Planned Summer Build

[naomasa11]

Alright, so I think this falls into the "overkill" category.  I want to put that out there before anyone jumps on the "get this because it's cheaper and you don't need that much" bandwagon.  I know.  This is a cross between wanting the newest, bestest, I-can-affordest hardware, general future-proofing, and making a sick-ass rig for the sake of it.  Go big or go home, mirite?

 

Anyway, this is my perspective build.  I'm trying to keep it around $5k and I think I just shaved it down recently to roughly $5100, not including any additional connectors/splitters/adapters I may need (such as for the extra fans).  I'd just link to PCPartPicker for you (and I can if anyone wants), but since they don't have a good number of the things I want, it wouldn't be the whole picture, anyway.

 

CPU:

-Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core

 

Motherboard:

-ASRock Z97X KILLER ATX LGA1150

 

GPU:

-PNY VCGGTX7803XPB-OC GeForce GTX 780 3GB x2

 

Memory:

-G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 x2

 

Storage:

-Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" SSD

-Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 3.5" 10000RPM

-Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM

-Western Digital Green 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM x3

 

Case:

-Fractal Design Arc XL Full Tower

 

Power Supply:

-EVGA 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V

 

Optical Drive:

-Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer

 

Monitor:

-Asus VG248QE 24.0" x2

 

Keyboard:

-Ducky DK9008 Shine 3 Red LED Backlit (Brown Cherry MX)

 

Wireless Network Adapter:

-Asus PCE-AC68 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1

 

Case Fans:

-Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 140mm x5

 

Radiators:

-Black Ice GT Stealth 280 Radiator - Black x2

 

Reservoir:

-Koolance RP-401X2 Single 5.25in Reservoir for 1-2 PMP-400 Pumps, Rev.1.1

 

Pumps:

-Koolance PMP-400 Pump, ID 10mm (3/8in) x2

 

Waterblocks:

-EK GeForce 780 GTX Ti VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Acetal x2

-EK ASUS GeForce 780 GTX DCII VGA Liquid Cooling RAM Backplate - Black x2

 

Extras:

-CORSAIR Vengeance Airflow Memory cooling fan

-Koolance Fitting Single, Swivel Angled for 10mm x 13mm (3/8in x 1/2in) x6

-Koolance Fitting Single, Compression for 10mm x 13mm (3/8in x 1/2in) x6

-Koolance 180-Degree Connector for RP-401X2 (Rev1.0-1.1)

-Koolance Dual Ultra Bright LED Cable, 4-pin, Red

-Monsoon .999 Fine Silver Bullet Antimicrobial G 1/4 Plug - Red (MON-PLUG-AG-RD) x2

-TFC Tube - 3/8" ID - 1/2" OD - UV Red Rev 3 x10

-Link Depot Model DVI-6-DD Black 6 ft. DVI-D male to DVI-D male dual link Cable - OEM x3

 

 

Okay, explanation time.  First off, yes, I plan to link up in SLI, hence two 780s.  Just in case someone wasn't sure.  Second, do I need 32GB of RAM?  No, probably not, but I like to err on the safe side...the very safe side.  Unless someone can convince me that I will legitimately only ever need like half of that, I feel like it's justified to an extent.  I do multitask a lot, have many programs running in the background (programs that I do want), and I game.  So yeah.  Third, I know it seems like overkill, but I promise the storage is necessary.  SSD will be my primary OS and programs drive while the Velociraptor will be primary storage (music, pictures, documents, etc).  Why Velociraptor?  Because I can and I want to.  As for the WD Black, that will be for my games (yes, I need a 4TB.  I have less than half a TB left on my current 3TB.  I can link you to my Steam account if you don't believe I have that many games.)  As for the rest, those are for media.  I have somewhere around 10TB (give or take a few hundred GB) of TV shows and movies.  This will allow me to sort them as Movies (well over 2TB), Animated (well over 3TB), and Live Action (well over 3TB).  This will all help me get away from the 7 external drives I currently have plugged into my laptop.

 

Other things of note.  I really like the HAF 932 Arc XL (revised with new choice), but I'm open to suggestions just so long as it comes in black and has red LEDs (or no LEDs, I suppose).  1000w power supply should be good, but maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct me.  That EVGA one seems like the best bang for buck for 1000w with 80+ Platinum ratings.  I'm pretty sold on the Ducky Shine 3, so while I'm open to suggestions, I'm probably gonna stick with it.  I only listed 2 monitors here and that's because I already have one.  So I plan on doing a triple monitor setup, but I have no need to buy 3, so it's not listed in my shopping list.  As for the Corsair RAM cooler...I figured why not?  I've read some reviews that say it's a waste, others love it.  Either way, it's only $30 and a hell of a lot cheaper than watercooling.

 

As for water cooling, I've never done it.  I believe I have it all figured out and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing and that I have a good enough run designed in my head, but I am a complete novice to this.  That being said, any constructive criticism is welcome for that.

 

Please feel free to ask any and all questions if something doesn't make sense or if I've forgotten to mention something important.  I'm looking for feedback and suggestions on anything, but I don't plan on buying this for a few weeks more than likely.  At this point, I just want to tweak things and not scrap the whole thing for something "better" or "cheaper" or "whatever.  Price aside, the biggest criticism I'm looking for is whether or not I'm being an idiot with this build.  And by that I mean if you were given a $5k budget (whether you agree with spending that much on a PC or not), would you find this build acceptable given my wants/needs (watercooling, awesome gaming with SLI on 3 monitors, and all internalized storage of my terabytes of media and games)?

 

Thanks for reading.

[ForsakenLive]

My advice, don't get the Poseidon cards, buying a dedicated GPU block will  perform better. The hybrid cards are good for people that might want to water cool later, but you are jumping right into it. A decent waterblock is all you need.

A single D5 pump will grant enough flow and pressure for your all the components you mention, you don't even need to put it on a high setting. If you want massive overkill and  reliability (in case a pump fails) get 2x D5.

Unless you are set for the GPUs, getting 2 R9 290Xs is going to perform a better, specially on high resolutions. You don't need the Pump+CPUblock combo, get a nice CPU block that will look good, like the ones from XSPC

 

Now, this is going to be a nice build, but why putting it on a plastic chassis? 

Cases I recommend, Phanteks Enthoo Pro (or even Enthoo Primo if you have the bling), NZXT Switch 810 (Black), Fractal DesignArc XL, Corsair 750D

[naomasa11]

My advice, don't get the Poseidon cards, buying a dedicated GPU block will  perform better. The hybrid cards are good for people that might want to water cool later, but you are jumping right into it. A decent waterblock is all you need.

A single D5 pump will grant enough flow and pressure for your all the components you mention, you don't even need to put it on a high setting. If you want massive overkill and  reliability (in case a pump fails) get 2x D5.

Unless you are set for the GPUs, getting 2 R9 290Xs is going to perform a better, specially on high resolutions. You don't need the Pump+CPUblock combo, get a nice CPU block that will look good, like the ones from XSPC

 

Now, this is going to be a nice build, but why putting it on a plastic chassis? 

Cases I recommend, Phanteks Enthoo Pro (or even Enthoo Primo if you have the bling), NZXT Switch 810 (Black), Fractal DesignArc XL, Corsair 750D

 

I will definitely look into other cards, but the reason I went for this was because 1) I wanted 780s and 2) it's more expensive to buy 2 plus waterblocks than it is to get this all-in-one Poseidon.  I'll shop around, though, and see if I can't find something better for about $600 per card+block.  The reason I want 780s is because they're about the most baddest ass cards Nvidia makes in the price range (the Ti is just slightly too expensive for my liking and Titans are absurd) and I've always been an Nvidia guy.  I feel wrong for jumping ship to ATI.  I'm not trying to just shoot down your suggestions.  I'm just trying to give a bit more insight into the "why" behind my choices.

 

As for the pump/block combo, I liked the fact that it had a built-in heatsink as well.  I felt that might help since it'll be the last in my chain for watercooling.  I've heard various fields of thought about series vs parallel, but I figured the simplest build would be series and that could potentially lead to less effective cooling at the end (or so I've read).  I was thinking of going as follows: Res > GPU1 > GPU2 > 140mm Rad > CPU > 360mm Rad > Res.  Any suggestions for waterblocks that also have heatsinks?  Again, I'll shop around some more if you think the 3rd pump is really that unnecessary.

 

Speaking of pumps, I really wanted to go with a single 5.25" res which is why I went with this Koolance one.  It's made for two 400s (or one, but like you said, overkill and redundancy), hence my choice.  It was the only one I found that I liked which is why I ended up going with it.  The rest were either the wrong color (like silver), dual bay, or had LED screens with the wrong color LEDs (I feel like I reserve the right to choose aesthetics over performance so long as it doesn't make or break the system).

 

With the case, I just really liked it.  It had everything I need, it's black and red, and...yeah.  I'll check out the ones you mentioned.

 

Anyway, if you have any suggestions following the information I just gave you, I'm all ears.  I don't expect you to do all the work, so I'll definitely start snooping around for any potential replacements for the things you mentioned.  Thanks for all the tips!

[ForsakenLive]

-snip-

The Asus Poseidon is $600, The EVGA ACX GTX 780 is $475 on Newegg, and the EK GTX 780ti (it's the same block for the 780) Full cover waterblock (all black, acetal) is $107 on FrozenCPU, those extra $2 are worth it.

I do still prefer the dual R9 290X setup. It's going to get you a bit more for your money, and it's going to make quite a difference on triple monitor setup, or high res monitors (4k for example).

 

Parallel configurations don't lead to less effective cooling, unless you have a very weak pump, which is not the case at all. The component order doesn't matter at all, you can make it go across both GPUs and the CPU consecutively and the temperatures will still be the same, water flows so fast it doesn't even matter. As long as the pump is getting extra fluid directly from the res you are golden.

 

A strong pump, like the D5, is a industrial unit, overkill for most loops already. it allows you to run at lower RPM, having a cool and quiet system. Having 2 different pumps, running at different RPMs doesn't seem ideal, while the Swiftech Pump on the combo block you mentioned is great, it's meant for small cases, where space is crucial. If you want overkill, get a couple of D5s, or MCP655 or DDC pumps, it's going to be nuts. There are many bay reservoirs out there that support laing pumps like these.

 

Check those cases, if you still can't decide I can link you to other several good cases, ready for massive radiators like yours

[naomasa11]

Well apparently I suck at searching or something because I didn't find either of those.  Maybe I needed to spend more time.  Sounds like a solid plan, though.  I'm curious, however, why you think the Poseidon would be inherently less effective at cooling.

 

As for the D5, I can't find any single bay reservoirs that work with it and I'd like to if I can.  Speaking of, I'm having some more trouble.  I like both the Fractal and the Corsair, but my issue lies in 5.25" bay availability with top mounted radiators.  It's hard to tell, but from pictures I've seen, it seems like a 360mm rad would get in the way of one, if not 2 bays, not to mention the difficulty in connecting the rad to the res/pumps without it being in the bottom-most slot.

 

If I go with the Fractal, I was thinking of getting the Black Ice Stealth rads instead, sticking a 280mm in the top and in the front (removing one of the HDD bays).

[naomasa11]

I have updated the build to reflect a new choice in graphics cards and additional waterblocks to go with them.  I've also decided on a new case and some different radiators as well.

[naomasa11]

Updated again. I know no one else has been giving their input on this and I hate posting over and over in a row, but I figure it doesn't hurt. I will likely be buying this computer in the next couple weeks.

So far the updates include different GPUs (opted for PNY with aftermarket cooling rather than ASUS Poseidons), different RAM (going for G. Skill 1866 CL9 rather than Corsair 2400 at CL10/11, I forget which), and a different motherboard. I still need to decide on and add to this the CPU waterblock and RAM waterblock.