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Even though flash prices have been dropping rapidly, they still have not gotten close to HDD prices. As a point of comparison, take a look at average price charts for various capacities of HDDs and SSD. Based on this webpage, the average large-capacity SSD price is around $250/TB, while the average large-capacity HDD price is around $40/TB. This roughly 5x price difference has held steady for many years.

A quick search through Amazon for the not cheap Samsung 860 EVOs show's a roughly $160 / TB price. WD Red prices are roughly $30/TB. Still a 5X difference for these specific drives, but the prices are far lower than indicated. And note that other lines or brands of drives are even cheaper. I saw a 2TB AData drive on sale a few weeks ago for roughly $80 / TB. Not that I'd want one in my system but the prices can get much lower for SSDs today.

More importantly, HDDs have held this price advantage in the last decade without the usual historical once-per-decade technology disruptor. PMR was the last mini-disruptor ten years ago. HAMR/MAMR/bit-pattern has been promised for a very long time, and the price difference relative to flash will only increase when these new disruptors are commercially ready.

I recall when PMR first came out that for the first 3 years or so there were significant quality issues with Seagate being able to scale up from the initial releases. I'm not sure if Seagate ever really recovered from their 1.5-3TB disk fiascos, because I no longer buy Seagate. I personally had a worse than 30% failure rate across my 1.5, 2, and 3TB drives with at least 1 drive in each class failing within 2 years. I saw similar rates of complaints with the 5 and 8TB drives so skipped buying those when their prices were enticing. Hitachi, Toshiba, HGST, and WD (Yes, I'm aware several of those have been bought since I purchased those brands) for spinning are doing just fine. My main point is that HAMR/MAMR aren't going to save hard drives in the next couple of years if history is any indication. In fact, this may mark the switchover for spinning HDDs from main storage to mass storage, replacing tape except where true longevity is needed. And even that may change, because it's rather trivial to clone 100TB from HDD to HDD. With tape - I hope it's better than it used to be, as it was easier to just rotate backups than clone a tape.

I am 100% sure that there are use cases today for Cheap Dense Slow Storage. Mostly for long term /archival storage. Anything that needs access to a processor will want / require Solid State.

Systems and applications that require really fast storage will require DRAM. Flash is way too slow compared to DRAM. On the other hand, many data centers are extremely cost sensitive. These data centers account for many tens (hundred?) of millions of annual HDD unit sales. Many large internet companies require massive cold storage, i.e., data that is needed maybe a few times a year or less but which need to be retrieved in a few seconds when needed (e.g., think about the tail end of the distribution for Facebook browsing or Google search queries). For cold storage, flash is too expensive, and tape is too slow.

Even though flash prices have been dropping rapidly, they still have not gotten close to HDD prices. As a point of comparison, take a look at average price charts for various capacities of HDDs and SSD. Based on this webpage, the average large-capacity SSD price is around $250/TB, while the average large-capacity HDD price is around $40/TB. This roughly 5x price difference has held steady for many years. More importantly, HDDs have held this price advantage in the last decade without the usual historical once-per-decade technology disruptor. PMR was the last mini-disruptor ten years ago. HAMR/MAMR/bit-pattern has been promised for a very long time, and the price difference relative to flash will only increase when these new disruptors are commercially ready.

Why can't we get those kind of speeds for DDR4-4266 PC DIMMs? Those are almost impossible to get and then at insane prices.If RAM companies produce this kind of RAM normally, which isn't even specified by JEDEC, so they have to make it cheaper than the competition, then why are there no such DIMMs available?

https://pcpartpicker.com/produ... shows there is basically none from Crucial/Micron. Gamers and generally Ryzen owners would pay lots of money for it. Heck, even good and expensive Crucial DDR4-3200 has Samsung chips on it cause Micron apparently can't deliver.

RAM price trends for the last 18 months: https://pcpartpicker.com/trend...

Broadly speaking, RAM is roughly twice the price that it was two years ago, all other things being equal (e.g. from $38 to $80 and from $200 to $425), though prices seemed to have peaked sometime around the start of 2018, with them being on a very gradual decline ever since.

At the time that the price hikes started, people were saying it was due to several factories being retooled at the same time, and that we should expect the pricing to return to normal in about 1.5-3 years as those factories came back up and new ones were built to handle the increasing demand in the market. Well, it's been about that long, and sure enough, prices seem to have stabilized, may have even started to drop, and now we have more reason to believe that they'll be returning to normal(ish) soon as additional production capacity arrives in the market.

I'll believe it when I see it as well, but, at least so far, this jibes with what I've been expecting.

RAM price trends for the last 18 months: https://pcpartpicker.com/trend...

Broadly speaking, RAM is roughly twice the price that it was two years ago, all other things being equal (e.g. from $38 to $80 and from $200 to $425), though prices seemed to have peaked sometime around the start of 2018, with them being on a very gradual decline ever since.

At the time that the price hikes started, people were saying it was due to several factories being retooled at the same time, and that we should expect the pricing to return to normal in about 1.5-3 years as those factories came back up and new ones were built to handle the increasing demand in the market. Well, it's been about that long, and sure enough, prices seem to have stabilized, may have even started to drop, and now we have more reason to believe that they'll be returning to normal(ish) soon as additional production capacity arrives in the market.

I'll believe it when I see it as well, but, at least so far, this jibes with what I've been expecting.

RAM price trends for the last 18 months: https://pcpartpicker.com/trend...

Broadly speaking, RAM is roughly twice the price that it was two years ago, all other things being equal (e.g. from $38 to $80 and from $200 to $425), though prices seemed to have peaked sometime around the start of 2018, with them being on a very gradual decline ever since.

At the time that the price hikes started, people were saying it was due to several factories being retooled at the same time, and that we should expect the pricing to return to normal in about 1.5-3 years as those factories came back up and new ones were built to handle the increasing demand in the market. Well, it's been about that long, and sure enough, prices seem to have stabilized, may have even started to drop, and now we have more reason to believe that they'll be returning to normal(ish) soon as additional production capacity arrives in the market.

I'll believe it when I see it as well, but, at least so far, this jibes with what I've been expecting.

That's not universal. The RX550 and RX560 are still lingering around the high point. The RX 570, 580 and VEGA based cards have fallen. The same nonuniversality applies to NVIDIA. The 1050 through 1070s have dropped but are not back at MSRP levels. The 1070ti and 1080 dropped quite significantly.

There's some decent trends on this page: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/tr... and it seems mostly in line with general prices at newegg. There are plenty of places you can pick up various models back at MSRP without any "specials".

https://pcpartpicker.com/trend...

That's what I'm watching to track prices. It doesn't look like anything has gone down to pre-July 2017 prices. It's better now, but not appropriate.

I'm very much looking forward to installing this. I recently put together a nice Machine Learning / linux workstation / build machine.... https://pcpartpicker.com/list/... And Linux pre 4.14 just flubbed pretty bad with the processor... https://www.phoronix.com/scan.... I got things working somewhat smoothly with Manjaro linux, but getting the CUDA support working was a total hack (currently GCC 6.3 is all they support, not 6.4, much less 7.3 and the arch linux "fix" is very much an admitted dirty hack), and getting Caffe 2 to compile right was turning into more work than it was worth ... http://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cu... ... So yes, these problems are largely the fault of Intel and NVIDIA clutching their proprietary pearls, but I am looking forward to running a well supported and stable version of linux that can support and be optimized to the latest hardware that came out 6 months ago.

Here's a 28" with 3840x2160 for $297.

Since when in this day and age is hard drive and memory space been an issue?

Since at least 18 months ago, the general price trend for memory space has been upward. (Source: Memory - Price Trends - PCPartPicker)

PC Part Picker... and you can tell it to check Amazon and NewEgg outomatically and pick whichever gives you the best price, taking Prime and Tax into account. Even with Prime, I actually find NewEgg to usually be cheaper for high value PC guts. For fiddly bits like cables and fans Amazon usually wins.

Or get more RAM. The sticks are dirt cheap.

I take it you're unaware that RAM prices are nearly twice what they were at this same time last year?

The fabs for two of the three major manufacturers are currently in the middle of transitioning to smaller manufacturing processes, resulting in the industry being unable to keep up with demand. The fact that the mobile market keeps asking for more and more of their attention doesn't help matters either. As such, prices are actually expected to keep going up until around the end of the year.

If you'd like to see the price tends over the last few years, PCPartPicker has some pretty good charts highlighting the issue. Suffice to say, picking up RAM is not so cheap as you suggest. Maybe next year.

For computer parts:

PCPartPicker.

PriceWatch

The only vaguely useful feature GeForce Experience provided was ShadowPlay, NVIIDA's own screen capture video recorder. However, there are plenty of third-party offerings that accomplish the same thing. I could create a fake ephemeral email address or hack the registry to make it work, but frankly the features it provides do not merit the effort. I have since uninstalled GeForce Experience 3.0, leaving just the drivers.

Now that they've (unnecessarily and gratuitously) made the cloud login mandatory, I would also be interested to see some security researchers dig in to GFE3 to see how well NVIDIA is protecting people's login credentials...

The only vaguely useful feature GeForce Experience provided was ShadowPlay, NVIIDA's own screen capture video recorder. However, there are plenty of third-party offerings that accomplish the same thing. I could create a fake ephemeral email address or hack the registry to make it work, but frankly the features it provides do not merit the effort. I have since uninstalled GeForce Experience 3.0, leaving just the drivers.

Now that they've (unnecessarily and gratuitously) made the cloud login mandatory, I would also be interested to see some security researchers dig in to GFE3 to see how well NVIDIA is protecting people's login credentials...

Or cheaper. We've been hearing about SSD under 30 cents a GB "real soon now" for, what, five years now? At ten cents it replaces hard drives in all small capacities. The slope still puts that many years out.

Maybe 3DXpoint will depress the NAND prices for existing fab utilization next year. Here's hoping.

Didn't take long to find this little jewel to solve all your problem : https://pcpartpicker.com/

Yes, it's easy to find fairly current websites that will recommend a complete build. It's also quite easy to find a list of compatible hardware, recommended power supply wattage, and due to a highly competitive market the price of a fairly decent gaming machine will be between 1&1.2k all in, including O/S. Speaking of O/S, go ahead and speak ill of Microsoft all you want, a fresh install on new, or even old, hardware will likely begin with at least a working driver for each component, though it may not be optimized. Motherboards come with a disc containing drivers that fill in those that are missing, and you'll also likely start with a network connection so that you can download the best drivers available. Best of all, you don't end up with the shit bloatware that companies like HP dump on your stock purchase PC.

Not having read the article, I do believe there is a high bar for knowledge in any DIY computer build to come out the other end with a polished product. Case selection can be challenging when taking into consideration the size the video card(s), the length of the cables from the power supply, connector and power req's, header placement of internal ports to external peripherals, etc. Motherboards seem to offer a huge range of memory and CPU compatibility but it's certainly not difficult to get something that won't work if you're not paying attention. For people wanting to do it themselves much knowledge can be gained reading through the comments and reviews on Newegg and Amazon for what others have already built. At least you know what works. There are builder sites too for beginners that walk you through the process. As for cost, gaming computers for the masses are not much different than any quality computer. The types of parts you need are the same, just a higher spec in CPU/GPU which again, for most gamers adds a couple to a few hundred overall to a quality build. TFS seems to imply the top 1% types. These people don't care about stories like this anyway.

Didn't take long to find this little jewel to solve all your problem : https://pcpartpicker.com/

How the fuck am I supposed to click that? I have big, dumb, sausage fingers!

Didn't take long to find this little jewel to solve all your problem : https://pcpartpicker.com/

I recommend PC Part Picker.

Here's a $733 build that has a GeForce 970 and SSD

That Core i3 isn't flashy, but has a *very* high per-thread score that makes up for the reduced core count.
Add $100-ish for an OS.

Look what you want in a self build system and then look if you can buy anything like it. If not, you build it.

That said, I always build because I like doing it. But then I only upgrade and not buy a new machine. So to me that means:
New Mobo, CPU and memory if I need a new machine. And when I need a new videocard, I just add that.
I have 3 videocards, 4 monitors, so I do not have a standard setup that I can just buy and I only run Linux.
http://pcpartpicker.com/ can be a nice place to start.

Advantage of pre-build and running Windows is that the PCs are full of shareware who pay for your Licence. Companies get money to put their crap on your PC.

And to be honest, instead of dualboot, I would go with two systems, unless thye both need to be gaming systems.

According to https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/video-card/#gpu.chipset.geforce-gtx-980 the 980 GTX has maintained the same price for nearly a year now.

Sure, maybe it's competitive with a bottom-end office desktop, where the most intense thing it has to run is Youtube.

But it's competitive with a $500 desktop, while it costs $1000. It's not hard to get similar performance when you literally double your budget.

Note the context in which I said that comment: "these big HDDs". I wasn't talking about HDDs in general. I was talking about the sorts of leading edge, big drives being discussed in the summary. They aren't ending up in typical consumer machines as boot drives. They are the sorts of drives that are being purchased as an add-on to an existing system. Moreover, some of these drives, such as the WD Reds, are being specifically targeted at the NAS market. So, at least in the context in which my comment was intended, I stand by it.

But even if we discuss the industry in general, I'll admit that my thinking is pretty much how you painted it, since I do think that you're overestimating how long the majority of PCs will ship with HDDs as their primary drive (no doubt, they'll linger on for many, many years, much like the floppy drive). Thinking ahead a bit, until the next shift in media formats occurs (i.e. until optical media dies and typical media distribution moves to downloading/streaming), we're probably pretty safe in assuming that most consumers will continue to only need around the same 150-500GB they need today, though many will obviously buy 1TB. That's where it's been for quite awhile, and it's been pretty stable for quite some time.

Before I go any further, let's just look at some actual numbers. I popped over to PCPartPicker's listings, grabbed the first 10ish drives when I sorted them by price per GB, and have provided the range of prices below to give us both a representative sampling of what sorts of prices are realistic right now for cheap drives:
Best Overall: $0.03/GB for 3TB vs. $0.31/GB for 240GB
1TBish GB capacity: $0.05-$0.06 vs. $0.36-$0.47
500ish GB capacity: $0.08-$0.10 vs. $0.31-$0.40
250ish GB capacity: $0.12-$0.20 vs. $0.31-$0.40
150ish GB capacity: $0.15-$0.25 vs. $0.41-$0.50

What we can see from these numbers is that a typical consumer buying a typical HDD with a typical capacity can typically expect to pay 2-5x more per GB than someone buying a high-end drive with a massive capacity, whereas the variance in cost per GB across SSDs is much smaller and has uniformly been dropping at a steady pace. I.e. While a price advantage does still exist for HDDs, that advantage is smallest in the segment of the market where the everyday consumer is located and is rapidly shrinking. That fact has allowed SSDs to position themselves as one of the simplest, cheapest, and most significant performance upgrades a consumer can choose when buying or upgrading a computer (even my non-techie father insisted on an SSD as his primary drive when I was helping him configure his last computer), and as the gap continues to close between the two, HDDs will soon be relegated to nothing more than bulk storage.

Already, computer manufacturers are starting to drop HDDs from their product lines (e.g. Apple's entire product line, sans the Mac Mini, has already switched), and the HDD manufacturers clearly see the writing on the wall, which is why they're starting to market specifically towards the prosumer market with products like the WD Red.

I do think that we're still a few years away from the tipping point, but I'd peg it at around 3-5 years out, rather than the "many, many years" you suggest. Though, as I said, I expect HDDs to be with us for many, many years.

See http://www.extremetech.com/com... and https://pcpartpicker.com/trend...

Yeah, I was reading this and thinking to myself, "haven't they been under $0.50/GB for awhile now?" Just yesterday I was speccing out parts for a new PC, and the prices for SSDs went as low as $0.35/GB. They're still roughly an order of magnitude more expensive per GB than HDDs, but they're starting to get cheap enough that the difference is mattering less and less.

Yeah, I was reading this and thinking to myself, "haven't they been under $0.50/GB for awhile now?" Just yesterday I was speccing out parts for a new PC, and the prices for SSDs went as low as $0.35/GB. They're still roughly an order of magnitude more expensive per GB than HDDs, but they're starting to get cheap enough that the difference is mattering less and less.

Sorry but I didn't notice that the network card was not 1 Gbps. Here is the corrected build with new network card. It is only a few dollars more expensive and the AC adaptor is a 3 antenna model. You also have USB and sata ports to add Storage if you want to use it as a NAS as well.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD A4-4000 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.68 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($22.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($30.94 @ Amazon)
Wired Network Adapter: Rosewill RC-404 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($8.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $266.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-07 12:22 EST-0500)

Sorry but I didn't notice that the network card was not 1 Gbps. Here is the corrected build with new network card. It is only a few dollars more expensive and the AC adaptor is a 3 antenna model. You also have USB and sata ports to add Storage if you want to use it as a NAS as well.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD A4-4000 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.68 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($22.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($30.94 @ Amazon)
Wired Network Adapter: Rosewill RC-404 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($8.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $266.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-07 12:22 EST-0500)

Sorry but I didn't notice that the network card was not 1 Gbps. Here is the corrected build with new network card. It is only a few dollars more expensive and the AC adaptor is a 3 antenna model. You also have USB and sata ports to add Storage if you want to use it as a NAS as well.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xdU3/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD A4-4000 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($43.68 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($22.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($30.94 @ Amazon)
Wired Network Adapter: Rosewill RC-404 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($8.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $266.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-07 12:22 EST-0500)

Actually you can do it for less.
Yea you might want to better power supply and replace the spinning disk with an SSD but it can be done.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/lwatcdr/saved/3mfV

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250u 1.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($33.70 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ECS A960M-M3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($28.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1066 Memory ($26.96 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Wired Network Adapter: TRENDnet TE100-PCIWN 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($5.96 @ Mwave)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $255.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-06 15:52 EST-0500)

Actually you can do it for less.
Yea you might want to better power supply and replace the spinning disk with an SSD but it can be done.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/lwatcdr/saved/3mfV

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250u 1.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($33.70 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ECS A960M-M3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($28.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1066 Memory ($26.96 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Wired Network Adapter: TRENDnet TE100-PCIWN 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($5.96 @ Mwave)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $255.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-06 15:52 EST-0500)

Actually you can do it for less.
Yea you might want to better power supply and replace the spinning disk with an SSD but it can be done.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/lwatcdr/saved/3mfV

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250u 1.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($33.70 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ECS A960M-M3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($28.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1066 Memory ($26.96 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Wired Network Adapter: TRENDnet TE100-PCIWN 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($5.96 @ Mwave)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $255.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-06 15:52 EST-0500)

Actually you can do it for less.
Yea you might want to better power supply and replace the spinning disk with an SSD but it can be done.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/lwatcdr/saved/3mfV

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2wK3Y/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250u 1.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($33.70 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ECS A960M-M3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($28.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1066 Memory ($26.96 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 160GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Wired Network Adapter: TRENDnet TE100-PCIWN 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter ($5.96 @ Mwave)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Diablotek CPA-0170 ATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $255.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-06 15:52 EST-0500)

Love this site. Here's my current system: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/29Ftf

Price from newegg: $5540.07
Price from amazon: $5206.82
Best price using a mix of vendors: $5166.22

+$1229.98 to all the above for parts that pcpartpicker didn't have, not including printer, router, misc cables.

Now we just need a site where you enter your build and it puts together order lists from newegg and amazon to optimize for price.

http://pcpartpicker.com/ does exactly that!

+1 for *NOT* using Plex.

It's a horrible piece of "software"... easy? yes... fine for a couple hundred videos, absolutely... start getting into MP3's or images of any substantial number... >1000 you're going to be in progress pain.

Also, it doesn't do back-ups... so the "dumping" part is still open for debate... and since there are apps that do both, alternatives highly suggested... but I have no suggestion.

I'm using Plex to manage a very large library and it's working fine. With the addition of PlexWeb I've been watching movies via web browser while visiting with relatives. I still prefer the OpenELEC (XBMC) interface for my main TV, though.

As far as storage goes, I recommend either NAS4Free or FreeNAS for DIY (I prefer FreeNAS's interface). I did this on a hypervisor system a couple months ago, details are at http://pcpartpicker.com/b/yxP.

Everything is backed up to the cloud using http://www.crashplan.com./ I can't recommend them highly enough.

Seriously... My overall system cost $1300 and can play anything you throw at it. And $1300 makes it fall in the higher end of midranged boxes. I am planning on going crossfire when I upgrade to a higher resolution monitor (2560x1440 monitor). The only other thing I have to get around to doing is disabling an extra core on each module so I can really crank up my overclock to get better framerates on games that are more CPU bound.