$2000 Custom Build Advice?....

Is your budget in USD?

What games do you have in mind when you say "latest" games? What performance/settings are minimum acceptable?

Are you planning on overclocking?

What components do you already have (monitor, mouse, keyboard, optical drive, etc)?

Do you have any physical space requirements?

Here are some suggestions:

CPU: i5-2500k
Mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro
RAM: 2x4GB of something with 1.5V and 1600MHz
Hard drive: SSD, or wait on mechanical drives because they are super expensive right now from the recent flooding
GPU: GTX570 would probably do you well. If the most intensive game you want is Crysis, then you could go lower than that.
CPU Cooling: Corsair self-contained water-cooling unit of some kind
Case: mid or full tower, based on what you like personally

That's way under your 2k budget though. If that's what youre looking to spend you can get another 570, etc.

Save a little bit more (I know you can ) and get this:

Case: CM Advanced -- $150
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Series 800W -- $160
Monitor: Samsung Full HD 27' LED - $400
MotherBoard: eVGA P67 (a bit of fanboycm) -- $270
HDD: 2x Samsung f3 1TB (put them on Raid 0) -- $300
CPU: i7 2600K -- $320
CPU Cooling: XSPC RAsa 750 RX480 -- $250 (More or less)
RAM: G-Skill SNiper Series 8GB (2x4) -- $110
GPU: MSI Lightning extreme edition -- $595

Total: $2555

That PC is killer.

That may be killer, but it's a lot of overkill:

eVGA P67 - A heavily overpriced motherboard. You can get Gigabyte and Asus mobos for $100 less with nearly all the features, save for the quad CF/SLI.
HDD - Mechanical drivers are between 100% and 150% more expensive than they should be because of the flooding in Asia. Also, RAID 0 with that much space is just asking for trouble.
i7-2600K - A waste of $100 unless you specifically need extensive multithreading. For now, and the foreseeable future, the only applications that really benefit from the HT in the i7 are multimedia creation programs, like video editing and 3D rendering.
Rasa Kit - OP explicitly said no watercooling. And the CM advanced can't even fit a 480 radiator without extensive modding. Furthermore, unless the OP also want to water cool the GPU, then a 480 radiator is way overkill.
MSI Lightning - A GTX580 is overkill for most scenarios. Unless you plan on doing SLI or run at resolutions higher than 1080p, the 3GB or VRAM is completely overkill. Since you suggest a 1080p monitor, the 3GB version is another wasted $100.

CPU: 2500K $225

Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Pro $170

GPU: MSI 580GTX Lightning $525

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 1.5v $45

PSU: Corsair HX750 $150

HDD: Samsung F3 1Tb $160

CPU Cooling: Corsair H100 $120

Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D $190

Screen: Samsung S24A350H 24" $200

Soundcard: Asus Xonar DX $80

Total: $1865

That leaves $135 for peripherals etc

Just a rough idea, CPU cooling / Case / Monitor you could change as you wish.
Edited by Alex132 - 11/20/11 at 6:07am