Looking to build a new PC from scratch

[Matheus Machado]

Hey guys,
I am going to use this one for simracing in general (and other games occasionally) in a 1920x1080 screen, with the main objective being steady 60fps and future proofing the expensive parts for at least 3 years. Here are my specs and I would like to know your opinion on my choices. AMD is out of consideration due to ISI games and poor drivers in general.
Provided an explanation below every component.

Motherboard
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer or MSI Z97 - G45
Picked up the Z97 mainly because of the minor difference in price to the H97 (never understanding brazillian pricing), with the plus of more ports and expansion slots, even knowing I won't overclock.

Processor
i5 4690 LGA 1150
The i7 is way out of my budget, and the peformance gap didn't justify stretching it. Opted out for the standard cooler as I won't overclock it (can't do it anyway).

Video Card
Here is my biggest dilemma, the GTX 960 or the 970 (no SLI), I am willing to strech my budget if there is a reasonable perfomance/price gain. Specially knowing I don't want to update it in the next few years.
Also, is there any major difference between the different manufacturers related to reliability, as the performance didn't seem to change a lot according to what I read. Just the overclocked ones had a noticeable improvement, but i'm not risking gameplay stability for that.

RAM memory
Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz 8 Gb (2X4) or 16 (2X8)
If 8 Gb is enough I don't want to spend in a 16 Gb one. I can put more two 4 GB modules in one year if needed.

PSU
Corsair CX600
I don't care if choosing a modular PSU is only going to give me cable management help. From what I've read that's the only advantage and it doesn't make up for the double price. Also, the 500W ones aren't that cheaper (15$) so I chose 600W.

HDD
WD Blue 1 Tb
A SSD is too expensive and 1 Tb looks more than enough for my needs. Also read WD provides the most reliable storage.

Case
Corsair 230T
Nice airflow for hot brazillian days and enough space to mount everything.

Keep in mind that's my first build and I have no experience on it. Every knowledge is based on hours and hours of internet reading.
Thanks for your support

 

[Andy_J]

Thanks for your support

You are welcome.

 

[Paul Bennett]

Similar to a wishlist of mine may happen some time

 

[Rami]

Hi @Matheus Machado
I really would go with that SSD. From my experience it gave my machine a huge boost.
Just my thought...

 

[Matheus Machado]

Hi @Matheus Machado
I really would go with that SSD. From my experience it gave my machine a huge boost.
Just my thought...

I'm in a tight bugdet, but I am certainly including it in a future upgrade.

 

[Ricoow]

RAM memory
Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz 8 Gb (2X4) or 16 (2X8)
If 8 Gb is enough I don't want to spend in a 16 Gb one. I can put more two 4 GB modules in one year if needed.

8 is currently sufficient, but I would upgrade to 16 in the near future as games are starting to ask for 8+

Video Card
Here is my biggest dilemma, the GTX 960 or the 970 (no SLI)

Sites like UserBenchmark are usefull to see if a certain price difference is worth the performance difference.
Personally if I could stretch the budget, I'd go for the 970. But I prefer quality over price. (Especially if you plan on going 16G RAM and want heavier games)

 

[Cristian Haba]

I think the i5 is a suitable choice for your particular build. Considering you're mostly on AC, which seems to tax the CPU as well as the GPU i would try consider the 4690k with the unlockable clock speeds for overclocking should you need it.

I am as well looking for a graphics card update, and perhaps a CPU one as well. Currently I have a Zotac GTX660 im not sure if its the 2gb or 4gb version, but it has served me well in AC, providing fps of 60 during normal gameplay with moderate to high settings. Im looking at a Gigabyte GTX970 G1 gaming being the 970 to get, its alo a pretty penny in Canada at $530.

Your system looks good, future proofing imo in your case only comes from a good video card investment. The new line of intel cpus will come out soon and the older gen will go down in price a bit so thats something to think about too.

 

[Matheus Machado]

@Cristian Haba The g1 Gigabyte is almost 150$ more expensive than the Zotac 970 (reference version). So I'm probably opting out for the zotac, as there isn't much difference apart from the cooling system for hot days.

 

[Matheus Machado]

And I'll put the 4690K as it is only 5$ more expensive here.