Raxzer

I recommend running away from the Strix. It's overpriced, and the other brands have better cooling and/or stronger OC, with the strix having "silence" as the flagship.
 
However, is that really true? For instance, there is this source, which puts MSI Gaming 4G as more silent, for example (970 and 980 have the same coolers). And even if the card was all that silent: you still have case, PSU and CPU fans to worry about, they will make the same amount of noise. And even then, you can also set custom fan curves on other brands, making them silent as well.
 
But that's not all. Your card is also running hotter. And not going to OC as much as others. So why not go with the:
MSI Gaming 4G: it has the 0dcb feature, is almost as silent, runs cooler, and OC highers, while being MUCH cheaper. Or why not go with the Gigabyte Windforce: the best cooling and OCing out there and you can patch a 0dcb feature, as explained in this recent tutorial. And again, much cheaper than the Strix. You can also pick EVGA's legendary customer service, as well as more model options than fingers in your hands, but I personally don't like it very much. You have Zotac. It's a pick between pain in the wallet (every other brand) or pain in the head (zotac). But it's SO MUCH CHEAP AROUND HERE! So I ask you: is the Strix REALLY worth it? I don't know, you might get a super huge discount where you live right at the time of buying; sure, get it. But right now, for the features it and the other brands have, is it worth it? To me, it isn't.

INTEL 5820K GIVEAWAY DECEMBER 19-26
 
Our friends over at Intel have been generous enough to provide us with 2 Core i7 5820K 6-Core Processors to give away to the community! Think of it as an awesome holiday present from Intel to the community
 
How do I enter?
Leave a comment below to enter the draw. One comment (entry) per user.
 
This is a worldwide giveaway.
 
Also, please mention in your comment what you would do with the processor if you were to win this giveaway! (This will not affect who wins in any way - winners are chosen at random, this is just a way to add a bit of cool community interaction to the contest) Are you a budding streamer or video editor who will use the extra cores for multi-tasking? Would this chip act as the missing piece for a set of workstation components that you've been eyeing?
 
UPDATE 12/27/2014:
 
The winners of this giveaway are:
 
La Jolla Orca
 
and
 
 
elan2468
 
Both of you should have a message from me in your inbox.
 
Congrats to our winners, and thank you all for entering!

It's worth noting that CPU-performance is rather game-specific. Most games today are for the most part GPU-bound. An FX-8350 would be a excellent option when it comes to getting the most for your money, while a 4690K would give you top-of-the-line performance.
 
But the truth is that games are still poorly optimized when it comes to utilizing cores. AMD-CPUs struggle compared to the competition in games like ARMA, Guild Wars 2, the Elder Scrolls-games, Planetside 2, StarCraft and other titles requiring moderate computational power. Their core-architecture is simply inefficient, and compensating with more cores puts the responsibility into the developers' hands.
 
So the processor definitely isn't a minor factor. It's closely tied to which game we're talking about.
 
So...
 
Going for excellent price/performance? The FX-8350 and FX-8320 are good picks.
Want the best all-round processor for gaming? Definitely go for an i5-4690K.

Without a thermal compound, transferring heat from the CPU to the cooling-solution won't be efficient enough.