Budget: $1000, but not firm. Just don’t want to start spending thousands on it

More specific use (what games, what programs): FFXIV + Battlefield. I want to be able to have Final Fantasy all the way up. Other games I can deal with high, or even medium

Planned time until purchase: I am in no hurry

Do you need an Operating System?: Yes

Do you need a sound or wireless card?: Thought they came stock. Not exactly sure what I would need…

Do you want stock cooling or do you plan on overclocking?: Stock is fine I believe

Do you need a monitor? mouse? keyboard?: Negative

Zip code/location? (Shipping costs): 30134

Case style preference? I like the ones that are see through and have lit up fans etc, but by no means is it necessary

Upgradability? Yes

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/njJ63C

Base Total: $1013.67
Mail-in Rebates: -$30.00
Total: $983.67

For the LED you should not go with LED fans. They dont lite the case in a way that might look good. They mostly just look cheap. If you want fancy lighting than look what you local stores have in stock. Good Multi color led strips are avalible for as little as 30$.
I also put a large cooler on your CPU since the case i chose is very quiet, so it would be a shame to ruin it with intel's loud stock cooler. But if you dont care for noise then you can just save that 50$. (note that this cooler does not fitt most regular cases)
Also you said you dont plan i overclocking i would highly recommend it, as it currently offers a very nice Price/Performance ratio. The z170 mainboard + unlocked cpu only cost like 50$ more, which is like 5% of your total cost, but you can easly get a +20-25% CPU performance out of it.

This post was edited by maulepan on Mar 28 2016 08:43am

What sort of cooling is required for overclocking?

The cooler in my list is enough to overclock the i5.
EDIT: I use the Thermalright Macho Rev.B and got 4.7GHz @ 1.37V without having any temperature issues.

This post was edited by maulepan on Mar 28 2016 10:29am

I attempted overclocking back in the early 2000s and fried something inside. Since then I have just been too scared to think about it again lol. That's the only reason I said no to it. Also, I apologize ahead of time but I am so far behind on all the names of the current hardware. Things sped away from me too quickly.

As long as you stay within the safe voltages you can not destroy any processors anymore. If your cooling is not enough the processor will slow itself down or shut off before it gets to hot. For the current skylake CPU's you can use up to 1.47V, but i would still recommend staying below 1.4

If you want a simple medium overclock just choose 1.35V and 4.3GHz. That pretty much always works and is a solid 20% boost.
Also if you think about overclocking then you can also get faster RAM. It does not make a huge difference in most applications, but it is also not much more expensive.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/94hVrH

That second link didn't have the 1TB drive on the list. I don't understand how exactly that is supposed to work. When utilizing the SSD and the other HD, how exactly do you use the SSD? Is that where the games are installed?

If you need more then 250gb storage then you have to add a HDD. And yes. You install the operating system and all programms on your ssd. All the media files like movies, pictures and music can be stored on the hdd. Both will show up in your explorer as independend drives.
If you play a lot of games like GTA V which alone needs tonnes of storage it might even be worth investing into a 500gb SSD, but usually 250 is enough.

For PC I will generally only play Battlefield, RS, and FFXIV so I assume 250 should be enough. I have a 2 TB external, could that be used in place of the hdd? Or does it need to be an internal one?

Also, what are the perks of getting sound and wireless cards?

This post was edited by sbc'soneandonly on Mar 28 2016 12:51pm

of course a external hdd is just as good. Maybe even better since it is portable xD
Wireless cards can connect your computer to a wireless network. So you dont need a ethernet cable. But i would still always use a cable if you have the option. But WLAN on desktop computer is commenly used in small form factor computers (mini-ITX)
Soundcards are already on your main board. But if you need a better one you have to buy an additonal one. This is not needed for gaming but if you buy 3000$ worth of speaker one day you might want to invest in one.