I don't even know what size motherboards and cases to look for currently. My budget is around $1,000.
You can do very well for 1,000.
Do you need a monitor within that budget?
The default case would be mid-tower ATX case and a standard ATX motherboard. Very little reason for a full tower. Fractal Design is one often recommended case brand. Cases are mostly a matter of choice. Some are flashier than others. If noise is an issue, stay away from mesh or a lot of openings for fans that you won't use. Lots of decent choices in the 75 to 125 bracket, but you can often save 25 to 50 on a sale. I'd probably go with mid-tower rather than smaller due to more room inside, easier to work with, and future expandability, unless your budget demand a smaller case. A case typically has a much longer useful lifetime than most components.
I'd avoid any case that had fan mounts smaller than 120 mm and I'd likely avoid cases that had more than 3 or 4 fan mounts. Some fanaholics won't buy a case with less than 6 or 8 mounts, but they are, well, fanaholics and don't want to hear about the law of diminishing returns.
Nothing at all wrong with a "micro ATX" motherboard. Might save you 50 bucks and be perfectly fine unless you need a bunch of slots for cards. They will work fine in a mid-tower.
No reason to go hog wild on a motherboard. Something above 100 and below 200 would be candidates. Concentrate on the chipset and desired features. You may or may not get reliable info on capacitors.
You'd need a "Z170" motherboard if you have any intention of overclocking to any noticeable degree. If you have no interest in over-clocking, an H170 motherboard would be fine.
Standard good brands are Asus, Asrock, and Gigabyte. They are all a crapshoot to some extent and you may end up tearing your hair out with any of them if you have to deal with customer service or returns.
I know I want a fast Intel core I7. I know it used to be that some CPUs were more desirable for overclocking - I'd prefer a fast CPU so I don't have to deal with overclocking, but I wouldn't mind it being an option if I choose to later. Cost is a factor though so I can't afford an insanely expensive processor just for an option to overclock it.
If you want to overclock much at all, you need a CPU with a K suffix, whether that's an i7 or an i5.
An i7 has only marginal advantages over a top level i5 in most scenarios. The hyper-threading advantage of an i7 is most useful in something like video encoding. If you do that for a living or semi-constantly, an i7 is a plausible choice if doing a job in 50 minutes rather than an hour matters to you.
Upper level CPUs have gotten way out in front of software over the last 10 years, so a higher and higher percentage of users have decided an upper mid-level GHZ is plenty fast enough for the vast majority of situations. But maybe you have an unusual situation or like bragging rights?
Video Cards - I'm lost here. I have no idea what is out there now.
I don't use video cards, so won't comment.
Motherboards - lost here too. I'd like it to have Japanese capacitors like my current ASUS, though it doesn't have to be ASUS. A good BIOS is very useful. The more USB 3.0 ports the better. I have a couple esata external drives so esata would be very helpful. My external esata box requires port multiplier to be supported so I guess that's important also - not sure if that is even included any more. I have no idea what features or options are important to watch for with current motherboards. Is there anything I want to make sure it has or anything I want to avoid?
See earlier comments on boards.
eSATA is getting to be quite uncommon. Most are going to USB 3 and USB 3.1. If you absolutely must have eSATA, you'll find more choices in the previous Z97 generation motherboards. The 4970K i7 CPU from that generation is still VERY strong (4.4 ghz).
I'd try to get an Intel NIC if possible. That's fairly common.
Decide what drive interface you need. The last I heard, the new slot interfaces for SSDs have minimal advantage, but you might like "cool" rather than advantageous.
Research at each of the 3 brands I mentioned, looking at spec sheets for number of ports, audio chip, NIC chip, and whatever other features you think you need. When you get beyond say $180 or $200, you are mostly buying looks or coolness or whiz-bang dubious features, rather than reliability and sufficient useful features.
The crapshoot factor is so high that I wouldn't get bogged down and indecisive. You can have bad luck regardless of your choice, even if you spend 100 hours on research.
Power supply - a few hard drives, DVD drive, blu-ray drive, and video card. Quality is important, so all Japanese capacitors, Gold 90+, etc. Modular is also important. I won't be doing SLI but I'd like to be able to have enough overhead to add components later if necessary. My current one is 800W.
The general trend in power requirements is down, not up.
A pile of drives, the motherboard, and RAM use very little. Power usage is mostly in the video card and CPU. Excluding the video card, you'd probably idle at 50 to 80 watts somewhere.
For a single graphics card setup, 500 to 600 watts is plenty. Good brand: Seasonic. Good brands for some but not all models: Corsair, EVGA, Super Flower, XFX.
Decide if you must have full modular or if semi-modular is acceptable. If semi is OK, that opens up quite a few more possibilities.
Decide if PSU noise is a significant issue. If yes, many models from good brands have fans that don't spin at all until the PSU is under a significant load. And there are a few good PSUs with no fan at all.
Don't obsess over the bronze/silver/gold/platinum thing. That has little to do with build quality. A difference of 5 percent in efficiency might make a 5 dollar a year difference in your power bill at typical USA power rates per KWH if your PSU is running 12 hours a day.
Look at jonnyguru.com for PSU reviews.
You can get a high quality 500 to 600 watt PSU every day of the week for under 100 and for under 70 or so on sale.
I'm guessing I want DDR4. Any suggestions here? Any brand to avoid? I want reliable fast memory.
Yeah, DDR4 for the current generation Intel CPUs.
The payoff for going with faster speeds is minimal, but you can sometimes get a faster speed for the same price as standard. Or maybe you like bragging rights. Other than that, you aren't likely to notice a difference other than in benchmarks.
There are horror stories from all brands, particularly regarding customer service.
Generally good brands: Crucial, Kingston, HyperX, Corsair, and G Skill.
I'd try to avoid tall heatsinks on RAM as they can interfere with CPU cooler mounting.
I'd try to get 2 sticks if you are going to use a socket 1151 current generation motherboard. 2 x 4 GB sticks if you want 8 total, 2 x 8 GB sticks if you want 16 total.
Only a small chance you will benefit from 16 rather than 8 unless you have an unusual situation like running a lot of VMs.
Cooler - Something effective without being a 3lb. monster. No CoolerMaster - I've had nothing but bad luck with my old CM V8 so I won't be buying their brand coolers again. My apartment gets real warm in the summer - easily 80+ degrees, as the air conditioner is only somewhat effective, and it's noisy so sometimes I shut it down to give my ears a break. Right now my PC runs way too hot - it idles around 50-55 and gets close to 80 when stress testing. So I want a good cooler.
Don't decide on the cooler until you decide on the case. If your case is too narrow, your tallish cooler may be too tall and won't fit.
Decide again on whether or not noise is an issue. The default fan on a given cooler might be too noisy for you.
Two good default brands: Scythe and Noctua. The Noctuas tend to be quiet and have excellent mounting systems. Research online at those two websites.
You can also look at web sites like Frostytech for reviews. Smallish differences in temps or noise in DB aren't significant.
I use a Noctua NH-U12S. Single tower, not heavy. Among the best single tower coolers. Scythe Kotetsu is another good choice if it will fit.
The Noctua NH-U12S does NOT overhang any RAM slots, so you know that tall RAM heatsinks will NOT be a factor.
I don't think going "monster" is worthwhile unless you want extremely high overclocks and are fussy about temps. I wouldn't be at all concerned with temps in the 70s. Stress test temps are rarely encountered in real world usage.
My ambient temps are circa 80 to 82 F six months per year. Even under stress testing, I can't get over mid-60s Celsius with a Noctua U12S, one slow Noctua 120mm intake fan, and one slow Scythe 120mm exhaust fan. Very quiet.
I'm all set with DVD/BD-R drives. Also all set on Hard Drives.
OK; make sure you have an SSD, at least for the OS.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Are there newer/better/cooler Intel chips around the corner and I should wait?
The current Skylake generation will be updated to Kabylake later this year, but I don't hear anyone saying it's a major improvement. More of the same---a bit more performance, a bit less power, etc. I wouldn't wait for it in your case.
My PC desperately needs replacing though, and I'd like to have the option to take advantage of the free Windows 10 upgrade option if I choose, since I still have my original Windows 7 retail install disc. That will save on the cost of buying Windows.
Yeah, that gives you till late July. I'm kinda in the same boat as you and have decided that the "freeness" of Win 10 is NOT sufficient to make me jump on it. There are some issues with 10. I'd rather pay for it in 2019 than get it for nothing tomorrow, hoping that some of the issues are dealt with between now and then.
I'll be buying primarily from Newegg - maybe Amazon, TigerDirect or Microcenter if they offer a better price. I'll be gaming and also doing some video encoding,archiving to .rar format, etc.
Microcenter is usually advantageous for it's CPU/mobo bundles.
I think Tiger Direct is fading and about gone, based on what I've read in the last 2 or 3 months.
If you buy from Amazon, try to buy from Amazon direct as opposed to a third party that sells through Amazon.
Do a price comparison on your tentative components at pcpartpicker.com.
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