Graphics Card

2x MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Gaming-LE - $659 each, $1,319 total
We're not just looking at playable frame-rates at 4K, but frame-rates that are consistently at around 60 frames per second. No single-GPU card, no matter how high its clock speeds, will give you that, and so, we're left with a multi-GPU option. We picked a pair of GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics cards because they currently give you the best future-proofing against some of the first waves of DirectX 12 games. The GTX 980 Ti Gaming-LE from MSI is among the cheapest and quietest GTX 980 Ti cards you can buy, currently priced at $659 each. If $1,319 sounds like a lot of money to spend on graphics, we've discussed a few alternatives on page #5.

Storage

Main Storage (SSD) – Crucial MX200 500GB - $172
Crucial's MX200 remains the best combination of performance and price-per-gigabyte you can find in the market. Faster M.2 based NVMe SSDs are still 50-100 percent more expensive. Hopefully, Samsung's 950 Pro will changes that, but unfortunately, it's not yet available. $172 for 500 GB is a heck of a bargain.

Additional Storage (HDD) – Toshiba PH3400U-1I72 4TB - $124
4 TB hard drives currently strike the price-per-gigabyte sweet-spot among high-capacity drives. Toshiba's PH3400U-1I72 4TB is the best proposition—a price of just $124, 7200 RPM spindle speed, 128 MB write-cache, and retail packaging (the drive ships in a cushy egg-crate). Plenty of space to store all your...research.

Power Supply

Enermax Platimax 850W - $159
850 Watt, especially served up by a PSU that's 80 Plus Platinum efficiency rated, is more than enough to feed all the hardware we put into this rig. The Platimax 850W from Enermax is priced right at $159 for the features it offers, which include low load noise and a modern feature set with Core C7 state support. All the cables that matter are affixed, and its optional cables are modular and flat. Just what we need.