Any i7(any processor really, for that matter) can be overclocked; does he mean overclocked better than others? To be quite honest, overclocking an i7 a whole bunch is kinda overkill, it can probably take whatever you throw at it already

I think he meant more along the architecture/wattage and it being air cooled (he's not comfortable with liquid cooling). I was thinking about recommending the 3770k, but I read if it is possible to find an 2700k, they run cooler. Could he realistically get 4.0~4.2 using something like the hyper 212 evo or the Noctua NH-D14 on the 3770k and not significantly shorten the life of the processor?

._____.
Why an i7? he won't notice the difference.
Why overclocking? Just to make your e-penis bigger. You are wasting power and you just get extra heat.
8gb is more then enough, if he isn't editing photos or videos.
gtx 670 is overkill for WoW.
SSD is fine, go with at least 120gb more if he has loads of games, 1 tb HDD is enough.

For a case, I'm using the Corsair carbide 500r had to do a few customisations though, go with something that isn't open everywhere and don't even bother with those plastic bombers.
I'd suggest you go with an i5, the 3470 for example, and a gtx660 he doesn't need more, and more then that is stupid.

Just my two cents

I already tried talking him out of the i7 on a few occasions. I think he might want that just to outdo a friend who built his last year. Same with the GTX 670. He might end up getting DayZ, Civ 5, or Battlefield 4 when it comes out, play them for a few hours just to see how they look, and go back to WoW.

Thanks for the case recommendation.

Not every i7 can be overclocked. Only the K versions. For gaming, a i5 is fine. But if you're going to do any bit of streaming or video editing I'd totally go for an FX 8320 8 core. Super good value.
Lol'd pretty hard at Goat_'s comment. "Just to make your e-penis bigger" pretty much haha. But for tf2, I've heard that overclocking the cpu can increase fps by a ton.

Why no amd cards? Oh don't tell me, he's an nvidia fanboy... Of course a mac fanboy just goes from mac to intel/nvidia. Pretty much the same stupid fanboyism. Amd gpus are faster. Period. For a $2000 build he could probably afford either, but amd is going to be much better. Is he okay with crossfire/SLI? A SLI 670/680 or a crossfire 7950/7970 would destroy, if he can afford it.

Windows 8 is actually pretty awesome, much faster all around and once you get some programs to get back the start bar, it's just all around better. Metro interface does suck though, I removed it (the tablet windows phone interface screen, with the tiles).

Spending $2000 is overkill, he could probably do fine with just a $800 build, maybe a 7870 and a 8320/990fx mobo. Unless he wants to push 120fps on crysis 3 on ultra 1080p, or go multi monitors it will be fine. My 660 can run metro 2033 at 40fps and crysis 2 at 60fps, fine by me. But an overclocked 7970 or 7950 (or 680) would probably do better.

Talked to him last weekend. Sounds like he was going with the i7 3770k, Asus GTX 670 4GB, 3 hard drives (2 samsung ssd and one 10k velociraptor), and windows 7 pro. He hadn't picked the case, power supply, motherboard, mouse/keyboard, RAM, cooler, and dvd/blu ray drives yet.

He said he wanted a video card with 4 gigs because "some GTA IV mods use 2.5+ gigs of vram." He looked at some Corsair cases, but I don't know if he picked one yet. Seemed pretty open to suggestions about the mouse and keyboard. I mentioned the g400 and offered to forward other picks from the community.

This is another build I suggested for someone:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tehh4ck3r/saved/1rSB

2x2GB SLI is probably going to serve him better than a 4GB card.

For mice, go with the Logitech G700s.

Why is that? ^
I'm pretty sure 2gb sli is still going to be 2gb; it doesn't add up. Also, with sli its just going to have micro stuttering. Better to get the fastest single gpu. 4gb usually seems overkill but if it indeed uses 2.5gb (heard the new arma 3 uses almost 3gb sometimes than that would be worth it. I really can't stress enough how the 7950 and 7970 are much better cards than the 670 and 680, but if he really wants to he can get whichever.

For case I really like the fractal design r4, but there are so many different options that its hard to really recommend one.

i just recently made a build with pretty much the same requirements your friend wants (as well as around the same budget)
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/OF7U

Talk him out of the Velociraptor. It doesn't really offer much more performance over standard drives and SSDs are so much faster.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS12X Ball Bearing CPU Cooler ($72.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme6 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($91.87 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card ($419.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Full (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1774.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-11 11:48 EDT-0400)

I'd get the 3770k over the 3820 and a 7950 or 7970 over the 670.

The LGA 2011 platform is more robust than the 1155 platform. Both are dead end platforms, though, as there most likely won't be any new processors released for either socket. Maybe Ivy Bridge-E for 2011. But the 3820 can have a few advantages over the 3770 pending the application - particularly programs that are either cache or bandwidth sensitive. 3770 has its advantages as well, but with a $2000 budget going with a 3820 and having the possibility of upgrading to a hex core is worth the small price jump in this situation.

3770 is good for those looking for a better value, since 1155 motherboards are cheaper.

Either option is fine for his friend. I just think there is a case to be made in favor of the 3820 when the budget more than allows for it.

Of course better yet, he could sacrifice a few things and get the hex core off the bat.

That's what I was thinking. If he's determined to spend $2000, he could get the 3930K and wouldn't have to compromise the rest of the build much.

If you want to spend the whole 2k, you can try this build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: NZXT HAVIK 140 90.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 LE ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($224.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($219.00 @ Adorama)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card ($426.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 550D ATX Mid Tower Case ($134.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1895.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-12 02:29 EDT-0400)

This is sort of a variation of CopperSide's suggestion. The build that I made is meant to be silent and high-performing at the same time.

I changed a few things such as the memory. Since the guy is going to overclock, you're really going to need high rated memory to achieve higher overclocks. Of course, I had to compromise for a few things such as the storage

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($499.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900MAX-R CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme3 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($197.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($91.87 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 4GB Video Card ($419.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill ARMOR-EVO ATX Full Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 Full (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1784.64
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-12 02:35 EDT-0400)

CopperSide, I really think you're skimping out on the PSU for a 2k build. If you're going to make an epic build like this, might as well get a PSU that have Japanese Capacitors. I'm pretty sure the CX series uses different capacitors.

Windows 7 HP limits physical memory to 16GB, and the LGA2011 platform is capable of 32 and 64GB. If he wanted to add more memory in the future, Windows 7 Pro or Windows 8 is what he will need.

I typically don't quite spec a machine for the full budget. I leave some room in the money department for the user to choose a component to upgrade. In the above build, choosing to upgrade the motherboard, RAM, and/or power supply is what I would recommend to spend all of that $2k.

However, I did spec the power supply enough for the system as is, including overclocking. The 750W Corsair CX should have no troubles there. But if the user were to upgrade to SLI on top of overclocking in the future, then I would recommend a better power supply no doubt.

Yeah, when I was trying to pick the parts, I forgot if he's ever going upgrade in the future. Then again, 16gb of ram is more than enough for gaming.

Agreed. Also, the only reason to get a 3820 is if you want to upgrade to a 3930 or better cpu, the 3770k and 3820 are about equal (other than quad channel memory). 16gb is definitely more than enough for gaming, but if he does video editing or something it might be worth it. Also the faster boots on w8 is pretty nice.
Go for a good quality psu, especially since you have 2k to spend on it.

For purely gaming also, a 3930k with a 670 would be just as fast as a i5 2500k (or 3570k) with a 670. Honestly, I'd just get a 3770k and SLI 680/670. Not sure why you'd want a 3930k for gaming. Even with video editing it's usually overkill.

yea there were some minor bitchy things i didnt like so i just went and spent an hour building shit for someone of someone i didnt know
whatever i had fun since i stopped doing it for your friend and just made something of what I liked.
also i think i win for the most wellrounded build, only 5 bucks off the total. if your friend already has a decent mouse or keyboard (your friend wants a 2,000 dollar computer so i already assume he is retardedly overextending into the budget he could really do just max with, and could use a new mouse and keyboard as a result) then check out the BENQ X12420T monitor, otherwise enjoy your huge awesome piece of shit i wish i had.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500 AT Ball Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($199.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($109.99 @ Best Buy)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($112.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($127.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($494.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN3800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($34.65 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Switch 810 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($153.85 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS29 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Keyboard: Das Keyboard Model S Ultimate Silent Wired Standard Keyboard ($135.86 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Wired Optical Mouse ($43.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1908.21

EDIT: fugg pcpartpicker lists microcenter here but not on the page itself, i guess im still 100 bucks low. whatever, just get that monitor if/when you can and live out my dream of being a NEET for life.