But will it fit?

[iacondios]

So I'm looking to build my second PC, after 6 years of upgrading an ancient mobo running a core 2 processor and DDR2 memory. I've got a shiny new engineering job, so I've got a fair amount of capital to throw around. The stops are being pulled out. My current plan is to go for gold with the Skylake 6700k and some form of GTX 980 Ti, preferably both water cooled. Not sure I want to adventure into the land of custom loops yet, so I've got my sights set on some AIO's. I also heard there's some more water cooled 980 Ti's coming soon, which is nice. I did think about the Fury X, but I'm not convinced I'll be able to really get much out of overclocking it, which is the real goal.

 

My dilemma is, I'd like to plan for an eventual SLI 980 TI, AND install an intel 750 series NVMe SSD. (Wait a sec, you say, two 980 tis? You're crazy! Hold the phone, I say, how else am I going to run Star Citizen with maximum graphical settings possible in a VR headset?) Looking at a lot of motherboards for Z170, I see three full length PCIe 3.0 slots, typically with lane allocations something like x16 in one or x8 and x8, with the third being up to x4. However, will two (potentially water cooled) graphics cards and the PCIe SSD fit in the mobo? Sure there's three slots, but the NVMe would have to go in the bottom, and from what I can tell would hang over all the headers on the bottom row. My current alternative is to get the 2.5" form factor and the funny little adapter card that plugs into what I think are the M.2 ports on the mobo. But it would be nice if I could simplify and plug that sucker right into the PCIe slot. But will it fit????

Also, if the water cooling doesn't work out and I end up with some high powered air cooling, I need to take the airflow into consideration and ensure that the cards are not so crowded as to choke the life out of each other.

 

Then again, the Green Team is sure to take a stab at HBM next year, so maybe I want to play it safe with graphics cards? The most demanding game I play now is probably GTA V, though with a high refresh rate 1440p monitor (144HZ is the target), it's no slouch either. I'd like to take into account future upgradability, as it served me well up to this point.

 

Couldn't insert my PC part picker link, probably due to the grand total of 0 previous posts, but I added it to my profile so you can look at it there.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qXMrbv (Swapped power supply, SSD)

Probably either the pop-up or ad-blockers messing with fancy website code... don't need those on this website anyways.

Thoughts?

[SPAS-ID]

Here is OP's PC Part Picker link:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L2QJ4D

or get EVGA PSU and change the Graphics Card to MSI 980Ti SEA HAWK

[MblaZe7run]

Ohio represent! Just kidding.. not one of those people..

Welcome to the forums! Please follow your topics to be notified of when someone replies to it, and please (for the love of GabeN) read the CoC.

 

Your best bet might to be using the 2.5" drive with the U.2 adapter. Have you picked any Z170 motherboards you like in particular so we can best help you?

 

EDIT: I see your PCP link was added for you.. Doesn't look like that motherboard has a U.2 port. Does the 2.5" version of the drive come with a SATA Express adapter? You could also use the card in a PCIe 4x, 8x, or 16x slot. They are not bound to 1x slots.

[Shadow Ghost]

So I'm looking to build my second PC, after 6 years of upgrading an ancient mobo running a core 2 processor and DDR2 memory. I've got a shiny new engineering job, so I've got a fair amount of capital to throw around. The stops are being pulled out. My current plan is to go for gold with the Skylake 6700k and some form of GTX 980 Ti, preferably both water cooled. Not sure I want to adventure into the land of custom loops yet, so I've got my sights set on some AIO's. I also heard there's some more water cooled 980 Ti's coming soon, which is nice. I did think about the Fury X, but I'm not convinced I'll be able to really get much out of overclocking it, which is the real goal.

 

My dilemma is, I'd like to plan for an eventual SLI 980 TI, AND install an intel 750 series NVMe SSD. (Wait a sec, you say, two 980 tis? You're crazy! Hold the phone, I say, how else am I going to run Star Citizen with maximum graphical settings possible in a VR headset?) Looking at a lot of motherboards for Z170, I see three full length PCIe 3.0 slots, typically with lane allocations something like x16 in one or x8 and x8, with the third being up to x4. However, will two (potentially water cooled) graphics cards and the PCIe SSD fit in the mobo? Sure there's three slots, but the NVMe would have to go in the bottom, and from what I can tell would hang over all the headers on the bottom row. My current alternative is to get the 2.5" form factor and the funny little adapter card that plugs into what I think are the M.2 ports on the mobo. But it would be nice if I could simplify and plug that sucker right into the PCIe slot. But will it fit????

Also, if the water cooling doesn't work out and I end up with some high powered air cooling, I need to take the airflow into consideration and ensure that the cards are not so crowded as to choke the life out of each other.

 

Then again, the Green Team is sure to take a stab at HBM next year, so maybe I want to play it safe with graphics cards? The most demanding game I play now is probably GTA V, though with a high refresh rate 1440p monitor (144HZ is the target), it's no slouch either. I'd like to take into account future upgradability, as it served me well up to this point.

 

Couldn't insert my PC part picker link, probably due to the grand total of 0 previous posts, but I added it to my profile so you can look at it there.

 

Thoughts?

GOODNESS your making a true upgrade going all out I LIKE It

[Curufinwe_wins]

So I'm looking to build my second PC, after 6 years of upgrading an ancient mobo running a core 2 processor and DDR2 memory. I've got a shiny new engineering job, so I've got a fair amount of capital to throw around. The stops are being pulled out. My current plan is to go for gold with the Skylake 6700k and some form of GTX 980 Ti, preferably both water cooled. Not sure I want to adventure into the land of custom loops yet, so I've got my sights set on some AIO's. I also heard there's some more water cooled 980 Ti's coming soon, which is nice. I did think about the Fury X, but I'm not convinced I'll be able to really get much out of overclocking it, which is the real goal.

 

My dilemma is, I'd like to plan for an eventual SLI 980 TI, AND install an intel 750 series NVMe SSD. (Wait a sec, you say, two 980 tis? You're crazy! Hold the phone, I say, how else am I going to run Star Citizen with maximum graphical settings possible in a VR headset?) Looking at a lot of motherboards for Z170, I see three full length PCIe 3.0 slots, typically with lane allocations something like x16 in one or x8 and x8, with the third being up to x4. However, will two (potentially water cooled) graphics cards and the PCIe SSD fit in the mobo? Sure there's three slots, but the NVMe would have to go in the bottom, and from what I can tell would hang over all the headers on the bottom row. My current alternative is to get the 2.5" form factor and the funny little adapter card that plugs into what I think are the M.2 ports on the mobo. But it would be nice if I could simplify and plug that sucker right into the PCIe slot. But will it fit????

Also, if the water cooling doesn't work out and I end up with some high powered air cooling, I need to take the airflow into consideration and ensure that the cards are not so crowded as to choke the life out of each other.

 

Then again, the Green Team is sure to take a stab at HBM next year, so maybe I want to play it safe with graphics cards? The most demanding game I play now is probably GTA V, though with a high refresh rate 1440p monitor (144HZ is the target), it's no slouch either. I'd like to take into account future upgradability, as it served me well up to this point.

 

Couldn't insert my PC part picker link, probably due to the grand total of 0 previous posts, but I added it to my profile so you can look at it there.

 

Thoughts?

You are in the US, so get a microcenter 5820k instead. Similar overall cost with a much nicer feature set. Easy overclocking to 4.4-4.6 Ghz on 1.3V. Also the 750 series SSD is one of the worst for gaming (it is super deep queue optimized) but the SM951 is much better for gaming/consumer workloads while being much cheaper. Hence it is attached.

 

You could probably get away with a 850W PSU but with SLI on x99 it gets tight and the 1k happens to be cheaper atm anyways than the EVGA g2 850 (which I am a fan of due to its cabling.)

 

The evga hybrid is good, but honestly I would generally recommend custom model PCB's as they tend to overclock better (not that it will be by much.)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU Cooler: *Cooler Master Nepton 280L 122.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($96.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($223.99 @ B&H) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung SM951 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($368.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card  ($748.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Fractal Design Define S w/Window ATX Mid Tower Case  ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 

Monitor: Acer XB270HU bprz 144Hz 27.0" Monitor  ($795.19 @ Amazon) 

Other: ASUS Model Hyper Kit Expansion Card M.2 TO MINI SAS HD ADAPTER ($18.57)

Other: Intel Core i7-5820k 3.3Ghz 6-Core Processor ($299.99)

Total: $2951.68

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-21 23:19 EDT-0400

[Curufinwe_wins]

or get EVGA PSU and change the Graphics Card to MSI 980Ti SEA HAWK

Why? It looks worse, is only 10 dollars cheaper and is also a reference pcb

[Dukanater]

i just did a similar new build and ran into that exact problem not enough room for 2 980TIs and a  Intel 750 im using a Sabertooth Z97 Mark S... although my cards are thicker and not water cooled. my current idea is to use a http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexible-Extension/dp/B008BZBFTG to move the Intel 750 to somewhere of my choosing that would look cool i guess? still a work in progress but it will solve my space problem 

[Curufinwe_wins]

i just did a similar new build and ran into that exact problem not enough room for 2 980TIs and a  Intel 750 im using a Sabertooth Z97 Mark S... although my cards are thicker and not water cooled. my current idea is to use a http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexible-Extension/dp/B008BZBFTG to move the Intel 750 to somewhere of my choosing that would look cool i guess? still a work in progress but it will solve my space problem 

Or just use an m.2 nvme drive like the sm951... Which does better anyways in low queue depth access.

 

Also the standard slot setup for a mid tower is 7 pcie slots and 3 wide per set for atx mobo's so the last slot should be on the 7th slot (unfortunately many mobo's have the first graphics card start at the 2nd slot which makes 3 cards impossible in a midtower with 7 standard slots.)

[brob]

So I'm looking to build my second PC, after 6 years of upgrading an ancient mobo running a core 2 processor and DDR2 memory. I've got a shiny new engineering job, so I've got a fair amount of capital to throw around. The stops are being pulled out. My current plan is to go for gold with the Skylake 6700k and some form of GTX 980 Ti, preferably both water cooled. Not sure I want to adventure into the land of custom loops yet, so I've got my sights set on some AIO's. I also heard there's some more water cooled 980 Ti's coming soon, which is nice. I did think about the Fury X, but I'm not convinced I'll be able to really get much out of overclocking it, which is the real goal.

 

My dilemma is, I'd like to plan for an eventual SLI 980 TI, AND install an intel 750 series NVMe SSD. (Wait a sec, you say, two 980 tis? You're crazy! Hold the phone, I say, how else am I going to run Star Citizen with maximum graphical settings possible in a VR headset?) Looking at a lot of motherboards for Z170, I see three full length PCIe 3.0 slots, typically with lane allocations something like x16 in one or x8 and x8, with the third being up to x4. However, will two (potentially water cooled) graphics cards and the PCIe SSD fit in the mobo? Sure there's three slots, but the NVMe would have to go in the bottom, and from what I can tell would hang over all the headers on the bottom row. My current alternative is to get the 2.5" form factor and the funny little adapter card that plugs into what I think are the M.2 ports on the mobo. But it would be nice if I could simplify and plug that sucker right into the PCIe slot. But will it fit????

Also, if the water cooling doesn't work out and I end up with some high powered air cooling, I need to take the airflow into consideration and ensure that the cards are not so crowded as to choke the life out of each other.

 

Then again, the Green Team is sure to take a stab at HBM next year, so maybe I want to play it safe with graphics cards? The most demanding game I play now is probably GTA V, though with a high refresh rate 1440p monitor (144HZ is the target), it's no slouch either. I'd like to take into account future upgradability, as it served me well up to this point.

 

Couldn't insert my PC part picker link, probably due to the grand total of 0 previous posts, but I added it to my profile so you can look at it there.

 

Thoughts?

 

A 4-lane M.2 drive has similar or better performance than an Intel 750. Samsung SM951 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

 

I would suggest slightly better performing memory. Kingston HyperX Fury Black 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

 

If the plan is to SLI two GTX 980 Ti, a larger psu is needed. One has to make allowances for aging, overclocking, and a bit for storage expansion. EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply is a great choice.

[iacondios]

You are in the US, so get a microcenter 5820k instead. Similar overall cost with a much nicer feature set. Easy overclocking to 4.4-4.6 Ghz on 1.3V. Also the 750 series SSD is one of the worst for gaming (it is super deep queue optimized) but the SM951 is much better for gaming/consumer workloads while being much cheaper. Hence it is attached.

Hm, good to know that the 750 series is not necessarily optimized for gaming. I am looking to stick with the Z170 chipset and Skylake, though. Not sure how it has a nicer feature set? Personally I'd like to see how close I can get to the mythical 5 GHz, though someone will probably tell me I'll need more than a simple AIO to do that...

 

i just did a similar new build and ran into that exact problem not enough room for 2 980TIs and a  Intel 750 im using a Sabertooth Z97 Mark S... although my cards are thicker and not water cooled. my current idea is to use a http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexible-Extension/dp/B008BZBFTG to move the Intel 750 to somewhere of my choosing that would look cool i guess? still a work in progress but it will solve my space problem 

I did have a thought about using a PCIe flex cable, but I don't know much about them other than that they exist and that I've seen one in a server rack before. Good point.

 

Or just use an m.2 nvme drive like the sm951... Which does better anyways in low queue depth access.

Another vote for the sm951 I see...

Also the standard slot setup for a mid tower is 7 pcie slots and 3 wide per set for atx mobo's so the last slot should be on the 7th slot (unfortunately many mobo's have the first graphics card start at the 2nd slot which makes 3 cards impossible in a midtower with 7 standard slots.)

It sounds like my suspicions of the third long slot card not fitting might be justified. Though if I end up using a M.2 drive, that should solve that problem nicely.

 

A 4-lane M.2 drive has similar or better performance than an Intel 750. Samsung SM951 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

Yet another vote. Sounds like I should look into this drive instead. 

 

 

I would suggest slightly better performing memory. Kingston HyperX Fury Black 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory

 

 

I thought about getting some fancier memory, but then I read a lot about RAM and found out that it doesn't really matter, and that I can probably overclock the RAM I chose up a good bit pretty easily. I don't think I've seen a single benchmark where RAM clocks mattered a whole lot, in fact I do believe there's an LTT video debunking the very concept. As much as I've got some cash to blow, I'd rather not needlessly throw dollars out the window. My primary concern is capacity, as playing Planetary Annihilation frequently wrecks my measly 8GB. Sure 16 is probably plenty, but 32GB should be all but future proof. Also, I can open endless amounts of Chrome tabs. Though if there are some experience concerns about Crucial memory problems, I'm open to hear those.

 

If the plan is to SLI two GTX 980 Ti, a larger psu is needed. One has to make allowances for aging, overclocking, and a bit for storage expansion. EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply is a great choice.

 

Yeah, I wasn't really sure where to peg the PSU. By the numbers, the stock 6700k is 95W, and two 980 Tis is another 500. But of course when cranking up the voltage you use more power... I saw a few graphs of power vs clock speed, but they didn't extend much past around 4.4 GHz, so I kinda guestimated. I have no real idea how much power a graphics card draws when overclocked and under load compared to the sticker TDP. I may have selected 750 by mistake instead of 850, I agree that's probably a bit closer to what I'll need.

 

I don't think I need an excessive 80+ rating (Gold is probably plenty?), but there seemed to be some nice deals on pcpartpicker, and I figured if nothing else a higher quality PSU means stabler voltages and currents for overclocks and system stability.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Uhh just a lot more pcie lanes (allowing 3 way sli even with the 5820k), 6 cores which should help with dx12 although it's no slouch even now, a crazy amount of usb support including 3.1 gen 2 on many boards and a just generally superior boards (due to the prestige of the platform).

That said I can understand the desire to grab skylake (when I built my computer skylake had been released for two weeks but still wasnt available and I said fuck it).

As to overclocking total room, 850 will be plenty for z170 sli 980ti overclocking both, but it's a bit too tight for x99 (due to the much higher tdp, and that doesn't include a igpu either)

But most recently the 1000 g2 was actually cheaper than most of the decent 850s I saw. (At 100 usd).

Imho a good gold psu is the sweet spot.

I cannot recommend enough more an m.2 over a 750 ssd.

[brob]

...

I thought about getting some fancier memory, but then I read a lot about RAM and found out that it doesn't really matter, and that I can probably overclock the RAM I chose up a good bit pretty easily. I don't think I've seen a single benchmark where RAM clocks mattered a whole lot, in fact I do believe there's an LTT video debunking the very concept. As much as I've got some cash to blow, I'd rather not needlessly throw dollars out the window. My primary concern is capacity, as playing Planetary Annihilation frequently wrecks my measly 8GB. Sure 16 is probably plenty, but 32GB should be all but future proof. Also, I can open endless amounts of Chrome tabs. Though if there are some experience concerns about Crucial memory problems, I'm open to hear those.

 

 

Yeah, I wasn't really sure where to peg the PSU. By the numbers, the stock 6700k is 95W, and two 980 Tis is another 500. But of course when cranking up the voltage you use more power... I saw a few graphs of power vs clock speed, but they didn't extend much past around 4.4 GHz, so I kinda guestimated. I have no real idea how much power a graphics card draws when overclocked and under load compared to the sticker TDP. I may have selected 750 by mistake instead of 850, I agree that's probably a bit closer to what I'll need.

 

I don't think I need an excessive 80+ rating (Gold is probably plenty?), but there seemed to be some nice deals on pcpartpicker, and I figured if nothing else a higher quality PSU means stabler voltages and currents for overclocks and system stability.

 

I have been unable to find any DDR4 gaming benchmarks at gpu resolutions higher than 1080. http://www.legitreviews.com/ddr4-memory-scaling-intel-z170-finding-the-best-ddr4-memory-kit-speed_170340/5 does show a 2 fps difference in one title between 2133 and 2400. While that is small, It does seem worth a few $ on a new build.

 

The only decent set of general benchmarks can be found in http://www.anandtech.com/show/8959/ddr4-haswell-e-scaling-review-2133-to-3200-with-gskill-corsair-adata-and-crucial/10. It is quad channel on X99, but I does provide some insight.

 

Only worry about 80+ ratings if you wish to save on electricity costs. Otherwise concentrate on looking at models that use excellent components, are well built, and which provide stable and consistent power. There are 80+ Bronze models that can do this, but Gold seems to be the sweet spot. Don't be fooled by price. The EVGA G2 850W psu has some of the best reviews in its class. http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=377, http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/SuperNOVA_G2_850/

[iacondios]

So I just saw NCIX's Netlinked Daily detailing Samsungs new 950 M.2 SSD. This one apparently does support NVMe, whereas the sm951 does not... 

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/specifications.html

Looks like a bit more sequential read speed, and higher random 4K read and writes.