Help Finish Building Mid-Level Gaming PC

[kickehy]

Hey everyone, I’m looking to finish up my MicroATX mid-level gaming build around the end of January or early February and was looking to get your opinion on a few of the components; mainly the motherboard, CPU cooler, and video card (most of the other parts I've already bought). I have about $700 to $800 to spend for my last bit of components (preferably before rebates, but I could flex a little). I live very close to Nashville so buying in-store could be an option if there’s vendors around. As to where to buy online, I’m ok with any reputable vendor if there's a good deal, but I'm most familiar with Newegg and Amazon.

I’m inexperienced at overclocking, but I think it would be fun to dabble in it, but only lightly (not looking to push it to the extreme). So, if there’s a better motherboard that has an easy interface (or if there’s a great beginners guide…maybe on the forums here somewhere), I’d be interested.

SLI or Crossfire isn't too important to me but I don’t know if it’s possible to get a MicroATX board that I can use with the newer graphics cards that does either reliably. I’m also not sure if it’s realistic to maybe get the exact same card 2-3 years down the road in order to do SLI or Crossfire, but if that’s a possibility, then maybe a board that supports it would be nice.

I’m not necessarily looking to include a monitor, but I would like opinions on a decent one for my games. If you could squeeze it in the above amount, even better!

My current PC is about 4-5 years old running PlanetSide 2 at about 10-15 FPS in pretty much any size fight and about 30 FPS when I’m not near many people. It’s an old Dell that I cobbled together and I now finally have money to upgrade. I'm sick of playing everything on low graphics...hehe.

Here’s what I've already purchased:

Processor - Intel Core i7-4790K Haswell Quad-Core 4.0GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I74790K[/url]
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Model F3-2133C9D-8GXL
PSU - Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-750 750W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design
SSD/Hard Drive - SanDisk Extreme Pro SDSSDXPS-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
CD/DVD Drive - I'll just be scavenging this from my current system.
Operating System - I already have Windows 8.1


Here’s what I still need:

Case - I'm picky, but I really like the look of the Aerocool Dead Silence series
Motherboard - I'm pretty shaky on the best to get, but here's what's I'm thinking:

• Asus Z97M-Plus
  ASUS MAXIMUS VII GENE
  GIGABYTE GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5
  MSI Z97M Gaming

CPU Cooler - Not too sure what a decent one is for what I want to do.
Video Card - I usually look on this site's "Best Video Card for the Month of X" posts. Currently, I was thinking of the GTX 970 (I'm not too sure what brand to get).
Monitor (Optional) - I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on what a decent monitor is for gaming. I'm assuming 120Hz or 144Hz?

Thanks for all your help and let me know if you need more information!

 

[shatteredx]

Case - SilverStone TJ08B-E MicroATX Mini Tower

The Aerocool DS case you like looks pretty good. I'm suggesting this SilverStone case as another good one to look at. SilverStone generally makes quality, well thought out cases.

Motherboard - ASUS MAXIMUS VII GENE MicroATX

I've had good luck with ASUS mobos over the years and their BIOS/driver support is one of the best, with relatively long lifecycle support. The MAXIMUS VII GENE has pretty much any feature you could want on a mobo with a great built-in audio solution as well. I generally suggest always buying "deluxe" motherboards as you usually don't know that you'll want a certain feature until a certain situation arises and you wish that you had paid a few bucks more.

CPU Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO + Arctic Silver 5

The Hyper 212 has been out for years now and it's a great cooler for $35. Probably best bang for your buck if you just want to try a modest overclock.

Video Card - EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW 4GB ACX

I like EVGA for video cards. I've dealt with their service before and they are good about honoring their warranties (probably too good as I've noticed they don't seem to offer lifetime warranties anymore). This Geforce GTX 970 FTW edition is their top-end pre-overclocked 970 and it comes pretty darn close to a stock 980 in terms of performance.

Total price: $733 http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=26437465

Bonus:

Monitor - 24" ASUS VG248QE

One of the cheapest 24" 120+Hz monitors out. You can spend more for 27", G-Sync, IPS panel, etc. but this a good buy for ~$250.