Advice,input on a gaming build.

I had anticipated you'd say you prefer Intel, most people do. So I noodled around on PCPartPicker a little bit last night and got a start on this.

I have to agree with paulemannsen. Just one 970 is enough for just about anything. But, I went ahead and put together something with SLI anyway, if you really want to do it. I should mention that you could save ~$500 and put that towards a good monitor, mouse, and keyboard if you sacrificed a GPU.

But anyway, here's what I came up with. The motherboard is, for lack of better terms, one of the best Intel motherboards you can buy. Comes with the new Z97 chipset which there are a few perks to getting over older chipsets. It also comes with an SLI bridge for two Nvidia GPUs, like I have listed. I chose MSI's Twin Frozr line for the GPUs-- I built a PC for a friend recently with a 270X out of the Twin Frozr line, and it performs like a charm, so I thought I'd do the same here.

Hard drive is nothing special. Just a standard 1TB WD Blue. There's eight SATA 3 ports on the motherboard, so there's lots of room for upgrades in the future.

You mentioned you prefer Intel, so I chose the Core i5-4670K. It's a popular CPU with great performance. Really not much more to it than that. I would have went with a 4770K if it weren't for the SLI.

Before you read this, please bear in mind that I did not include three things: Operating System, aftermarket cooler, and SSD. An SSD is not mandatory but it will substantially boost performance, most noticeably boot times. Also, obviously, you're going to need an OS to use your computer. Windows 8.1 will run you $80~$100, depending on where you buy from. Also, about overclocking: In observation that the CPU has an unlocked multiplier (hence the 'K' in the model number) it is good for overclocking. However, I'm not sure how much you'll want to overclock using the stock cooler. I'm an AMD guy - I have no experience overclocking Intel CPUs, and not a whole lot of overclocking experience in general, so I can't give you any advice in that department.

One more thing. If you don't like the case, definitely feel free to switch it out for a different one. If I may, I have to recommend one with a window into the case. Your build will definitely be very beautiful once it's complete and it wouldn't be a bad thing to show it off. You also mentioned you've built PCs before-- about 5 years ago in your original post. That is still fairly recent, so if you happen to already have a PC case just lying around that will be compatible, feel free to use that too.

LIST:
[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ggKnwP) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ggKnwP/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54670k) | $218.98 @ SuperBiiz
**Motherboard** | [Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-maximusviihero) | $194.99 @ SuperBiiz
**Memory** | [G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8gbsr) | $81.98 @ OutletPC
**Storage** | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $49.98 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gaming4g) (2-Way SLI) | $348.99 @ Directron
**Video Card** | [MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-gtx970gaming4g) (2-Way SLI) | $348.99 @ Directron
**Case** | [Cooler Master HAF XM (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc922xmkkn1) | $100.98 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [Cooler Master V850 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-power-supply-rs850afbag1us) | $154.99 @ Newegg
**Optical Drive** | [Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-drw24f1st) | $17.88 @ OutletPC
| | **Total**
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available | $1517.76
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-01 14:26 EST-0500 |

This beast will handle anything you can throw at it, including Skyrim, mods or no mods.

All the best. Hope I helped. If you need anything else, just ask.