Wanting to build my first gaming PC.

Hey guys! As the title suggests, I am wanting to get into PC gaming by building my first gaming PC. However, I bought a PS4 in September and am trying to justify spending up to $1500 on a new pc. The Witcher 3 is a big reason why I want a PC, as I kind of want to experience it in the best possible way. I played The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360, and while I really enjoyed it, I kept thinking about how much better the PC version looked.

Here is the build I am leaning towards, http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tYgXsY/great-gaming-build, but I am definitely open to suggestions on different components or brands. I would also need to purchase a copy of Windows. I want to keep the machine on the smaller side, as I really dislike those huge, bulky cases. I still don't think they have released requirements for The Witcher 3, but how do you think this build would fare? Is the overclocking cpu worth the extra expense? I would eventually like to get a monitor, so which models would you recommend?

I really appreciate all suggestions or comments, so thank you in advance.

That seems like a good build, I would get an EVGA card if you go Nvidia and stick with corsair for the power supply. As far as ram, it probably won't make a difference but GSkill seems to be popular and reliable as well as corsair again. If you go with an aftermarket cooler for the cpu, everybody I know (including myself) has one of the cooler masters...they do a good job at a lower price. The case is going to be mostly cosmetic driven, but the Thermaltake Chaser MK-I I have has a lot of nice features like tool-less drive bays, dust filters, and even a slot for a bare drive on the top of the case (not saying to get exactly that one, but features to consider). Also remember if you don't get a full tower case (since you said you wanted to keep it smaller), make sure your video card will fit without issue as they can be pretty long.

Looks like a great build!

This post isn't meant to stir controversy or steer you towards a certain GPU, but what are you going to be using as a monitor/what resolution? I am not sure how technical you are, but there are some issues with the 970 when it comes to delivering on all 4 GB of its VRAM. A lot of people either don't notice or don't mind, and the ones that do notice usually game above 1080p. If you plan on running at 1440p or higher, you might want to do some reading to decide if that is the card you want. Basically, it can get to 3.5 GB of its VRAM with no issue, however the last 512 MB are a lot slower to access. I just wanted to bring this up so you are aware if you were not previously.

Other than that, everything @grilledcheez said above is good advice. I might take it step further and say for your SSD stick to a Samsung(although they recently had a firmware mishap) or Crucial. There is a good sale on this SSD, I have the 256GB version and it runs great, haven't had an issue.

Hope this helps! Feel free to let me know if you have other questions.

Its a fair build but for running The Witcher 3 you might wanna go with an i7 over an i5. I just think the i5s are coming to the end of their life cycle now as intel are pushing over to the 6 and 8 core cpus. 8GB of RAM is okay, people say that 8GB is plenty but I'm not so sure on the newer games. BF4 takes up 8GB of my 16 so take that as you will but you always need some spare RAM to run windows along with games.... Everything else seems fine to me.... The issue with the 970s doesn't really come into play unless your gaming at higher than standard resolutions, the 970s are fantastic cards still and all benchmarks show that...

You will still be able to run The Witcher 3 on high settings I reckon though, of course not maxed out, and tweak a few settings here and there I'm sure you'll get it to run just fine...

@bmehlers: Rather than overclocking, you might want to consider just getting a better chip. For the price of an i5-4690k, a decent cooler, and an OC capable motherboard, you may as well get an i7-4790k and H97 mobo. You'll get a higher clockspeed, and the advantages of hyperthreading and a larger cache in areas where they pay off (not really much as far as gaming goes, though, at least today). And you won't have to bother messing around with overclocking.

Here's what else I would alter about that parts list: I changed your 970 to the MSI Gaming 4G (it's generally regarded as the best performing, with the Asus Strix a close second), your case and motherboard to mATX (if you dislike bulky cases, you should be looking at mATX or even mITX cases), and your PSU to a Rosewill Capstone (the CX series is pretty low end, there's no reason to cheap out on a PSU in a fairly high end build like this). Also I added windows, seeing as you said you needed it. If you have an old laptop with a copy of Windows 7 lying about you could always transfer that license and save yourself a bit of cash.