Gaming Rig OVERKILL?

agree about the PSU assuming he never plans on SLI AND overclocking. The ram however I think is not so bad capacity wise, speed wise it is overkill. I built my Sandybridge-E rig just over three years ago with 16GB...was considered overkill then but not now for games (ie arkham knight and some newer games bust the 8GB barrier). So Their would be some future proffing in going with 32GB...something I plan to do on my next build sometime this year. But to be clear 16GB should be good for gaming the next 2-3 years.

I'm still happy in every way with 8GB RAM. For me I don't see why I should get more, let alone 32GB

I think I have seen 2 games with heavy mods that needed more than 8gb RAM. 16gb for gaming has huge extra to spare. As for sli and PSU a good 750w was ok for 2x980Ti's, as the 1080 is looking like it will use up to 50w less than a 980Ti a 850w will give lots of headroom still

Depends what resolution you game at. Using 2k/4K i have several newer games that come exceeding close to or break the 8 GB threshold (at 1080P I still have a few, just a few less is all). It started around the Arkham Knight release (roughly) and is the main reason I mentioned it. I expect this fall's launch to include even more games that break 8GB and so on every year after.

Going with 32GB is a forward looking move and I have two reason for wanting to do it myself on my next build. The first is I use rigs for long periods of time. As I mentioned before when I built my SNB-E rig 3 years back I knew by the time it was ready to become my wifes "new" gaming rig 16GB would just start being useful. I also plan for her to use it another roughly 2-3 years until it dies or I upgrade my primary rig again. So again as time passes It will be good enough for most games on decent setting since she will get a new GPU every launch (yes i upgrade those every cycle cause wife is a hardcore gamer too and she gets the "old" card from the living room when its replaced).

My second reason is availability. I USE to just buy more ram when I needed it, game wise. But I found i frequently couldn't find the same sticks I had on sale anymore by that point. So I would have to invest in all new dims (i will not run mixed ram for a long list of reasons I won't get into here but short of it is it's a bad idea for performance) costing even more money then had I just bought the larger amount to begin with.

Ultimately as a builder the choice is up to him. How long does he plan to use his Rig? 2 years maybe more...16GB will be needed at some point soon. Now does he plan to use it longer then that? Can't say. Does he plan to stream or do other background tasks while he games to need the extra space? again can't say. Point is It depends on the OPs usage model and how long he plans to keep the Rig in use whether 32GB is a useful or wasteful feature. I only wanted to point out it was not by default overkill. So take from it what you will. At the very least I hope this helps the OP in some way.