I haven't built a PC for a while, so I haven't kept up to date. I'm looking to build a desktop that will be able to play games for the next 2-3 years (obviously at reduced settings). I'm also setting this up next to my TV to double as media server/streaming machine.

• This is probably on the high-end of my budget, but I'm willing to spend up to $1800.
• I'm not really interested in overclocking (hence the lack of CPU cooling), but the difference between the locked and the unlocked CPU is about $40 and the stock CPU speed gets bumped from 3.6 to 4 Ghz
• RAM wise, I'm totally lost. I followed the conclusion from this article and went for DDR3-2400 CAS10. They're also on sale from newegg for $40 off, so if this is a good idea I'd like to grab the deal price!
• The GTX 970 is a bit hard to find right now, though price wise it seems on par with GTX 770/780. I'm considering building the computer without the discrete chip (relying on the onboard chip), until it's more widely available. And I'm more interested in the MSI version since it has a silent mode and reportedly runs quite quietly.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant