For those with arguments against already compiled water cooling kits, you're right about research and quality and the like. Sure you can research and plan something much better yourself for similar price points or a little more or whatever, but you're ignoring the point of the kit to begin...
I just made an adjustment to kick the fan speed up around 65 instead of the 79 it was set at stock. As far as the other issues.. no clue.. I would uninstall that star citizen and try reinstalling video drivers.
I'm quite pleased with my gtx 970. . I don't care about all that 3.5/4 gb controversy.. because it doesn't change the fact it's still a great buy. If you're looking to upgrade right now for the budget you gave above, I'm fairly certain you'd be happy going that route as well.
As someone who recently built a pc for gaming with an AMD cpu, I would advise against it. Like many others, I did it to save a few bucks. I used a fx6300 but bought a fairly decent motherboard, I went into this build knowing that I was going for as big of an overclock as I could get, cool for...
That was so long ago I am having trouble remembering, but I do know I had a diamond stealth 3d 2000 in the mid 90's.. and at some point a 3dfx voodoo banshee..
I just picked up a 970 this week and I couldn't be happier with it. It handled everything I could throw at it(including the free copy of far cry 4 that it came with), and it (needlessly)overclocked very well while staying cool and quiet.