Help with first build (motherboard and PSU selection)

You are right that power supply is a little overkill, I recommend the 750 watt version which is perfect for your system. However if you want to SLI and overclock and eventually run a custom cooling loop you may want to stick with the 850. I can't recommend the G2 series enough. The motherboard is overkill, the Z97-A is going to be just fine and overclock just as well. You just won't be paying for a bunch of needs you won't need. Lastly you should not get that hybrid drive, or a Seagate drive for that matter. Western Digital has a better quality drive all around. I think you should get a Samsung 850 Evo SSD with a capacity according to your price range and a Western Digital Blue 1TB or Black 2TB drive.



I really like your selection of parts, really a good build you've picked out. The 2400Mhz RAM might be a little overkill though, try to see if you can get a 2133Mhz RAM kit with a low cas latency for a lower price and then later on you can just overclock it up yourself. I like your choice of cooler, great to learn about overclocking. If you are serious about overclocking stick with this and then think about a custom water loop in the future (not an all-in-one). If you think you'll just play around with it consider buying a phanteks or noctua cooler and sticking with it as air cooling is more reliable, less hassle and quieter than liquid cooling. Those two coolers are also spot on with AIO coolers and only slightly less effective than a custom water loop. Also keep in mind that unless you are video editing or running CAD programs the i7 is overkill and the i5-4690k will be top notch for gaming and will support a 2way SLI just fine. BUT, I say you are building a top end system stick with the i7 anyway caue yolo!



I would start with the 970 and then SLI it in the future, you can't beat the performance to dollar of two SLI'd 970's. In fact their odd placement next to the 980 at their price makes them the best two cards to SLI that we have seen in a while.

Asus Z97-A is a great board - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-z97a
EVGA SuperNOVA 220 G2 750 XR is an amazing power supply - http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220g20750xr