Been tasked to compile a viable gaming rig for a freshly promoted 'manager', ideally for 1440p gaming. Limit set for £1000, including labour and all components (keyboard,mouse,monitor). OS and all the necessary paid software liberated from the local IT department. As small as possible gaming rig (means size ITX for me).
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 (£155). Skylake too expensive but the Haswell platform least leaves room for future upgrade (i7 or Xeon to be able to take advantage of DX12/Vulkan later).
Cooler: Arctic Cooling ACFZ11-LP (£16). Got this cooler myself as well. Great LP cooler. Quiet. Within the height limits for the ITX case. Because no OC is planned(rather OC the GPU within the thermal limits of the case airflow), it can accommodate the future i7 or Xeon upgrades too.
MoBo: MSI H97I AC (£78). ITX. With integrated WiFi card. Suitable for the needs. Cheapest.
RAM: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) (£61). Cheapest 1600 Mhz 16GB DDR3 kit. Not much else to say.
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB (£118). 500GB of quality SSD for £110-120. Dare you to suggest a better buy within the price range.
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB (£250). ITX compatible nVidia card. Chosen for the small size, positive reviews and power efficiency compared to a AMD card (due to the cramped space in the case).
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 (£34). Got few myself. Sold builds with it. Client seen it as well and he loves it. Not much else to say. Small, fairly presentable and efficient (not too expensive, can accommodate gaming systems plus a full sized ATX PSU as well).
PSU: EVGA 430W 80+ (£30). Only possible components, no doubts, will be much criticized. Initially wanted to choose a 350W be quiet! unit but now not entirely sure if it would be able to power the system (to maximize efficiency & reduce noise).
Monitor: AOC Q2778VQE 60Hz 27.0" (£220). 2560 x 1440 resolution. Fairly positive results. Fits the budget limit. 27" big (bigger is better). Aware of the poor stand and the lack of non-luxury perks.
Rest: wireless/bluetooth keyboard+mouse,basic speakers/headphones.
Thoughts?