What is the best choice - GTX 970 between ASUS STRIX, MSI or EVGA?

Norton72

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I've finally settled on my build - Gaming (Skyrim only for now,) and occasional 3D modeling and rendering:

ASUS X99-M-WS
Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3GHz
Swiftech H240-X
2x Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD (Two of them because it's a dual boot system, one for my home recording studio, and hence the attempt to build a silent system - I decided not to get a single drive and partition. i wanted to keep them totally separate.)
CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 2800
Seagate Hybrid Drive 2TB HDD
be quiet! SILENT BASE 800 WINDOW
EVGA 220-PS-1000-V1 80 PLUS Platinum 1000 W

Everything is either in my possession or on the way except for the CPU and the SSD's. But I can't decide on which GTX 970 video card to get. I settled on the GTX 970 for budget reasons, I feel that is is the best "bang for the buck", at least in my price range. I'm overwhelmed by the many choices just for this card. There are three that I have been focusing on:

ASUS GeForce GTX 970 STRIX-DC2OC

MSI GeForce GTX 970

EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX

Just the EVGA alone has several units to choose from in a single listing. I have no idea how to go about sorting this out. Is much of it just personal preference? I really like ASUS products. I just like the white color of the MSI, but I would never choose a component based strictly on aesthetics. My monitors (2) are HP 24" LED, but I can't recall the model right offhand. I'm at work now but I can post them later if needed. I've had them for about four years I think.

I'm open to other suggestions for GPU's in the $3-$400 price range, and I appreciate your input.
 
Solution
Personally I use EVGA cards. They seem to be reliable and as far as I've ever really seen they offer the highest factory overclocked cards, their desktop card control software is also fairly nice too. However they seem to always be the most expensive choice.

Side note EVGA also has a b-stock listing (refurbished) for some pretty significant savings if you want to go that route. I don't think the 970 is in stock right now though.
I think that EVGA is the most reliable manufacturer of Nvidia cards.
They are just better in terms of quality and reliability..... don't get me wrong Asus and MSI are making great video cards too.

This the one i would get : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487077&cm_re=evga_gtx_970-_-14-487-077-_-Product
It's Overclocked too from 1050 MHz (reference) to 1216 MHz and 30 or 40 MHz won't make a difference in terms of performance (speaking about Asus and MSI 970's)..... although if you want you can Overclock the EVGA even higher than her boost clock
 
Personally I use EVGA cards. They seem to be reliable and as far as I've ever really seen they offer the highest factory overclocked cards, their desktop card control software is also fairly nice too. However they seem to always be the most expensive choice.

Side note EVGA also has a b-stock listing (refurbished) for some pretty significant savings if you want to go that route. I don't think the 970 is in stock right now though.
 
Solution

Norton72

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I'm a fan of refurbished equipment. Never had a problem with it. The only problem in this case is the shorter warranty period and the fact that I may not even have the system built before it runs out!