 AEDT+1100

Since the monitor isn't included in the 2.5k there are some options:
8600K + cooler, not for overclock, but for the higher clockrate. Z370 mobo is mandatory anyway so he could overclock later.
Larger SSD/HDD, or large SSD only.
Case is only a placeholder, don't know what he likes, but he can afford pretty much anything.
Going full ATX instead of µATX is also possible.

About the monitor, now that he's back:
Lightboost/strobing/ULMB yes/no?
G-Sync yes/no?
IPS panel yes/no?
1440p yes/no?
240 Hz yes/no?

Of course some things might end up being included anyway and some things are mutually exclusive, I just want a list of the features he definitely wants (or maybe wants) and which ones he doesn't care about.

Update: It appears the 780 Ti just died. I'm blaming you for this, ambroon. Correlation = causation, as we all know.

Minor improvements then (mostly replacing all the outdated parts).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($284.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U12S SE-AM4 CPU Cooler ($59.90 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B350-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($94.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.56 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $902.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-18 13:57 EST-0500

There are cheaper coolers (e.g. https://pcpartpicker.com/product/93Crxr/cryorig-cpu-cooler-h7) and other cases though.

Could you be a bit more specific? Otherwise I'm going to assume it's Minecraft and Word.

Best build for what?

I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to do.
Are you trying to upgrade an existing build, do you want buy used parts or a whole used build or do you just really like outdated parts?

Yeah, forgot to mention that, obviously to use up the 1100$ 3rd build + RAM or cooler.
Why would you need a USB dongle?
You can always put a µATX mobo in a full ATX case, but not the other way around.
In this particular case however the full ATX version of the mobo happens to be cheaper right now, which is unusual.

Well you can't afford a better CPU or GPU so basically faster RAM (e.g. something like this https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/DHPzK8/team-vulcan-16gb-2-x-8gb-ddr4-3000-memory-tlgd416g3000hc16cdc01 ) or a better cooler (depends on the case you end up choosing).

Now that's something I can work with.

Onto the next problem:
There are no BenQ 144 Hz 24" FreeSync monitors. Your options are 24.5" 240 Hz, 27" 144 Hz and 27" 240 Hz although the XL2740 doesn't seem to be available in Australia yet so it's not an option for you.
That leaves us with the following three, sorted by price:
XL2540, 24.5", 240 Hz, 1080p, ~650$ http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?products_id=158052
XL2730, 27", 144 Hz, 1440p, ~750$ http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?products_id=157782
XL2546, 24.5", 240 Hz, 1080p, ~780$ http://ijk.com.au/branch/ijk/product_info.php?products_id=159898
The difference between the XL2730 and the others should be obvious.
The XL2540 and XL2546 differ only in the firmware version. The XL2540 ships with BenQ Motion Blur Reduction (aka Lightboost aka strobing) disabled by default and does not support BMBR and FreeSync at the same time. The XL2546 ships with BMBR enabled by default (except it's rebranded as DyAc) and does allow FreeSync to be used at the same time. Yes, 130$ for a newer firmware is a rip off.

The rest of the build depends on which monitor you choose (aforementioned 130$ difference), this would be the baseline:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8350K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($245.00 @ Shopping Express)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($55.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - Z370M D3H (rev. 1.0) Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($181.50 @ Skycomp Technology)
Memory: Team - Dark 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($259.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($121.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: Gigabyte - Radeon RX 580 8GB Gaming 8G Video Card ($409.00 @ Umart)
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($58.28 @ Skycomp Technology)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $1406.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-17 02:17 AEDT+1100

#2630
That is not how future proofing works. In fact future proofing generally doesn't work.
Ryzen, Threadripper, EPYC, all Zen.
Apple may or may not switch to Zen next year. Lower price means higher margins for them (you didn't think they'd drop their prices, did you?) and for Mac Pros Zen is better suited because of lower power consumption, for MacBooks it'll be either an AMD APU or the recently announced Intel CPU/AMD GPU hybrid because Intel iGPUs still suck.

If worth the money means spending more money for the same performance, then yes, your build is worth it.

#2631
Still good old 4790K + 780 Ti.

#2632

I don't understand what you mean.

You might want to decide on a CPU based on price/performance, not because someone sometime said something or because you prefer the box to be a certain colour. I mean I'm not going to play the game where I recommend an Intel CPU and then you say "but I heard good things about another one, why not that one?".

BenQ only offers FreeSync or nothing. They made exactly one G-Sync monitor (XL2420G) and that's been out of production for a few years. You've still got enough time to try finding one (good luck) or figure out what's more important, BenQ, any sync at all or G-Sync specifically.

#2627
What is your budget in INR?

You went with an unlocked CPU + mobo + cooler anyway. That seems like a strange way of saving money.

I'm pretty sure Zen would be cheaper if you want more than 4 cores for rendering.

#2628
I would not call the FX-8350 an 8 core, but indeed for games and general desktop usage 4 cores would be enough. Rendering and stuff like that is what really benefits from having more cores.

Still multiple options.
Base would be this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Memory Express)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.75 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350M-Gaming 3 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($91.50 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($192.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($121.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB AMP! Edition Video Card ($350.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($45.00 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ PC Canada)
Total: $1042.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-15 16:33 EST-0500

You could obviously drop the SSD if you want/need to save money.
Also if you are concerned about there only being 6 SATA ports in total you could switch to an M.2 SSD to save one.

So this would be 4 cores / 4 threads, including overclocking. You could get a Ryzen 5 1400 instead to get 4 cores / 8 threads or an 1500X for 4c/8t but 16 instead of 8MB L3 cache though at that point you might as well spend the 35$ more to get a 1600 and get 2 extra cores as well and drop the cooler or SSD to stay within budget.

Now the main problem is that even overclocked in any program that use 4 or fewer threads neither of would be any faster than this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($152.99 @ PC Canada)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.75 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($192.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($121.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB AMP! Edition Video Card ($350.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($45.00 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ PC Canada)
Total: $1109.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-15 16:39 EST-0500
(cooler is unecessary/overkill, but I left it in anyway for comparision purposes)
And the i3-8100 can't even be overclocked.
So the 1400/1500X don't make much sense and with your type of usage the 1600 will never be able to play to its strengths either.
The 1200 based build would be cheaper, especially if you just kept the stock cooler, which really is quite decent.
In this case the overclocking would be done to save money (same performance as 1300X, same performance in most cases as 1500X etc).

Now if you wanted to overclock for performance and the i3-8100 isn't fast enough for you then your best option would be this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8350K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($231.99 @ PC Canada)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.75 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Kingston - FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($192.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($121.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB AMP! Edition Video Card ($350.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($45.00 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ PC Canada)
Total: $1188.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-15 16:43 EST-0500
(SSD for comparision purposes, would have to be dropped to stay within budget)

88R: 198x378x440mm
Tesseract: 210x452x472mm
Not that much smaller, definitely better though.
There are many options though. Just black or anything special? Window yes/no?

Yes, in games the 8100 should still be faster. 3.9-4.0 is about the highest that you'd get with a 1200/1300X. How much of a difference it'd be depends a bit on the RAM and the game.
Sadly Intel will probably pull some bullshit again (like making Coffe Lake incompatible and only releasing Z370 so you have to pay extra even if you don't want to overclock), so I wouldn't count on the new 8 cores being compatible with anything but Z390, but on the other hand since you'll have Z370 anyway you could get a used 8350K/8600K/8700K and overclock it. Or just a non-K version, doesn't matter. Not sure if you'll actually need it. I mean for anything but TF2 you're limited by the GPU anyway so replacing that makes more sense.

Yeah, should be fine in that case. You can also obviously just get a better monitor as second monitor if it turns out that you do mind its shortcomings.
DVI Dual Link also supports 144 Hz, while most monitors do not support 144 Hz via HDMI. Most 144 Hz monitors come with a DVI cable for that reason.

It says "DDR4-4300+(OC)*/4266(OC)/..."
"*8th Gen Intel CPU supports DDR4 up to 2666."
Since that mobo only supports "8th Gen Intel CPU" that doesn't seem to make sense, right?
Well JEDEC only specifies DDR4 up to 3200 and Intel officially only supports up to 2666. Of course you can overclock (OC) beyond that. No one wants to manually set a million DDR4 timings though so there are XMP profiles that do it for you, in fact everything beyond 3000 MHz or 1.2V (the kit you selected needs 1.35V) uses XMP profiles because the JEDEC standard does not allow it. So all these kits are meant to run at what is officially considered an overclock by JEDEC and Intel. Guess who developed standardizes the XMP profiles? Intel.
Welcome to the game of "we don't officially support this so we can't be sued if it doesn't work, but we're going to block it anyway on all chipset except the most expensive, where we allow profiles we developed to go beyond that, but don't get confused, we still absolutely don't condone or even support this, even though we're going to let you pay for it not being blocked."
So yes, it will work, but counts as overclocking, just like -K CPUs are overclockable but warranty doesn't cover overclocking because it's EVIL.

#2619
If you want to abuse the system get reimbursed, buy a new mobo and sell the old build or keep the difference.
That said it's a good build so I don't see the need for a new one.

#2620
Isn't this like the fifth build you've planned, without ever actually building anything?

Also don't want to change the GPU, you chose the cheapest RAM already (2400 CL17 is shit btw), the 3rd cheapest mobo and while aios are shit (single fan space radiator aios are especially pointless) if you want an aftermarket cooler it won't be that much cheaper either way, so I think you're smart enough to figure out via process of elimination which part is left to save money on.

#2621
Official RAM support is rather irrelevant with Z chipsets, since you're not locked to offficialy supported frequencies. And faster RAM is indeed a good thing. 2400 CL17 definitely isn't part of that category.
Even 240/280mm aios aren't worth it. Mostly because they're twice as expensive for the same performance as a good air cooler.

#2622
In this case probably Coffee Lake since an i3-8100 costs basically the same, but would be slightly faster. Same number of cores/threads too. Only a more expensive mobo because Intel hates you and still hasn't released anything cheaper than Z370 and switched pins to make Coffee Lake incompatible with 100/200 series chipsets and sockets.
If you're going to overclock might as well go for the 1200. Would get slightly hotter and consume a bit more power, but reach more or less the same frequency (give or take a few 25 MHz increments).
Yes.

Bulldozer (FX-xxxx series) was shit. Zen isn't, but at 4 cores / 4 threads Intel does offer slightly more performance (even if we do include an OC on the AMD side) at almost the same price (CPU the same, mobo more expensive). If you want to overclock or want/need more cores/threads however it does get much more expensive.

Faster SSD if you want: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/3kL7YJ/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam
Faster HDD: https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/44Gj4D/seagate-barracuda-1tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm010
Not a fan of either the case or the monitor, but the former might be taste and the latter is due to budget constraints I guess.

I would avoid the CX 2017 series for now. No reviews and incredibly suspect.
1. Was supposed to be 80+ Silver. Didn't make it. It's an LLC half bridge design, which shouldn't struggle to reach Gold when done properly, let alone Silver. They were aiming for Silver and still failed, which doesn't inspire confidence.
2. It's dual sourced, usually a sign of trying to get your suppliers to drop their prices. Typically never done with PSUs because they wouldn't meet the same specifications.
3. It's not even the same design and one of them is a custom design because the OEM doesn't do complicated designs like LLC (go figure).
4. It's non-modular.
Combined with the fact that the CXM 2015 series was very good and modular this seems awfully like the "get the cheapest PSU you can find to replace a series with good reputation"-bait and switch they pulled before.

Also at the same price there are simply better options. Even the aforementioned CXM 2015 would wipe the floor with it if it weren't priced higher (that should give you pause too, if the predecessor offers more features and is more expensive).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($154.99 @ Memory Express)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($135.00 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($219.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.95 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ PC Canada)
Monitor: Acer - GN246HL 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor ($249.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $1243.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-15 09:40 EST-0500

Went with a µATX board so you'd have the option of getting a smaller case. Full ATX version is 5$ cheaper though.
Obviously optional SSD/HDD upgrades are possible and within your +100$ budget.
You can't afford overclocking (=8350K + cooler) because even without any upgrades and no cooler you'd already be over budget. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/WpwCjc

#2623
Sorry, I wrote something about #2608, but it got lost during reformating.
Overclocking -> more performance. Good idea with AMD, since Zen based CPUs all overclock similarly so you can save money by getting the cheapest with the number of cores/threads you want and overclocking it. Not so great with Intel since they'll let you pay for a more expensive CPU (slightly higher clocked though) without a cooler and a more expensive chipset on top of that, before you're even allowed to overclock. Still makes sense if you want the highest single threaded performance, doesn't make sense from a price to performance standpoint.
Set on BenQ? As usual, figure out if you want any features other than 144 Hz. Strobing/Lightboost, G-Sync/FreeSync or something simple like USB ports.
When are you going to build it?

#2611
Looks like you can actually afford multiple options, so some further questions:
Overclocking yes/no?
4 cores or would you benefit from having more?

#2614/#2617
For TF2 you want Coffee Lake so overclocking isn't that much more expensive (only oc chipset available atm), but it does add a bit of cost, so keep that in mind. That said it's not that difficult either.
Price for building depends on where you buy the parts. There is also the indirect cost of not being able to buy each part wherever it's cheapest.
Building a pc is pretty much like expensive LEGO. Wait, LEGO is already expensive so it's exactly like LEGO. Read the manual and follow the steps. If it fits, it fits, if you'd have to use a hammer to make it fit, then don't.

#2615
Yes.