8 questions about my new build ($4000)

[JeffJ]

Hey there,

 

I've included a TLDR section which you can easily skip

 

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I'm finally making the jump to a massive upgrade - I'm currently using ancient components, some of which are more than 10 years old. I'm running an AMD Athlon Dual Core, 4GB RAM etc.. My single newest component is a GTX 570. So an upgrade is vastly overdue. 

 

This time, I'm going to make next to no compromises and build my dream machine. The idea is to build a machine that is as futureproof as possible and will let me do everything I want; game at surround (3x1080p) with all maxed out 60FPS, native 4K with all maxed out 60FPS, stream and record, edit 4K video content and more.

 

I also do games development (which is what paid for this rig) so fast compile times are also important. I'm also the type of person that typically runs Chrome with 40+ tabs, Visual Studio, MSSQL Management Server Studio, Photoshop, FileZilla, Spine, and even more software simultaneously, and doing all these things at once are crippling my current rig. The idea is to be able to do just about everything with max performance and no copromises, and not having to stop to manually memory manage and handhold my rig at all times, even when the going gets really tough.

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So here's my planned list:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/F2QqjX

 

CPU

Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($419.99)

 

CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.99)

 

Motherboard

Asus Z170-DELUXE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($317.99)

 

Memory

G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($549.99)

 

Storage

2 x Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($695)

2 x Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($120)

 

Video Card 

2 x Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($1310)

 

Case

NZXT Phantom 820 (White) ATX Full Tower Case ($206.99)

 

PSU

SeaSonic 1200W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($229.99)

 

Optical Drive

Pioneer BDR-2209 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($79.99)

 

 

Now, because I am not a hardware guy at all (and had to do quite a bit of research before even getting to this point) I have some questions and concerns about this build, many of which  may be very obvious. Bear with my stupid!

 

 

QUESTIONS:

 

1: RAM + CPU Cooler

I've opted for a MASSIVE CPU cooler with the Noctua NH-D15 to keep temps down. BUT from what I see in reviews and overviews, people are saying I should be careful if I want to have 4 big RAM blocks with this specific cooler, as I may run into clearance issues with this combo.

With the mobo, CPU cooler and RAM I've chosen, can you tell me if this will be a problem?

BONUS QUESTION: Should I be able to clock the CPU to 4.5 or even 4.7 and keep it at stabile performance and temperatures?

 

2: PSU

The various wattage calculators I've used all tells me the same ballpark; around 800 watts. As we know, a PSU's peak efficiency is at 50%, so with the 1200 watts PSU I've chosen, I'm at more than 50%. Should I opt for a bigger PSU?

 

3: Storage

As you can see, I have 4 storage devices; 2 SSDs and 2 HDDs. With the mobo I've chosen (and considering I'm using 2 PCIe lanes for SLI), what would be the fastest/best/most efficient way for me to setup these storage devices? I'm especially thinking about my SSDs, wether I should use PCIe or M.2, and if I should do any special RAID settings at all.

 

4: Cooling

I have the CPU cooler, and my case has 2 big intake fans and 2 big exhaust fans (intake in front and side, exhaust in rear and top). For this rig, will this be enough under heavy load, or should I install additional fans? Additionally, should I opt for more specific component cooling, such as on GFX cards, RAM etc.?

 

5: PCIe

With the mobo I've chosen, do I have enough PCIe, M.2 etc. for 2-way SLI and 4 storage devices (2xSSD & 2xHDD)?

 

6: SLI

My mobo only allows for 2-way SLI, but the 980TI card I've chosen is pretty big. With these two being as close together as they will be on my specific mobo, will they be "too" close, and will that be cause for any concerns such as heat and/or clearance, or any other issues?
Keep in mind, I've opted for the ASUS Strix OC edition of the 980TI, which as far as I can see, is bigger than the reference edition.

 

7: Clearance

The case I've chosen is very big and there shouldn't be any clearance issues, even with 2-way SLI. Still, I have to ask - do you think I will have any issues?

 

8: Misc

All in all, if you take a thorough look at all components in my rig, will everything "fit" together and do you have any general concerns or comments, anything I've clearly not thought about, any advice, anything at all?

This is the first time I'm building my own rig completely by myself from scratch, and I'm 100% software guy, and know very little about hardware.

[Castdeath97]

1) 64 GB of RAM are pure bragging rights, you can else upgrade RAM in the future get 16GB or 32GB even with your memory hungry requirements 

2) Get a 250/512 SSD the value on the 1TB model is not great especially two

3)Please don't RAID 0 hard drives use raid 1 only if you really need to keep your data safe.

[ThatOneRussian]

Cooler : Get a krken X61 or a custom loop if you want to reach those temperatures stable

PSU : 1200 is enough

Pcie SSD's are faster but take up PCIE slits

Fans : Just see if you need them EK Vardar fans for radiators are simply the best even above Noctua for airflow go Noctua

Pcie :  Yeah its fine

Clearance : its fine

Misc : you can make a better rig for your budget with Fury X for games and rendering

[Streetguru]

 

Hey there

You should be going X99 for that budget

 

16gbs of RAM is probably enough

 

If you're going to be doing game development and lots of coding/productivity work I'd invest in some 40" 4k displays for tons of screen real estate over 2 980tis

 

It's also cheaper to get 480gb SSDs over those 1tB SSDs, and that way you have more drives for some redundancy

Those Black hard drives aren't worth it, if you want drives that will last get HGST drives otherwise just grab some WD blue 2TB drives

For Productivity a HAF XB can't be beat

 

[JeffJ]

Thank you all, didn't expect that many replies that fast!

 

Castdeath97:

See, this is where my knowledge fails me; what is RAID0, why is it bad, and most importantly: with my disks (all 4 of them) and my mobo, what would be the best setup (and why)?

 

ThatOneRussian

"Get a krken X61 or a custom loop if you want to reach those temperatures stable"
I'd really like to avoid watercooling, so I've opted for the best aircooling I could find.
 

"PSU : 1200 is enough"

You sure a 1200 PSU is enough with my rig, considering a peak efficiency of 50%?

"Pcie SSD's are faster but take up PCIE slits"
Would I be able to put both SSDs in PCIe and stil have lanes for 2-way SLI?
 

"Fans : Just see if you need them EK Vardar fans for radiators are simply the best even above Noctua for airflow go Noctua"
Already went Noctua!
 

"Pcie :  Yeah its fine"
Really?
 

"Misc : you can make a better rig for your budget with Fury X for games and rendering"
I must admit I'm a bit of a green-team man, and overall think I'd prefer surround over eyefinity. But thanks!

 

Streetguru

"You should be going X99 for that budget"
I did consider it, but I'd really like to try out the new Skylake architecture and DDR4. The way I see it, the advantage of x99 are 6 core CPUs and more PCIe lanes. Unless I missed anything?

 

"If you're going to be doing game development and lots of coding/productivity work I'd invest in some 40" 4k displays for tons of screen real estate over 2 980tis"
I will be looking for 4k displays as well, and will probably make another topic about that - so hopefully you can help there!

"Those Black hard drives aren't worth it, if you want drives that will last get HGST drives otherwise just grab some WD blue 2TB drives"
I did some research based on 26.000+ harddrives form Seagata, WD, Toshiba and many more running over 4-5 years, and WD were among those with lowest fail rates and longest lifetime, which is why I chose them. Did I miss anything?

[ThatOneRussian]

-snip-

yes it will fit

[Streetguru]

Thank you all, didn't expect that many replies that fast!

A 5820k doesn't cost much more than a 6700K last I checked, which is why it's worth it to make the jump, and DDR4 doesn't make any real difference for the average user, and skylake only has a 5% IPC jump from haswell, only real reason to get skylake would be USB 3.1 which X99 has

This is probably the 4k monitor to get and it starts at around 700, it can run at 1080p 120Hz and it has free-sync

WD blacks are fine, but you're better off saving money if you aren't going to get HGST drives, I assume you meant one of back blaze's data dumps

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-for-q2-2015/

in which HGST is the lowest

[JeffJ]

This is probably the 4k monitor to get and it starts at around 700, it can run at 1080p 120Hz and it has free-sync

That's an interesting monitor - can you show me one that's 32", native 4K and has G-Sync instead of freesync? It'd be kind of lost on me with 2 nVidia cards.

Ideally IPS over TN (although with around 4ms response time). 144hz is not so important, however, 100mm VESA mount is. Bonus if it curves.

However, I still have some pressing concerns:

 

1: Would I be able to fit all my RAM next to my massive CPU cooler?

 

2: Should I set up my SSDs in PCIe (and would that leave me enough lanes left for 2xSLI)?

[Streetguru]

 

That's an interesting monitor - can you show me one that's 32", native 4K and has G-Sync instead of freesync? It'd be kind of lost on me with 2 nVidia cards.

Ideally IPS over TN (although with around 4ms response time). 144hz is not so important, however, 100mm VESA mount is. Bonus if it curves.

I don't think any 4k IPS G-sync monitors exist, and you could always go with 2 Fury cards over 980tis to take advantage of free-sync on it and save money, really at 4k even a non X Fury keeps up with a 980ti decently well

Although if you're doing like serious 3D modeling and all that professionally you'd probably want workstation cards

 

There are some 28" TN G-sync 4k displays, but 28" is really not worth it for productivity

Most CPU coolers leave clearance for RAM so you should be fine

 

and you don't need a PCI-e SSD, those are only really needed for specific high speed workflows

 

This 40" 4k display has a 100mm VESA mount, though the company needs to release a firm ware update for free-sync

[JeffJ]

I don't think any 4k IPS G-sync monitors exist, and you could always go with 2 Fury cards over 980tis to take advantage of free-sync on it and save money, really at 4k even a non X Fury keeps up with a 980ti decently well

Although if you're doing like serious 3D modeling and all that professionally you'd probably want workstation cards

 

There are some 28" TN G-sync 4k displays, but 28" is really not worth it for productivity

Most CPU coolers leave clearance for RAM so you should be fine

 

and you don't need a PCI-e SSD, those are only really needed for specific high speed workflows

 

This 40" 4k display has a 100mm VESA mount, though the company needs to release a firm ware update for free-sync

 

Thanks, though as I mentioned earlier, I think I'll stick for team green for now

I agree, 28" is too small for 4K. The sweetspot for me would be 32" for a 4K monitor at my setup - 40" is just too big.

So my ideal 4K monitor is IPS, 32", 4K, VESA mountable and minimum 60hz with a minimum 4ms response time. Would love it if it curves.

 

I know I don't need it, but it would be a lot faster. right? And would my mobo allow for both the SSDs I chose in PCIe AND have 2-way SLI?

If not, would I be able to set up 2-way SLI and one SSD in M.2 and the other SSD in PCIe?

And my WD would just be SATA, right?

[Streetguru]

Thanks, though as I mentioned earlier, I think I'll stick for team green for now

the hard drives are sata

 

and while it's technically faster to have an nvme drive, I doubt it's going to make any major real world difference for daily use

 

Any particular reason why you're sticking with nvidia? Does your software only use CUDA? Because performance per dollar wise a nonX fury crossfire set up is pretty solid

$699 for the monitor you want

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-umjb6aa002

I'd just make some room on your desk for the 40" display

[Redicat]

Wait for PASCAL...

[JeffJ]

the hard drives are sata

Oh shoot, they are. Thanks. The motherboard should support SATA enough for the 4 drives I've picked, right?

Nvidia for a couple of reasons

1: I've had best experiences with them in the past

2: I like surround better than eyefinity (and I'm buying 3 full hd monitors with thin bezels besides the 4k screen, so surround is a thing for me)

3: Investing in a g-sync monitor would go hand in hand with upgrading to a pascal card next year

That's a very nice monitor you found. Only thing I don't like is the "acer" part, as I have nothing but bad experiences with them. None of those are displays, though, so maybe I should put that aside.

Thanks!

My desk is already prepared for 4 monitors (3 of them are 24" and one will be a 32"). All 4 will be VESA arm mounted.

 

Wait for PASCAL...

 

"Sometime next year" is a bit too far away from me, I really do need the upgrade now.

However, this rig should be fully able to receive a pascal card, right?

I might have to change the motherboard to make use of nVidias new replacement for PCIe though.

 

[Streetguru]

Oh shoot, they are. Thanks. The motherboard should support SATA enough for the 4 drives I've picked, right?

So much proprietary tech so little time

 

I think overall the general consensus is that eyefinity functions better for multi-monitor stuff, and in addition AMD just overhauled their driver software

[JeffJ]

So much proprietary tech so little time

 

I think overall the general consensus is that eyefinity functions better for multi-monitor stuff, and in addition AMD just overhauled their driver software

That might be the case; for now, it may be a bit too subjective and out of scope for this partiuclar topic.

Would you know if I'd be able to fit in all 4 drives as SATA or would I run into any sort of restrictions?

[Streetguru]

That might be the case; for now, it may be a bit too subjective and out of scope for this partiuclar topic.

Would you know if I'd be able to fit in all 4 drives as SATA or would I run into any sort of restrictions?

So long as your motherboard has 4 or more sata slots you're fine

[JeffJ]

I see it has 6 - thank you!

I had a couple more questions pop up:

 

1: Should I need to use any cooling on any of the storage devices?

2: Should I need to apply any thermal paste on any of the GPUs?
 

3: I've heard that sidefans are bad because they mess up the airflow. The case I've chosen has an intake fan at the front and an intake fan at the side, and then an exhaust fan at the top and another exhaust fan at the rear. Will this make for bad airflow, and should I not enable the side fan?

[Neth]

To be honest if I had 4k to spend I would go X99 and do something like these two builds. But really this is overkill. One is mATX and the other EATX.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($984.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: Asus RAMPAGE V EXTREME/U3 EATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($424.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Toshiba  3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($699.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($699.99 @ Amazon) 

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($115.98 @ Newegg) 

Total: $3965.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-27 00:54 EST-0500

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($984.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: EVGA Micro 2 Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($229.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($199.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Toshiba  3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($79.99 @ Best Buy) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($699.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB HYBRID Video Card (2-Way SLI)  ($699.99 @ Amazon) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 P2 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($115.98 @ Newegg) 

Total: $3670.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-27 00:57 EST-0500

 

Case would be the Fractal Node 804 which I can't seem to find on PCPicker.

[JeffJ]

Also fine builds.

I was thinking about replacing one of the Samsung SSDs with the Intel 750 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167300) to use it as my system drive.

If you look at the specs for my mobo: https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-DELUXE/specifications/
Would I be able to run the Intel 750 PCIe SSD along with the 980TI setup, and still have PCIe slots free?

I'm a bit confused because, under the motherboard's storage specs it does say:
1 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s)M.2 X4 with M Key design, type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (Support PCIE SSD only)

But I'm a bit confused if that means it supports the Intel 750 PCIe type SSD separately and if this will in any way affect my ability to setup the SLI configuration.
TL:DR - don't want to run out of PCIe if I go with the PCIe SSD.

Also, the Intel PCIe SSD over the Samsung Sata SSD would dramatically improve load/boot times, right?
I've read about people getting up to 2-3 gigabytes per second read/write times.

[Streetguru]

Also fine builds.

Hard drive to 500mb read/write SSD is dramatic

 

beyond that is really unnecessary, especially given how much nvme costs per GB, again it's not worth it, but no it shouldn't affect your dual GPU set up

[JeffJ]

Thank you all for taking your time to reply, it's been helpful!

I might bump this again since new questions might arise, but I'll be ordering the system early december so hopefully I won't have any pressing questions left by then.

[JeffJ]

In case anyone in here also happens to know about good desk monitor mount arms, I'd love it if you could look at this topic:
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/493813-help-me-find-a-similar-arm-mount/

As it's quite a unique setup and has some rather specific needs.