While I think an nvidia card being present for CUDA is a good thing, I can see it not being all that useful to you for this project and being left out. The Intel graphics starting from 4000 are actually quite decent and should do you for most all cases you're looking at using it for.

An SSD used just for booting and containing your programs, with spinning HDDs for all storage and processing needs, would be a pretty good thing overall, and I do like a small, efficient boot drive... but go with what you want on that.

And yes, if WD Black is cheaper than Red, and you plan to do the badblocks test I HIGHLY recommend, then I'd say you might as well go Black.

Anyone telling you to get less RAM is just wrong, but I think you know that already.

Mostly just want to say that, with my quickly approaching Japan trip, I've begun watching v2.5 tonight with Japanese audio, and that is quite something for a comprehension test... I KNOW what should be said, and I have to match what I'm hearing with it... It is interesting, and thank you for making it possible.