Couple of things you may want to consider before pulling the trigger....
1. Recognize that the Hyper 212 is a "great budget cooler". That doesn't make it a great cooler and it is a bit 'outta place' in this build given the higher level of quality of the other components. A {Phanteks PH-TC14-PE color matched to your other components would be a significant cooling improvement (7-10C) as well as provide better aesthetics and superior fans
2. The EVGA 970 is the weakest of the "big 4 brands". The SSC version corrects the defective cooler found on the SC model but it still does not stand up to the competition performance wise. If you want to know why, read this tear down article (especially bottom third of pages 2-4) with respect to the componenetry and VRM chokes, chip cooling here
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/2
3. 3 TB drives have a very high failure rate compared to 2 TB drives, I'd stick to 2 TB
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/927-6/disques-durs.html
3 TB :
- 4,24% WD Black WD3001FAEX
- 3,83% WD SE WD3000F9YZ
- 2,39% Toshiba DT01ACA300
- 1,89% Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001
- 1,50% WD Red WD30EFRX
4 TB:
- 4,76% WD Black WD4001FAEX
- 1,95% WD RE WD4000FYYZ
- 1,87% Seagate NAS ST4000VN000
- 1,67% WD Red WD40EFRX
- 1,58% Seagate Desktop HDD.15 ST4000DM000
4. As SSD prices have dropped so much, it's hard to argue against getting one as long as it is at least 250 GB. To things however:
a) The SSD does squat for anything that is not on it. So with your games on the hD, you won't see any improvement.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5748/seagate-desktop-2tb-sshd-st2000dx001-review/index9.html
A situation like this left most power users using an SSD for their operating system, while still running a secondary mechanical drive for storage and games. A typical setup such as this would allow the OS to load very quickly, while leaving you stunned at how long it took to load a game. With the introduction of the Desktop SSHD, Seagate has again switched up the game, offering a substantial performance boost to those of you in this situation.
Now, if you are one that chooses to use a single drive for your operating system, and have held onto your standard desktop HDD for the benefit of capacity, the Desktop SSHD is calling your name. The 8GB of NAND cache in conjunction with Seagate's application optimized algorithms should offer a tremendous performance boost, and again the more you use, it the faster the drive will get, as it learns how you use your system.
In every case seen here today, the Seagate Desktop SSHD excels, whether it be a synthetic point and click benchmark like HD Tune or ATTO, or even application traces via PCMark 8, the drive just performs.
Here's results performed on our in-house test rig
Boot to Windows w/ 7200 rpm enthusiast HD = 21.2 seconds
Boot to Windows w/ 7200 rpm SSHD = 16.5 seconds
Boot to Windows w/ SSD = 15.6 seconds
We had users boot from all 3 on our test rig and on two laptops, one with SSD + 7200 rpm HD and one with an SSHD. Not one "noticed" the difference between the SSD and SSHD. The two options I'd therefore recommend:
a) Samsung Evo 250 GB SSD + 2 TB SSHD ~ $175
b) 2 TB SSHD ~ $90
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz75e250bam
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st2000dx001
5. AS5 has capacitance and curing issues best avoided ... from AS5 website:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)
Important Reminder:
Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.
Shin Etsu has all the thermal capabilities of AS5 w/o any of the curing and capacitance issues ... it's also cheaper. Why pay more to get something that has disadvantages the other product doesn't have ?
http://archive.benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/masscool-thermal-paste-g751
6. With Z97, the Asus Hero was 7% slower than the competition from MSI and Gigabyte while costing as much as twice as much for a comparable feature set and componentry was equal to or almost equal to MSI / Gigabyte's. With Z10 that performance disadvantage has been erased. However, what has not been erased is the rather disappointing satisfaction level shown by owners of the $230 Hero board:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132565
40% gave it 5 eggs
16% gave it 4 eggs
10% gave it 3 eggs
19% gave it 2 eggs
15% gave it 1 eggs
While for $21 less the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 7
62% gave it 5 eggs
15% gave it 4 eggs
7% gave it 3 eggs
4% gave it 2 eggs
12% gave it 1 eggs
So 55% more people gave the G1 a 5 egg rating while 112% more gave the Hero a 1 or 2 egg rating. It's also, to my eyes a lot more attractive, especially if ya chose the white Noctis.
If your budget was a little higher, I'd recommend the MAI Z170 Titanium Xpower which has 85% 5 egg ratings and just 4% 1 egg ratings.... but it literally just jumped in price by $34 overnight.
Comparing the Hero and The G1 ...
Gigabyte supports faster memory
Gigabyte has extra M.2 socket
Gigabyte has an extra PCI Express port
Gigabyte has an extra LAN port
Gigabyte has 3 extra USB 3 ports
Asus has two extra fan headers
7. Case selection is a very personal thing and performance almost always takes a back seat to aesthetics.... that being said, I'd look at the more sedate looking Enthoo pro which ha sbeter ventilation and water cooling support, as well as a built in fan controller (emulated now by the one NZXT offers) and also has built in LED controller, external LED system and plug for optional internal LED system.
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