Also of note, Monoprice sells on Amazon with free shipping. Buying through Amazon can be cheaper than buying the item + paying shipping through Monoprice. For example, this mount sold by Monoprice on Amazon is cheaper than buying it direct from Monoprice due to shipping.
I use 3 of these single monitor mounts on my desk. I swapped out all of the thumb screws for hex head bolts with some lock washers. Now I can tighten it to heck and it doesn't move at all.
The desk is a 4' formica countertop from Home Depot, cost like $30 or something. I drilled a 3" hole in the middle for the center monitor and the sides are just attached to the sides (you'll need to pick up the side trim or some 1x2s).
You can get a better look at it in my rig video overview @ 3:42.
I REALLY like the individual mounts, I have a lot more flexibility to get a good FoV. Typical triple monitor stands are very restrictive height wise and angling out the two side monitors. I have mine at 50* right now and 168* FoV. It also allows me tons of room under the monitors for my keyboard and mouse and anything else if I'm racing or just gaming. It's like the monitors are just floating above my desk, lets me really get the center monitor close, there's no stupid stand in the way.
So order those on amazon, run to home depot and get that counter top and a 3" hole saw, or a jig saw, and get your ass racin! You can make a desk out of the formica by just adding some 2x4s at right angles to eachother on the 4 corners, bind them at the bottom and middle too.
TV wall mount maybe, just mount it to the desk. Some even have clamps so you don't have to drill.
http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-105402-Adjustable-Tilting-Monitor/dp/B003L171KW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1464143060&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+mount+for+desk http://www.amazon.com/VideoSecu-Extension-Accessory-200x100mm-MLE100B/dp/B0032HHXVM/ref=pd_bxgy_23_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=01NYQWZ4K460VXNT0V99 Maybe these two thing used together, one to mount, one to extend the length so it can fit on the holes for the tv
I use the regular cheap $30 Monorpice monitor arm http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L171KW?keywords=monoprice%20monitor%20arm&qid=1456692260&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2 with this Amazon VESA adapter http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TKS0S8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
this allows me to sit the 48" flush with my desk
I had this exact same issue with my mount! Was this the Monoprice from Amazon? This one I think: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L171KW
My rationale for the chosen products, part 1:
CPU: Intel hexa-core, hyperthreaded, unlocked CPU clocked at 3,3GHz with a boost up to 3,6. More on these features in the video's above. This is an absolute overkill CPU for your use. Most games run fine on only 2 cores. Most game developers are forced to design their games to run on 2 cores, because they would simply lose a good amount of customers if the game does not run on 2 cores. While we do see a shift towards 4 cores being the main choice now, it will take forever before a 6 core CPU won't be enough for gaming. It also got 12 threads wich is just slightly banana, but just in case you want to play and stream a game, skype & have a virus scan during all of that running. You can. Here is a fun video where they torture CPUs to see the performance. Note that they also render a 1 min video during this torture, wich you will never do. So that's why I did not opt for the 8 core monster.
CPU Cooler: For a good overclock you want a monster of a cooler, where I normally opt for an air cooler. You wanted a black and white look, wich made me go for a watercooler. Here is a nice video review. I highly suggest to place the radiator in the front as seen in the case review.
Motherboard: Black and white X99 motherboard from Asus. This board got all you need, aside from USB Type C, but that is not out yet, so hard to ask for. It got 6x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0. Included 802.11ac WiFi. Here is a very detailed review. It will do the job just fine. It got very solid on-board audio, but I opted to not go that route.
Memory: RAM is RAM. As seen in the video's above. Speed doesn't matter, DDR3 vs DDR4 does not really matter. But with our platform we need DDR4. So the only thing that matters is capacity. I went for 4x4GB so a total of 16GB. This is at this time more then enough for gaming. You do have the option to upgrade if you need it to later. Wich I don't expect you will, so that's why I didn't go for 32GB, because you will at most use about 8GB to 12GB. You want to use the grey slots.
Storage: Went for a 1TB SSD. You say that 2TB is more then enough, but I went for a single 1TB for start, upgrading to more storage later is very likely cheaper (as prices keep dropping) and 1TB is a lot of storage. The upgrade takes 5 minutes max. I find it stupid to recommend a lot of storage, if you won't use it? Same why I didn't go for more RAM. It's stupid to buy stuff that you won't make use of.
Video Card: The beauty of the system. GTX980 in SLI. The GTX980 is a beauty of a card with full 4GB of VRAM. Here is a great video of this card and it's features. Of course, you don't need to look at the performance. Here is a great review to look for performance as they. Note that they absolutely max out the games. So you get even more performance if you don't completely max the games out, aka AA is the main feature that kills FPS. Now for the card that I went for is the Strix from Asus. Basicly a solid overclocker, silent optimized card. The fans won't spin until it reaches a certain tempature. Note that the top card will run hotter compared to the lower one, as the heat generated by the lower card will affect the top card. But the tempatures aren't something you need to worry all to much about as these chips don't run hot anyway.
Case: This is flat out the best silenced optimized case on the market in my opinion. Here is the best video review. I can't add to much more, I would highly suggest to recreate the same setup with the AIO in the front, you can obviously remove all the HDD cages.
Case fans: The stock fans are fine but I went with super awesome after-market fans. So you can remove all the stock fans. The 2 NF-A14's are for the AIO. They are very quiet in low-mid speeds and pretty damn silent in high speeds as well. The case will help a lot by to reduce the noise to pretty much unhearable. I suggest to place the fans in the front of the radiator, so a "push" configuration. This will keep the inside pretty clean. As you mostly are able to see the brown when you open the front door, wich you won't do a lot. The Spectre Pro is to place in the rear, this fan is not the best in terms of air movement, silence, etc. But it just looks so freaking cool that I couldn't resist it. It will do it's job just fine and the case itself also helps a good amount to reduce the noise. Wich is the reason I went for it.
Power Supply: 10 year warrenty, 80+ gold, fully-modular, semi-passive, 850W PSU from EVGA. This PSU is a beast, it's made by SuperFlower who are considered one of the best PSU manufactuers. Here is a very detailed written review. The best PSU reviewer there is, period. Spoiler: 9,9/10 wich is pretty perfect. Only 1 PSU so far got a 10 as far as I am aware.
Extension Cables: Here is a great video review. They aren't needed. But it makes the system looks pretty damn cool. Went for white for the obvious reason.
OS: Windows 8.1, it's better than 7, it simply is. Great task manager (gosh I wish I had it!) and it also isn't as demanding on the system in general. I highly suggest to visit ninite.com after you are done with the OS, motherboard & GPU driver installations. To get the Windows 8 classic start button. As well as other parts, but that one is very important to me. My workstation server/NAS runs 8.1 and god I hated it to not have the start button.
Monitor: I went slightly crazy here. There were 2 options I was considering, but roughly around the same price points for the main monitor. This one and the LG 34UM94 with a better stand. I decided to go for the Swift just because it very likely will give a better gaming experience. But I do suggest to watch the review of the LG 34UM94 as well. The benefits of the LG monitor is the extra pixels! Meaning you can do some awesome text editing without running out of space if you work on multiple documents, etc. It also is an IPS display compared to TN, so better colours wich in some games is very important to me. I personally have a 1080p, 144Hz, TN and a 1440p, 60Hz, PLS display and most games I prefer to play on the PLS display because the colours are just so much better. Anyway I still went for the Swift because of the statement made by Linus in his review that you can watch here. He states that he didn't had the "TN" experience where the colours are still fine. So that's why I was able to suggest this monitor. Ow right, I also included 2 1080p Dell monitors. The reason of this is that I prefer multi monitors. I have 3 myself (1 on loan to my brother at the moment) and just flat out love it. So much space for activities! The 2 Dell monitors are amazing as well. I would suggest to place them in portrait mode next to eachother. Wich will give you a total of "2160x1920" resolution with a small bezel in the middle for text work, wich I believe looks absolutely amazing. You could also get just 1 instead or none at all, if you believe that the 2560x1440 or 3440x1440p monitor will be more then enough space. Here is a screenshot of my current setup to show you how much space the 1440p monitor gives me, I am able to look at 2 video's (not that I really should do that, I am not a female in the multitasking part) as well as working on this suggestion at the same time.
this:
plus this: