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greenmedic88 on 27 December 2011
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List the total budget and then prioritize your list of hardware aspects in relation to which functions you'll be using most as a system.

ie. You encode video or audio regularly = prioritize CPU and memory, both RAM and HDD storage. For dedicated encoding systems/workstations, it's not unreasonable to spend half the budget on CPU alone.
VS
You mostly game but still claim to be using your gaming system for "productivity" = prioritize your gaming VGA card(s). For extreme gaming systems, it's not unreasonable to spend half the budget on the VGA card set up alone.

Either of the quick examples would be made better with the addition of a SSD boot/application drive, as would most systems used for anything but mostly web browsing and e-mail. For OS and apps, I'd recommend 120GB minimum. Again, it all boils down to budget and prioritization. You have over $1000 for a 500GB SSD? Go for it.

CPU wise, the i7 2600k is the best bang for buck amateur/hobbyist workstation CPU with the i7 2500k being the best performance gaming CPU on a bang for buck basis. The extra $100 in a gaming rig would be naturally better spent on more GPU power.

The Extreme CPUs and Xeon CPUs yield diminishing returns relative to the added cost. Not an issue for those with deep pockets, professionals, companies or art schools, but if you're not a working professional, it's hard to justify paying $1000 and more for a CPU that will be replaced in 2-3 years.

Liquid coolers aren't much more expensive than the largest/most efficient air coolers if you're looking at enclosed coolers that aren't custom built (your $200+ cooling solutions). The main advantage is that the cooling element is not cluttering the inside of the CPU case, which can cause build issues when assembling systems (most giant air coolers are engineered well enough to avoid these, barring RAM sticks with oversized cooling fins).

RAM is so cheap currently that even a moderate budget system can swing 16GB (currently well under $100) for dual channel MoBos. For the triple channel MoBos, 12 -24GB. It goes without saying that unless you're working with extremely large files and/or running multiple production apps simultaneously, you don't "need" 16-24GB of RAM other than to say you have 16-24GB of RAM.

It's tough to give you a convenient list of everything to buy since it sounds like you're building a complete system to include all components outside of the CPU case starting with nothing. Either way, your #1 criteria should have been budget, assuming you're not charging this on an open corporate credit card account and/or are not independently wealthy.