Either card is appropriate and will perform similarly depending on the game.
On balance, I prefer the current nvidia Maxwell cards which, on average, need 75w less than the R9 cards.
On your build:
I. You need a power supply.
500w for GTX970, 620W for R9-380.
Buy only a quality tier 1 or 2 unit from a list such as this:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true
II. With Skylake now available, there is absolutely no question in my mind that a new build should be Skylake.
1. Prices for cpu, z170 motherboard and ddr4 ram are almost precisely the same.
2. 6600K has an estimated 5-10% performance improvement per clock over haswell.
3. 14nm runs cooler, you get a decent overclock without the need for exotic cooling.
4. The Z170 chipset permits the use of much faster ssd devices on the horizon. Samsung 950 pro for example:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html
III. Love the ssd for windows. Consider deferring on the hard drive and using a 240gb ssd up front.
It can hold a fair number of games and you can always add a hard drive later for overflow or storage of large files such as videos.
IV. Nothing wrong with your monitor. But monitors last a very long time. Consider busting your budget for a better 27" 1440P monitor. It would be appropriate for your budget.
V. Regardless, I would avoid liquid cooling.
My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------
Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well with a decent air cooler.
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