About to pull the trigger on parts. I need a reality check.

I'd go with this: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type Item Price
CPU Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor $237.99 @ SuperBiiz
CPU Cooler RAIJINTEK TRITON RED 100.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing Liquid CPU Cooler -
Motherboard ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $66.99 @ SuperBiiz
Memory Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory $64.99 @ Newegg
Storage Crucial V4 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $89.95 @ Amazon
Storage Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $124.99 @ SuperBiiz
Video Card MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card $269.99 @ Amazon
Case Rosewill THRONE ATX Full Tower Case $129.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply $71.99 @ SuperBiiz
Optical Drive Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer $12.99 @ SuperBiiz
Total
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available $1069.87
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-09 20:03 EST-0500

Someone more skilled will probably be able to optimize it better.

Reasoning:

Xeon over i5: Unless you plan to overclock then the Xeon is better value for money. And Overclocking isn't worth the instablity and increased risk (personal opinion)

R9 290 over R9 270X 4GB: The 270 4GB is a crossfire of 2x270 2gb. You're better off spending the extra $50 for a true 4GB Card without the issues of crossfire

Motherboard: No need for an expensive Motherboard with uneccesary bells and whisltes, and since this is a non OC build, you save around $40+ on the Mobo.

I dont know how much the CPU cooler is, but its a dual fan radiatior. Way more than necessary, since you said you want it red though, then get it.

I dont know how much the bundle costs for the CPU, Mobo and Mem, so if its cheaper to get that, then get it. Is the RAM 4x2GB? or 2x4GB? if its 2x4GB you can just add another 2x4GB if you want 16Gb (you dont need more than 8gb) but thats an option.

Hope this helps.

/r/pcmasterrace Thread