Looking for opinions on my PC build

[ohnoitsabear]

So I'm planning on building a new pc. I've specced out all of the parts, but I wanted a second opinion before spending over $1000, so I decided to ask the fine people of the advice forum. Here are my planned specs (note that I'm planning on using this almost exclusively for gaming).

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $235

CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler $70

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard $150

Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory $82

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $54

Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card $350

Case: Cooler Master Storm Stryker (White) ATX Full Tower Case $170

Power supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $85

Total Price: $1200

Now, is this a good build? Are there any changes I can make that will significantly increase the performance but not the price? Are there significantly better options for any of these components?

Also, is it worth it to grab an SSD? My experience with SSDs has been really terrible, but I'm potentially willing to give it another shot if I get good recommendations.

Thanks for your help!

 

[CrystalShadow]

I'm a bit behind the times on hardware, but if gaming is your main thing the critical point is usually the graphics card.

While It's been too long since I looked at this stuff to give any directly useful advice (that's anything more than personal feelings - for instance, I prefer ATI/AMD cards, but that's not useful),
Because of this, do as much research as you can on the relative performance of the graphics card you've chosen. Is it the best option for the cost?
... From what I've been able to see it looks like a good option, but this stuff changes pretty quickly. (Also you may find there is a slightly older card that is being heavily discounted that may in fact work out better. Though it's equally likely it's not worth it.)

Anyway, that probably wasn't super-helpful though. Sorry. Haven't needed to build a new system in a while...

 

[Albino Boo]

Unless you are planing to overclock you don't need a cooler. That graphics card is too powerful for the cpu, it will bottleneck and you wont get any advantage. Personally I was think that the CPU should be the most expensive item on the list, its much easier to upgrade the graphics card at a later date. There aren't many games out there that can actually use the 4gb ram on the card anyway. I would go for a cheaper nvidia card and up the cpu to an i7. The power supply is can be smaller, you could get away with a 550w and unless you are planning to sli at a latter date, a 650w will do the job easily.


I would get an SSD, buy a 60gb -120 gb one for the O/S and you will see much faster results, but don't break the bank with a huge SSD.

 

[Austinalaaa]

http://elitegamingear.com/elitegamingear_003.htm

Heres the build i just made and works great. plays everything on High so far.