Greetings

[russemerson]

Hello, world.

So, there I was in the hospital last June, recovering from a micro-stroke....

Just a week earlier, I had decided that it was time to upgrade/replace my old PC. I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time to research what I wanted out of a new machine. My searching led me to LTT.

Six months later, I'm still in rehabilitation and physical therapy, and eager to get home... more than ever, since I've decided to build my own PC for the first time.

I've been computing in one way or another since 1978, when I took my first programming class in high school. We used a Data General Nova II mainframe, with an honest-to-God teletype and punched paper tape storage. Since then, I've had Apples, Amigas, Windows boxes since 3.1, SUNOS SparcStations, and even a Linux box or three. I've been an internetworking engineer (CCIE, even) for about 20 years.

But I've never built my own PC.

I've decided that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right - and go big or go home.

Budget isn't a concern; I simply don't care if it's going to be "too much money for what I want to do," nor do I care about performance per dollar, or whatever you want to call it. My wallet isn't exactly bottomless, but let's just say I'm not overly constrained by the need to cheap out.

So right now I'm thinking I'd like to do an X99 system, dual GPUs, overclocked and water cooled, with SDD(s) and a decent-sized RAID array, contained in something like a CaseLabs SMA8. Modded, somewhat. Not heavily so.

A "theme" of sorts has been settling in my head. Olive drab exterior, white interior with various olive, grey, and black bits (since there's no way I'm going to try painting a motherboard.) And since naming one's build seems to be a thing, I thought I might call it the "Sherman" (yeah, like the tank) but then I figured that since it'll be OCed - "upgunned," if you will - a more appropriate name would be "Firefly."

So, that's as much as I've decided. Actual hardware selection is going to wait until I get back on my feet and get home, after which I'm going to dig right in.

TL;DR - hi, everyone.

[JeffreyEagan]

... Following this one. Go for dual GTX 980's or wait and see how R9 390's turn out. S'gonna be a good thread.

[ZetZet]

I have decided this would work for this thread.

 

[dadasmithywinkle]

-snip-

Welcome to the forums . That's gonna be a damn beast!

[Nup]

Damn thats a serious rig you're gonna have! 

 

Welcome aboard, nice to have you here  

[Wiflare]

Welcome to the forum!

 

If you need any specific guidance, don't hesitate to ask. We like working with projects.

 

@russemerson

[russemerson]

Welcome to the forum!

 

If you need any specific guidance, don't hesitate to ask. We like working with projects.

 

@russemerson

It's gonna be a couple of months yet before I get situated (pro tip, kids: don't have a stroke, even one that's "micro.")

Would the usual thing to do be to start a new thread in the appropriate subforum for the actual build?

[JeffreyEagan]

It's gonna be a couple of months yet before I get situated (pro tip, kids: don't have a stroke, even one that's "micro.")

Would the usual thing to do be to start a new thread in the appropriate subforum for the actual build?

Yeah, that's usually the best thing to do.