#250
Forgot to mention the 960. Thanks for the reminder.
With the exception of Star Citizen 16GB RAM is pointless for gaming.
This mostly about rendering. And rendering is a whole different affair. Hardware requirements can go as far as "anything with less than 2 figure core count and 3 figure RAM capacity in GB is underpowered". I don't think zigzter needs something that extreme but for Maya the rule for RAM is "get as much as you can get/afford". A render might crash simply because you have "only 8GB RAM". About the speed, 1600Mhz is fine for games and everything, but games don't spend their day loading and saving a metric fuckton of data. Have you ever thought "Who the fuck needs a 1TB SSD?" Take a guess, it's those guys.

How serious are you about 3D modeling?
I'm guessing you're using multithreaded?

Overclocking yes or no?
Thought about ECC RAM?
1080p 144Hz so it's a TN panel I guess? The lower colour depth on GeForce won't matter then, so definitely no need for a Quadro.

What about (an) HDD(s)?
Keeping your old case aswell?
Do you need WLAN?

Some things that I can already tell you:
CPU: The 4790K is faster and cheaper.
PSU: 400W would be enough, 500W for lots of overclocking headroom and a more power hungry GPU.
The new EVGA SuperNova NEX 650W is currently on sale at newegg. You won't find another PSU with the same performance OR fully modular for 50$, let alone both.

A few possible builds:
Maximum Performance (except for the GPU)
OC, no ECC, no WLAN, cooler needs to be added later
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($309.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($135.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team Xtreem 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $935.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-03 05:27 EDT-0400

Less powerful but a lot cheaper
No OC, no ECC, no WLAN
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Team Xtreem 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $827.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-03 05:27 EDT-0400

Cheapest, sacrifing RAM bandwidth and size (2 more modules can be added later, speed is limited to 1600MHz though).
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.97 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $718.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-03 05:29 EDT-0400

#12
I pretty much said that, hidden behind a wall of text.

Future proofing is absolute bullshit.
Newer hardware will always be better. Faster for the same price or cheaper with the same performance.
Your hardware won't become slower over time. As long as your requirements don't change there is no need to upgrade.

If your requirements change in intervals then you should upgrade in these intervals.
If your requirements change continously then you can figure out what is the cheapest upgrade cycle (not going to explain how right now).

Buying a Haswell CPU has nothing to do with future proofing. Intel doesn't drop the prices on older CPUs so there is no reason to buy a older and slower CPU for the same price. Both the G1820 and the 5960X are Haswell (or 4130 and 4790K if you want to limit it to the 4xxx) and I'd like to see you justify how either of those makes sense for "future proofing".

Same for mechanical drives as boot drives. If you don't need much capacity there is no need to go for a large, slow drive. A small and fast drive (so most likely a SSD) will obiously provide better performance IN THE PRESENT.

About GPUs: The 970 is basically the new 290. Amazing price/performance ratio. If you want/need to upgrade to that performance/price bracket then do it. If you don't then don't. GPUs will keep getting cheaper. Simple as that.

How many $1000+ laptops have you used?

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED

As I already told hr0 on steam, just posting in case someone else got similiar issues:
It's definitely a GPU bottleneck. Overclocking the CPU won't do anything.
Fps are still a bit on the low side for a 560, currently troubleshooting.

EDIT:
Problem found, it's a GTX 560 SBE*
*Super Bullshit Edition
There are 550 Ti/560 SE/560 versions with 3GB instead of 1GB VRAM. But instead of ~2000MHz GDDR5 it's 533MHz DDR3. Which is why I call them Bullshit Editions. The SBE doesn't stop there. It's not even a 560, it's actually a 550 Ti (GF116 instead of GF114) flashed to report as a 560. So you're only getting just above half the GPU power and it's getting choked further by the DDR3 memory.

I guess that explains why he's not even getting half the fps a 560 should get.

This is why I tell people not to buy pre-builts. K-CPU on a B series chipset mobo? Check. The most bullshittiest GPU of all times? Check. Tier 4 PSU? Check (Yes, I told him to replace that before he gets a new GPU).

CPU and overclock: 4770K @ 4.2 GHz
Graphics Card: 780 Ti 3GB

Driver version: 340.52
dxlevel (default is 90): 98
Resolution: 1920x1080
Full-screen or windowed: windowed
FPS configs enabled: customised chris maxquality (16x CSAA, gibs/ragdolls off)
Shadows enabled/disabled: Enabled
Gibs/Ragdolls: Disabled

Additional notes: Three monitors.
Windows 8.1

Linux, driver 331.48, 8x MSAA, cba to check which cvars didn't work

Depends on your CPU/overclock and a few other things.

For example I'm getting 114.6% minimum because of the way haswell idles.
Nehalem might show 50% and it would be fine.

Sorry, I haven't looked at this thread for a couple of days.

300W PSU would been enough.
I'd go with 2*2GB RAM at first. The mobo got 4 slots so you could upgrade to 8GB if you ever need it.
CPU and GPU are a bit mismatched. A low-end Haswell i5 should be accompanied by something like a 280X or 770. Since the objective is "as cheap as possible" either drop down to a Pentium G3220 and keep the 750 or get a 760K and a 750 Ti or 265.

Have you though about microATX?

#21
G-Sync doesn't eliminate blur. Blur is not cosmetic, otherwise lightboost would be cosmetic. The input lag reduction is minor. You wouldn't call fps drops "high input lag", it's just a side effect. G-Sync eliminates stutter and only stutter. Slightly lower input lag is a side effect of the frame being displayed earlier in some cases, but most of it is due to perceiving a smooth motion instead of "delayed frames" (=stuttering) where the traveling distance of an object divided the time between the frames doesn't match the velocity it should have and that will eventually perceived after a few frames.

I get what you're trying to say, it looks clearer/smoother and feels more responsive, but "input lag" just isn't the right term and I want to prevent people from misunderstanding it as "G-Sync lowers input lag".

#1
Considering you've done "tons of research on both" I'm surprised you didn't pick up the differences.

Asus VG248QE:
(+in theory upgradable with the G-Sync DIY-kit, but it's not available anymore)
-worse colours

Benq XL2411Z:
+better colours
+Black Equalizer
+PWM-free strobing
+More options regarding strobing

Asus VG248QE G-Sync Edition:
+G-Sync
-colours still shit
-expensive

Unless you want G-Sync the Benq is superior in every way.
G-Sync only helps with screen tearing or if your fps are lower than your refresh rate. If your fps are lower than 120/144 why are you buying a 120/144Hz monitor? That leaves only screen tearing. Unless you think screen tearing will bother you so much on 120/144Hz that it's worth spending 200$ more to get rid of it, it's the BenQ either way.

#19
Input lag is the same with and without G-Sync.
http://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/preview2/

Really weird suggestion: Ask the seller.

Are you sure it's not just fps drops?

AMD GPU?
Known issue although maybe not easy to find http://teamfortress.tv/thread/19190/fps-at-144-but-feels-like-20#20

No, you can't bypass the 60 fps limit of nvidia optimus afaik.
I also doubt you could get stable >=120fps with that notebook.

In theory both the Notebook and the Benq monitor have HDMI 1.4 which supports 1920*1080@120Hz.

Disabling optimus altogether is possible but I wouldn't recommend it, if you don't know what you're doing, since flashing to a modded BIOS isn't exactly the safest thing to do.