What GPU should i get

[mbrandon]

Good day everyone! So this is my first custom build, just need to know which GPU i should go for. im looking at the Galax GTX 960 4GB or Galax GTX 970 EXOC Black Edition. Off the bat i know a 970 is much better. but i know it depends on what your rig has. Could someone explain to me as well what the difference is between the EXOC and the normal one?

My Build:

• 
  Sharkoon green case VG4-W Midi Tower
  I5 6500 3.2GHz
  Seagate 1TB HDD
  Seasonic SS-620GM M12II 620W Modular 80 Plus Bronze Certified Desktop PSU
  G.Skill F4-2400C15D-16GVS Ripjaws 16GB (2 x8GB) DDR4 2400MHz CL15 1.20V RAM
  ASUS B150M-A LGA1151 Skylake Micro-ATX Desktop Motherboard
  

any advice is appreciated

 

[RobCrezz]

As you have a decent CPU, go for the 970 if you can afford it, will give you much better performance.

 

[geofelt]

Galax has several versions of GTX970.
They differ in the amount of factory overclock applied and the coolers.
Ignore the coolers, they are mostly marketing and will be appropriate to the version.
For performance, look at the specs and in particular the boost clock.
It looks to me like the GTX 970 EXOC Black Edition has a boost clock of 1317.
The more plain version is 1266.

If you will be gaming at 1080P, a GTX970 will run most any game well.
Your build parts are good.
FWIW.
I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer on the hard drive unless you need to store large files such as video's.
It is easy to add a hard drive later.
Samsung EVO is a good choice.

 

[RobCrezz]

Yeah totally agree. An SSD is a must.

 

[mbrandon]

Galax has several versions of GTX970.
They differ in the amount of factory overclock applied and the coolers.
Ignore the coolers, they are mostly marketing and will be appropriate to the version.
For performance, look at the specs and in particular the boost clock.
It looks to me like the GTX 970 EXOC Black Edition has a boost clock of 1317.
The more plain version is 1266.

If you will be gaming at 1080P, a GTX970 will run most any game well.
Your build parts are good.
FWIW.
I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer on the hard drive unless you need to store large files such as video's.
It is easy to add a hard drive later.
Samsung EVO is a good choice.

thank you for the response. As this wont be a PC strictly for gaming i do need the hard drive, but i did want to buy an ssd though. plan was to get everything up and running then do a fresh install once i get the ssd.

and i think i will be doing my best to get that gtx 970 EXOC. thank you very much to all for the very quick response.