Building a New Computer for a Friend

[jtvd78]

A friend asked me about building a computer for him. I asked him for a general budget, and he told me ~$3500. Though it can be anywhere around there.

Even though he has that budget, I'm not really trying to spend it all. Right now, he has a Dell XPS that was very good for the time. I dont exactly know what hardware is in it.

Pretty much, he uses his computer for web browsing, and a LOT of multitasking. He has tons of windows open at all times. Although he doesn't game right now, he wants a good video card that will be able to play games well.

Here's what I have right now...
CPU: i7-3930K
Motherboard: Some 2011 motherboard. I have no idea at this point.
RAM: see below
Video Card: see below
CPU Cooler: see below
Storage: 2x3TB drives in RAID 1
SSD: 2x256GB SSDs in RAID 1
PSU: How much would this build need?
Windows: Win 7 Professional 64bit
Case: I have to talk to him about what case he wants. Though, he said he wants blue LEDs
He is planning to use the monitor/mouse/keyboard that he has now.

For the memory, I might just make it 32GB. Its not too much compared to his budget. Or I might just go 64GB. I know both of those are way overkill, but why not?

I'm just a little stuck on what to get him video card wise. He doesn't really play games, but he wants the capability to play games on high/very high. Completely maxing out doesn't really matter. Im not really up to date on the current video cards much. I definitely want to stick with a single card. But I don't know which specifically. When is the next generation supposed to come out? What about the GK110 Cards?

Also, what about the SSD? When I bought an SSD for myself, the m4 was pretty much the one to get. Though, what should I get now? He doesn't need the speed of RAID 0, but he wants the redundancy of RAID 1. (Which is why im RAIDing his storage drives).

So, what would you guys do with a build like this?

EDIT: I just wanna build a beastly computer that can handle anything that you throw at it.

 

[Dangman]

What exactly is a "ton of multi-tasking"?

Also, please answer the stickied "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST" so that we can help you better.

 

[Eureka!]

Wow, that's definitely not a good build. It's far too much for a home computer.

i5-3570K, or i7-3770K max. Unless you're doing intensive graphics/rendering/crunching work, you won't notice the difference.
Get a z77 board, AsRock or Gigabyte has some good offerings without being ridiculous

Multi-tasking, unless you're talking about rendering 3D graphics in the background while doing video gaming at the same time, still isn't intensive enough to need a $3500 computer. Everything you could want could get gotten for under $2000, if not less.

CPU: i7-3770K $270
CPU Cooler: Hyper 212+ $20
Motherboard: Z77 offering, $120
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600 or 1866 $70
GPU: 7970 or 680, $400
Storage: 2x3TB, $300
Storage: 2x250GB SSD $300
PSU: 600-750W PSU, Gold or Plat for efficiency, ~$100
Windows: $0-100, depending on source
Case: $100-300, considering the budget you can get a lot of nice cases

Right now the best price per value SSD is the Samsung 840 250GB for $150. If you want more performance, Samsung 840 Pro 250GB for around $210, it's the fastest drive you can get.

A large amount of cost here just goes into the drives. You can save some more money if you have a microcenter nearby, they have large discounts on the 3770K and the 3570K, as well as a motherboard discount.

This will handle anything you can throw at it right now, short of surround/eyefinity gaming (3x monitors). Unless you're doing professional work, there's no value in going to a 2011 system with more than 16GB of RAM. It's 2013 and we're still only using roughly 4GB of RAM, and a Core 2 Quad can still do 90% of the things a modern system can. If you really want to use up all $3500, then spend the rest on a second video card for dual GPU and drive 3 monitors in eyefinity and surround.