My Final parts Pick to Build My Gaming PC

IMO...the i7 4790k is the better gaming CPU and has much better potential for overclocking.

For gaming dump the 2011v3 platform and go with 1150. Get a good Z97 board and a 4790k with some ddr3 2133 or 2400. You'll save enough to get a gtx 980 or a 2nd 970.

since money savings is not an issue, stick with the Asus Board. Also, the Coolermaster Evo is an excellent budget cooler but I would personally want to keep those 6 cores a bit more frosty.

NZXT Kraken X61
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835146042

You certainly must get an SSD for your primary drive.
SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE500BW 2.5" 500GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W00ZD1550

What are you using for a power supply? I don't see one in your post.

That makes sense. I didn't change my power supply at all from when I posted my thread to when I built because I had already done a lot of research. I just wanted to make sure you weren't neglecting it! A bad one can fry your parts (!).

That makes sense. I didn't change my power supply at all from when I posted my thread to when I built because I had already done a lot of research. I just wanted to make sure you weren't neglecting it! A bad one can fry your parts (!).

You can do it the long way or the short way. I usually do it the long way because I'm anal, but most people prefer the short way.

Short way:
Go to the tier list. Write down the brands. Go to pcpartpicker. Put the wattage you want in the Search button, then sort by price. Find the first one of decent quality according to the list of brands. Sometimes, you will need to click on it (For example, the EVGA B2, G2, and P2 units are great, but those letters don't actually appear in the shortened title at pcpartpicker, so you need to click on the EVGA and see if it has those letters). It will also tell you whether it has an 80+ certification (efficiency) and at what level, and whether it's fully modular, semi-modular, or non-modular (i.e. whether the cables are fixed to the unit or can be removed -- you can save money by going for a non-modular unit to get a better quality unit, but some people prefer it to be as modular as possible and are willing to pay a little more -- that is, modular or not really doesn't affect the *quality* of the PSU, just the convenience and appearance). For extra peace of mind, check to see if there's a review of it at one of these two places:

www.JonnyGURU.com

www.hardwaresecrets.com (I find this site to have good information, and they have MORE reviews than JonnyGURU but it's hard to search and navigate)

Long way:
Go to JonnyGURU.com. (I chose this one because of the difficulty in navigating Hardware Secrets). Click on "Search" at the top. Put your wattage in the box, and change your selection from News to Reviews. Read all the reviews up until 2012, because any units reviewed before that period are likely difficult to find. I usually open tabs for each one. I go to the last page to check the rating. I'm paranoid, so I don't even look at anything under 9.0 (but I've read some good reviews going down to 8.5, so each person needs to pick their own limit). Then, I go back and read the first page, and write down any useful information (usually, this is whether it's 80+ certified and at what level and whether it is modular or not). Then I skip to the last page again and read the whole last page, writing down the scores for each. Then I pick the few I think have the best quality and check on pcpartpicker whether the prices are different than they were when the reviews were written. If you're doing this through Hardware Secrets, you need to actually go to each page within the review (you can't skip from p.1 to the last page) and the articles have more pages, so it would take a lot of extra time to do it there. Also because they review a lot of things besides power supplies, sometimes the search feature is difficult to use because you get a lot of non-relevant results for things like graphics cards and so on because unlike the search feature at JonnyGURU, you can't specify "Title" or "Review," so any article, review, etc. that has your wattage in it will show up in the list. The downside at JonnyGURU is that they don't do as many reviews, so there are several units missing that might end up being a better deal. I ended up getting my Antec VP-450 due to a review at Hardware Secrets because JonnyGURU doesn't have one. I got a great unit for a fabulous price, but I wouldn't have known about it if I only went through JonnyGURU.

If you find a power suppy at pcpartpicker that doesn't show up at all on the Tier list OR on the review sites and you're curious about it, you can also look for it here: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html

It lists all the brands and their particular units, and will give you the OEM (original manufacturer). Go with anything by Seasonic or Super Flower and you should be fine. Personally, I probably wouldn't do this unless it was necessary, because I'd want to see the actual review. Maybe this would be the ONE Seasonic unit that wasn't good. Unlikely, but as I said, I'm anal about this. I've already replaced two power supplies in prebuilt computers because they're terrible AND getting a decent power supply was one of the main reasons that drove me to build my own (now waiting on parts for my first build).

Hope that helps!

Good review, but you probably don't need 1500W! 750W will be fine for SLI of the GTX 970 (I know because that's what I'm doing). I'm not sure what a single 980 would need, but I suspect it would actually be less, since it's a single card. And if you have too much, you run into efficiency problems because the power supply still takes that same amount from the wall, and then just sits with all that extra power in it.