Which water cooler would be best for me?

Sighs are for drama class The op has a speculative build, not a current build so it's not too late to help them prevent making mistakes that could cost them performance. Why not get a 9590 with a custom water loop and put an r7 240 with it, makes little sense. Considering 8350/gtx 960 won't keep up with an i5/970 and the price is the same, why wouldn't someone opt for that?

If the psu performed like a tier 2 it would be a tier 2. That's like saying well amd has second tier cpu's but they perform like top tier. They're tiered for a reason even if it is a generalized rating system. No need to load a case up with all those fans, especially if running a cooler i5 build.

As far as the gpu's, 1080p, ac unity - a 960 will struggle to get 35fps on low details, the 970 will get 72fps. Far cry 4, 960 can't quite keep up to 60fps while the 970 manages 86fps and the min fps doesn't fall below 60 which may make a difference on a 60hz monitor. The 970 is consistently in the 60fps + range at 1080, usually with high/ultra details while the 960 hovers closer to the 40-45fps range.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960,4038-4.html

The 970 I included in that build is the superclocked acx, in bf4 it outperforms the 290. Same in crysis 3, bioshock infinite, skyrim, gta v, witcher 3, metro last light. Keeping in mind the gpu performance tests are done on an intel cpu, pair it with an fx cpu and the fps are going to drop a bit further.

Additional bench's available from the dropdown menu.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/6

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-960,4038-4.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/991-gta-5-pc-benchmarks/page6.html
http://www.techspot.com/review/1006-the-witcher-3-benchmarks/page4.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-and-980-reference-review,16.html

No one is forcing the op to consider an alternate build but it might be in their best interest for performance. I like a cool looking pc as much as the next person, but I spend more time on the screen than I do admiring the case/build. I do find it a bit funny that after berating others for suggesting alternate option, the very next thing is - an alternate build.

In terms of watercooling, it can be an experience/hobby if building a custom loop. If using an aio it's no different than attaching an air cooler and if there's no significant gains to be had by it or detrimental reason requiring it the high cost may as well go into parts that will actually improve performance. Air cooler, aio liquid cooler, ln2 - none are going to make the fx chips better performers. A stronger cpu and gpu on the other hand will.

I never force people to choose the builds I suggest to them but I don't get any satisfaction leading them to blow money on parts that aren't going to improve their experience. Sometimes people just don't know, someone told them amd is better bang for the buck or intel's too expensive or any number of things. If they have all the information to consider rather than half the information they at least stand a chance of making an informed choice. My advice is free and folks are welcome to take it or leave it. It's just one of many suggestions along with that of others. I do know if it were me in that position and someone had reasonable information showing me how to get significantly better performance for the same price I would appreciate them telling me before I bought the parts.

Alright, that's up to you. The reason I suggested the 290 is because it about the same price as the 960 where I am, about 1 mile from the border. The problem with the 2500k is that soon it will be so obsolete that even it will have problems in games. I recommend a cheap air cooler and an over clocking board if you are upgrading.


And to those who said the 8350 socket is dead, so is the i5's. LGA1150 and AM3+ are both being replaced now and next year, repectively, by LGA1151 and AM4

Sorry, missed the price on the card. Scratch that.