Where's that rattling coming from? 

Yummy

The HW is fine, but the case is anything but sexy.

Swap that shit for something from Fractal Design, Antec or Lian Li. 

For mine it has to be build.  While there are some nice pre-builds out there, I don't think you can can harness the same kind of power that a home/self-build can offer, not unless you go the custom-build route, but then you pay handsomely for that service when dealing with major manufacturers such as Alienware, etc. However, I got my local PC store some years ago to build me a custom P4 machine, and while it was nothing spectacular in terms of speed or performance, by today's standards, it was quite a nice unit that rivaled most pre-build machines of the day and it cost me a 100 bucks less than any retail equivelant of the time.... $489.00 as opposed to $599.00 best price.

The reason I prefer building myself is being able to hand pick all the parts to get the best bang for the buck/budget while selecting the best parts for the job... and by researching and shopping around, there's always the chance of a real bargain, meaning you can spend more within the budget to purchase a higher rated CPU or RAM or case, which is what I did.

Had I purchased the case through a local PC store with high overheads, I would have paid $499.95, but I shopped around and found one for $265.00.  With that saving I went for the best CPU I could get, allowing $450 as top price.  I got the 4770K for $379.00, so I was then able to boost the RAM.  Instead of 1866mhz, I was able to afford 2400mhz, which was on special 90 bucks off.  Now you can't do that with an off the shelf PC, not unless you pay the going price then spend more to upgrade it later on... if you can, but it don't make sense.

Moreover, I've lost count of how many times I've read/heard about off the shelf PCs having bottlenecks, such as in the motherboard or CPU, the RAM or graphics card... and to make the tragedy worse, they're non-upgradeable, so you're stuck with it... an $800.00 paperweight.  The fact is, the major manufacturers need to pump out as many machines as possible for the least cost, hence the bottlenecks and inferior parts, and by the time you've paid the retailer his due, you've paid nearly a grand for a less than optimum PC that likely has a shorter lifespan than one you could build yourself for less.

To date, this current build has cost me just over a grand in new parts... the case $265.00; mobo $259.00; CPU $379.00; RAM $199.00; CPU cooler 89.00... $1201.00 all up.  The other parts: GPU; SSD; PSU; sound card; TV tuner card, and storage drives will be purloined from this machine, which will be rebuilt using parts I've accumulated from previous upgrades.  So all up, new and purloined parts, I suppose the new build comes in around two and a bit grand, which isn't bad considering a bit over half was spread out over 2 or 3 years.

So, have I made the case to build not buy?

I've built many before, just don't have the time or desire to go through all of what you described.

Who knows though.

Looks like fun...but we NEED pictures...

Why, kona?  Is there something you want to say here but aren't to sure if you should?

Thing is, mate, I'm a big boy now and I can take it.  If you wanna berate me for not going AMD, go right ahead... I sort of feel a bit like a traitor who's forgotten about loyalty, so yeah, berate me 'til it hurts.

If it's about money, I gave up heaps of stuff, and not just the bad shit to save my tush off to get that much.  To say I'm frugle doesn't even come close.  No, when it comes to spending on anything that doesn't thrill me/light up my life, like PC parts, then I'm as tight as a duck's bum, and that's watertight. 

I'm so tight with money, and I see where somebody has superglued a 5 cent coin to the pavement, I'll go back with a chisel, won't even wait 'til dark, and I'll chisel that bastard right off of there and pocket it... i got no shame, and if the bloke's still in reaching distance I mug him of his last 5 cents so he don't do it again.

Anyhow, all jokes aside,

I do save hard when I want/need something, and I will sacrifice things many wouldn't to reach my goal

Sounds like something you blow.....with a lisp....

'frugal' is the word you're looking for...

It was but he didn't wish to waste the energy looking it up.

That's how they spell it in Scotland.

Great specs, and a good price to... boot. (cough) Just a heads-up for future purchases, there are cheaper SSDs out there (see here and here).

Looks like a KILLER build. I'm sure you have it all scoped out but for anyone interested there is a site called PCPartPicker where you build your Rig on site and it lists if the parts you want are compatible, how much power you'll need and gives total cost of rig and where you can get the parts for the cheapest price.

 http://pcpartpicker.com/   Would love to see pictures of the finished product.