Gaming help, antivirus, other programs

So i am going to build a hardcore gaming pc, already have most of the parts and all that, on the hardware side i am good:
Case: NZXT Phantom 410
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670k 3.0GHz 6mb SK1150
RAM: Gskill Ripjaws X DDR3- 1600MHz 2X4gb
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A
PSU: XFX 750w
Disk burner: Samsung DVD-RW 24x Sata
HDD: Western Digital Green 1TB Sata III 64 MB
SDD: Samsung evo 840 120gb
GPU: GTX770 MSI twinfrozr 4gb vram edition
CPU COOLER: Hyper 212 EVO from coolermaster
Also have a USB Stick wifi connector to put in there and getting some dust filters for the fans
I am getting windows 8.1 for this pc (Heard it was good for gaming, doesnt occupy too much GPU/CPU memory from what i have heard, can be wrong)
I do have some problems though, until recently i have been using Avast antivirus on my laptop, but it recently got completely broken had to restart it and all, do u think avast is the best free antivirus or are there better ones?
Another problem i have is drivers, i had a vaio laptop up untill now and VAIO laptops have blocked driver updates, u can only update through their programs and stuff, so can you guys suggest any good program to keep the drivers up to date? Or is the Nvidea one just fine?
Bonus question: Any other programs you suggest? for optimization, security, or whatever?
thanks in advance