Ok so I am working on a PC build that is going to be a bit silly and overkill with a focus on aesthetics, this is as much going to be a hobby project as an actual workstation pc, but while I have built computers in the past I don't have much experience with the arts and crafts section of the built and so tips and advice there would be especially appreciated. Or just praise and feeding of my inflated ego that'd also be nice. This is also my first custom loop so I'm keeping it to soft tubing rather than hard tubing.
So anyway unto the build, the first parts is the theme; Abyssal Exalted. Red fluid in the water-cooling loop all, mostly black with silver and white highlights, splashes of red and lots of glowy bits. (going to be my first build with RGB aiming for over the top. Exalted is afterall a major inspiration.)
First a list of mostly finalized parts. This lacks some RGB stuff and some fans since I am still looking for what I want for those. Just the Vader fans from EK and a 4'th 140MM from be quiet to round out the three the case comes with? Or some nice RGB ones that are also quiet? Or just mounting RGB strips on the sides of the fans?
PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JfTwsJ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JfTwsJ/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1950X 3.4GHz 16-Core Processor ($999.99 @ Amazon)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($5.84 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard ($333.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($202.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($202.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($202.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($202.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: MyDigitalSSD - BPX 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 1.1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($270.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: be quiet! - Dark Base Pro 900 (Black/Silver) ATX Full Tower Case ($214.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($188.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: Gigabyte GV-N108TAORUSX WB-11GD AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Waterforce WB Xtreme Edition 11G Graphic Cards ($849.99 @ Amazon)
Other: EB custom cooling loop (~$600.00)
1xEK-CoolStream CE 140 (Single)
1xEK-CoolStream CE 420 (Triple)
1xEK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM - Plexi (incl. sleeved pump)
1xEK-RES X3 250 (440ml resevoir)
1xEK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper – Nickel
1xEK-DuraClear 11,1/15,9mm 3M RETAIL
12xEK-ACF Fitting 12/16mm - Black
2xEK-CryoFuel Blood Red Concentrate 100 mL
1xEK-ATX Bridging Plug (24 pin)
Total: $4391.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-12 01:53 EDT-0400
I do need 64GB of ram for those times I am doing work, (well over 36 but 64 is the next power of 2) and I think the empty slots look ugly so filling all the slots with 8GB dims rather than only half with 16GB dimms. Yeah I lose a bit of upgradability but nothign should need 128GB of ram for the next few years.
Basic Case layout of functional components;
Front is one giant radiator pulling air in, I am going a bit overkill on that to hopefully run fans at 50% or lower to keep noise down, I like my computers to be quiet. Next to the radiator I am going to mount a reservoir and pump, and in front/underneath I am going to put a figurine. Since I can't get a figurine of her I am looking for alternate figurines to represent an abyssal, like say this or this. Hopefully on a small rotating table/stand I can power from the computer internals somehow, but I am looking for something small enough most I have found so far are fairly large or otherwise cumbersome, somethign like this. Also might need to shuffle things a bit depending on how the case layout works when I have it in front of me.. or I can go silly with cad and try to model it...
To keep the right clean I moved to all M2 format drives (though not protocol... those get pricy and this build is expensive as is.) so there should be very few cables, mostly just powering the motherboard and GPU and the various cooling parts. The small fast drive will hold root and swap, while the big one will house /home (yes I am running linux. This will be the year of the linux desktop! )
Which leads into a new question which RBG's are easily controllable from within linux or is a hardware solution probably better?
I also want to draw a castemark on the front, but... I am not too artistically inclined, so how would I get something like this in a nice bloodred on the front panel?
Pretty final parts list... though it lacks some RGB still some suggestions on what/how and the other decorative components I listed? Possibly some other decorations I could/should add? It won't be near as awesome as say luke's geodude build, the rocks look awesome or that extremly shiny RGB overkill linus built but.. I am but a mere moral, not an exalt.
Also does anyone have linux benchmarks for threadriper? Since linux has worked a lot longer with NUMA type architectures I wonder if it would deal with it better than windows.
