Thank you LinusTechTips Community! Last Chance to review build before buying!

[Drummaboy57]

I went from knowing nothing to designing this bad boy from all the help I have had from this community.

Every Spec has a specific application, and thus makes it my ultimate gaming and audio production machine as of 2015. 

The only remaining questions I have is any noise reduction/additional fan cooling solutions? Budget is 3k

God bless and thank you!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($379.99 @ B&H) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($91.98 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Asus X99-A ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($189.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($88.89 @ OutletPC) 

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($435.00 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($89.88 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card  ($654.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 850W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer  ($52.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)  ($129.89 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $2760.55

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-11 03:13 EST-0500

 

[JebKerman]

Looks fine to me (a bit overkill in places but hey, why the f not)

[The Official Czex]

Spend less on SSD' s and put the saved money towards another 980 Ti.

[TheRandomness]

You could save some money and get a WD Blue or a Barracuda instead of a Red. Other than that, it's great

[JebKerman]

Spend less on SSD' s and put the saved money towards another 980 Ti.

though if you've been following this somewhat of a Saga of a build. it's not for gaming, it's for music creation

[The Official Czex]

though if you've been following this somewhat of a Saga of a build. it's not for gaming, it's for music creation

 

Oh, yes, I recall the reasons now. The SSD could prove very useful. 

[Aendy]

get 3 more 140mm case fans (either noctua, or fractal if you want to stick to the one which is already in) for better airflow and better chance of oc'ing that beast of an i7

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-case-fan-nfa14pwm

And (i dont know where you come from, but where i live, there is a special R5 Edition from PCGH, where they closed the top vents and made it all black)

http://geizhals.de/fractal-design-define-r5-pcgh-edition-oem-pcgh-ca-def-r5-b-a1276676.html

 

that could also make it more silent and stealthy looking

[Drummaboy57]

The SSD's are to hold the sound libraries and the OS. Yes, 1tb of sounds. It's insane.

I chose an i7 gaming style build instead of a xeon workstation build due to the fast response-times of a gaming setup, makes live midi recording much snappier.  

The 64gb ram are for active VSTi and VST plugins. a combination of which is extremely CPU intensive, this helps make the editing process much smoother as apposed to pre rendering audio to be able to listen to a multitude of tracks in one project. I could have easily gone with an i7-5960x 8-core processor, but I am for skylake to release their higher core count lineup. the same with the choice of the 980ti vs the titan x and pascal lineup due towards the end of next year. 

 

[Drummaboy57]

The WD red was a bit puzzling to most people, but it operates under lower noise and has a longer life longevity to it. This is going to be responsible for document based files while the SSD run all the programs. If it can't do the job due to its rather low rpm, it is still very easy to swap out. 

[Aendy]

If you noticed, i have very similar parts in my Rig (the GPU is different of course^^)

But i can tell you, if you put that GPU in the top slot and the noctua ND15 as a CPU cooler, that is going to be a very tight fit...

When i first built that PC, i thought it wouldn't fit at all and i put it in the 2nd slot (but there the GPU was only having x8 Speeds).

I think if there would be more clearance between the GPU and the CPU cooler, the thermals would be better.

Maybe opt for an CPU-cooler which isn't that bulky, or at least more bend to the top, or maybe chose a Mobo which has a top x1 slot, that makes some space for the GPU

[montyrule]

TBH, i would change out the HDD, i wouldn't recommend that you get a 5400 RPM, get a WD Black or Seagate Barracuda. Unless you plan on getting another one and are going to RAID them. 

[GodSpoon]

 

Pffffff only 64gb of ram man?? Come on! 

jk jk lol

 

Looks like a beastly machine! I hope it handles your DAW and any other content creation programs you need for years to come

[Drummaboy57]

Hmm, thathat the GPU heat may be rising into the cooler, lessening the efficiency of the heat dispersion for the CPU.

However, the gigabyte g1 gaming 980ti I believe will cool more sufficiently than the 970, and radiate less heat.

Having no ventilation at the top probably traps a lot of that heat that should be rising out of the case, so airflow would be restricted to a sideways motion the intake being in the front and exhausting out the rear. 

[Drummaboy57]

However, I am open to more suggestions and opinions.

[GodSpoon]

Hmm, thathat the GPU heat may be rising into the cooler, lessening the efficiency of the heat dispersion for the CPU.

However, the gigabyte g1 gaming 980ti I believe will cool more sufficiently than the 970, and radiate less heat.

Having no ventilation at the top probably traps a lot of that heat that should be rising out of the case, so airflow would be restricted to a sideways motion the intake being in the front and exhausting out the rear. 

 

You will have no problems with heat man

 

First off you have pretty much the best CPU air cooler you can get

 

Second, the G1 Gaming moves a lot of air on its own, and even if it all went directly to the CPU cooler you would only see a negligible temperature change since theres so much air flow.

 

Third, the R5 has plenty of airflow! As long as you don't have the machine right up against a wall you should be fine! And if you ever think the heat is not escaping properly you could take the vent covers off the top and let it passively radiate heat or even put a few fans there

 

Regardless, your not gonna have to worry about it

[Aendy]

Hmm, thathat the GPU heat may be rising into the cooler, lessening the efficiency of the heat dispersion for the CPU.

 

Yes and i dont know about the difference between my GTX 970's backplate and your 980TI's but, that could also be a close call of fitting at all (just want to warn you, that you could be running into difficulties, i was suprised about the little clearance the card had against the cpu cooler)

Btw: my CPU is running @4,4 GHz and 1,295V which generates at full load a CPU temperature of up t0 85°C (with the CPU-Cooler at 100% and all 3 fans (2x Fractal and 1x Noctua) blowing at 100% also

 

 

 

However, the gigabyte g1 gaming 980ti I believe will cool more sufficiently than the 970, and radiate less heat.

Well the 980ti almost draws double the power than my 970, so the extra heat must go somewhere. And if the backplate sits directly on the CPU-cooler it's worse than it can be

 

 

 

Having no ventilation at the top probably traps a lot of that heat that should be rising out of the case, so airflow would be restricted to a sideways motion the intake being in the front and exhausting out the rear. 

i think positive pressure airflow from the front is pretty good, but if you dont have much clearance inside the case, that will be more difficult, than let's say every component has some space and the air can circulate around it and make it cool nicely

 

But nevertheless, your milage may very^^ and it could pan out very well for you as well (i dont know if you even consider OC'ing your CPU and or GPU (just something to think about).

If i had known about that, before i bought my PC, i would've probably bought either a different mobo or a different cooler

[Drummaboy57]

Unfortunately I found another potential problem, This is in the notes of the motherboard, are any of these potenial bottlenecks? I use gonna use ton of usb connetions.

1* The PCIe x16_4 shares bandwidth with M.2 x4. When M.2 socket is occupied, the PCIe x16_4 slot will be disabled.
2* The PCIe x16_4 shares bandwidth with M.2 x4. When M.2 socket is occupied, the PCIe x16_4 slot will be disabled.The PCIe x16_3 slot support x8 devices only.
3* The PCIe x16_2, PCIe x1_1 and USB3_E56 connectors share the same bandwidth. By default, the PCIe x16_2 slot and PCIe x1_1 slot will automatically run at x1 mode with USB3_E56 enabled for best resource optimization.
4* Due to chipset behavior, The SATA6G_78, SATA6G_910 ports (black) do not support IRST including RAID configuration.
5* These functions will work depending on the CPU installed.

[Aendy]

don't think so

[NBA]

Change the cpu cooler to a all-in-one water cooling solution for the same price.

I think the ram is a bit overkill for you (32Gb is more than enough).

[JebKerman]

Change the cpu cooler to a all-in-one water cooling solution for the same price.

I think the ram is a bit overkill for you (32Gb is more than enough).

Air coolers are quieter than AIOs since the pump is the noisiest component (+ Air coolers beat all AIOs at their price point, only once AIOs get more expensive than air coolers do they start to out perform them)

[Drummaboy57]

64 GB RAM for just audio is overkill forsure. At that point 16 would do. But the insane amount ram is for all the mastering, vsti, and vst synthesizers I am going to run and edit simultaneously can get demanding enough to justify 64gb worth of ram. the investment is made so I can make a product quicker.