New build

[GIan Marco]

Hi everyone,

thanks in advance for any advice or suggestion.

 

This is my first solo build, and since a lot of years have passed from completing my current rig (with some help from a friend that's more competent than me ), i'd like to crosscheck my build plan:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz 8MB

MOTHERBOARD: Asus Strix Z270E Gaming

GRAPHIC CARD: Asus ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Kit di Memoria RAM da 32 GB, 4x8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz

SSD: Samsung MZ-V6E500BW SSD 960 EVO, 500 GB, M.2, NVMe

HDD: Western Digital WD Caviar Blue 2TB 64MB Cache

POWER SUPPLY: Corsair AX860i

CASE: Phanteks EVOLV ATX Midi-Tower

CPU COOLER: Noctua NH-D15

 

I'll be using this rig almost totally for gaming, on a 27" monitor at 1440p (probably could handle some 4k but i'd rather have higher fps and refresh rate).

My main concerns are about compatibility, future proofing, and power consumption (in particular future proofing the power supply for a second GPU).

What are your thoughts about it? Any wrong choices?

Tanks

 

Edited: list didn't show up

[Guest]

1 minute ago, GIan Marco said:

Hi everyone,

thanks in advance for any advice or suggestion.

 

This is my first solo build, and since a lot of years have passed from completing my current rig (with some help from a friend that's more competent than me ), i'd like to crosscheck my build plan:

 

 

 

I'll be using this rig almost totally for gaming, on a 27" monitor at 1440p (probably could handle some 4k but i'd rather have higher fps and refresh rate).

My main concerns are about compatibility, future proofing, and power consumption (in particular future proofing the power supply for a second GPU).

What are your thoughts about it? Any wrong choices?

Tanks

 

Did you hit enter too early or you forgot something?

[genexis_x]

My comment - overkill, that's all

[GIan Marco]

5 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

Did you hit enter too early or you forgot something?

Yes, copy/pasted without checking first

[GIan Marco]

2 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

My comment - overkill, that's all

for 2k gaming, or in general? i'd like to know you thought process

[stealth80]

Looks very solid I wouldn't change anything, maybe a kraken x52 for the cpu

[Guest]

A 750W psu is easily enough for SLI.

 

You don't need 32GB Ram just for gaming. A 2 x 8GB would be fine.

 

The 960 EVO won't really benefit you much. A regular 850 EVO would boot windows and load games just as quick.

 

The Noctua cooler is going to ruin the aesthetics (Unless you don't mind Brown). The Cryorig/BeQuiet coolers look much nicer.

 

Have you not looked at Ryzen ? 

[EPPHO]

Very good build. Though I would cut half of the RAM if you want to save some money. No need for 32GB

[PineyCreek]

Personal opinion, I like it.  If you're going Intel though I'd wait until their new chipset and CPU line debuts, and see if maybe motherboard pricing drops ever so slightly.  Maybe wait until after Computex.

[PineyCreek]

3 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

A 750W psu is easily enough for SLI.

 

You don't need 32GB Ram just for gaming. A 2 x 8GB would be fine.

 

The 960 EVO won't really benefit you much. A regular 850 EVO would boot windows and load games just as quick.

 

The Noctua cooler is going to ruin the aesthetics (Unless you don't mind Brown). The Cryorig/BeQuiet coolers look much nicer.

 

Have you not looked at Ryzen ? 

You called out what I've been thinking for years...I LOVE Noctua, but they should offer some color options.

[honor]

16 minutes ago, lee32uk said:

The Noctua cooler is going to ruin the aesthetics (Unless you don't mind Brown). The Cryorig/BeQuiet coolers look much nicer.

 

11 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

You called out what I've been thinking for years...I LOVE Noctua, but they should offer some color options.

 

AMEN! I love Noctua Coolers (Recently purchased some NH14s for my case) and have the DH15 myself. Probably the best cooler and fans I have ever used, but that brown color... ugh it screams 80´s/90´s colortheme at me whenever i look at the thing, which is why they are best for windowless builds, since they keep everything quiet af.

 

They have some grey fans, that I think you can swap with the build in brown ones on the cpu coolers ( as long as they have the same dimensions of course), but then again, for a showcase build, meant to show off components, Aircooling isn't really the greatest choice (You barely see the mobo)..

[GIan Marco]

1 hour ago, stealth80 said:

Looks very solid I wouldn't change anything, maybe a kraken x52 for the cpu

I'm not convinced about watercooling because i'm a little scared for the maintenance. I could probably upgrade in the future.

 

1 hour ago, lee32uk said:

A 750W psu is easily enough for SLI.

 

You don't need 32GB Ram just for gaming. A 2 x 8GB would be fine.

 

The 960 EVO won't really benefit you much. A regular 850 EVO would boot windows and load games just as quick.

 

The Noctua cooler is going to ruin the aesthetics (Unless you don't mind Brown). The Cryorig/BeQuiet coolers look much nicer.

 

Have you not looked at Ryzen ? 

You're probably right for the psu, the only concern i have is for years down the line when i'll get the second 1080ti, both at full load, i know that the new gpus have lower power consumption and i probably shouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Yep 32GB at the moment is probably overkill for gaming, since upgrading later it's no problem at all.

 

The M.2 was kind of a luxury for data transfer, since the SATA SSD has more or less the same boot and load time as you said.

 

Yeah i love noctua but that freaking brownish color is the stuff of nigthmares, probably going to swap them with the noctua redux for the silvery theme of the build.

 

I checked a little bit about ryzen, but the 7700k was an easy choice for gaming, since it's single core performance is higher (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

1 hour ago, frozeNNN said:

Very good build. Though I would cut half of the RAM if you want to save some money. No need for 32GB

You're right

1 hour ago, PineyCreek said:

Personal opinion, I like it.  If you're going Intel though I'd wait until their new chipset and CPU line debuts, and see if maybe motherboard pricing drops ever so slightly.  Maybe wait until after Computex.

mhm so maybe wait until summer? i thought that with the launch of kaby lake they would stay quiet for some time

[stealth80]

2 minutes ago, GIan Marco said:

I'm not convinced about watercooling because i'm a little scared for the maintenance. I could probably upgrade in the future.

 

It's an AIO, they don't have maintenance like a custom loop 

[GIan Marco]

1 hour ago, honor said:

 

 

AMEN! I love Noctua Coolers (Recently purchased some NH14s for my case) and have the DH15 myself. Probably the best cooler and fans I have ever used, but that brown color... ugh it screams 80´s/90´s colortheme at me whenever i look at the thing, which is why they are best for windowless builds, since they keep everything quiet af.

 

They have some grey fans, that I think you can swap with the build in brown ones on the cpu coolers ( as long as they have the same dimensions of course), but then again, for a showcase build, meant to show off components, Aircooling isn't really the greatest choice (You barely see the mobo)..

It's windowed built but i didn't wanna go full glorius eye candy, more low profile eye candy , still , as you said, the nh-d15 is pretty big and does cover a lot.

Changing the fans should at least not make it so noticeable, at least i hope, that brown really jumps out

[GIan Marco]

2 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

It's an AIO, they don't have maintenance like a custom loop 

You're right, i didn't really explain myself that well, it's more of an irrational fear of "water cooling" than anything else, since it's my first high end build.

I know that nowadays watercooling is pretty safe, but i have more confidence about having an air cooled CPU, even if there shouldn't be any problem with AIO for a "newbie".

I did some research about performance between water cooling AIO and the NH-D15 specifically, and a lot of reviewers didn't get very different results, at least only in some cases there were some differences (correct me if i'm wrong).

It's true that with a water cooling unit it would also look a lot better, but it's really difficult to get past that irrational fear .

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, GIan Marco said:

You're probably right for the psu, the only concern i have is for years down the line when i'll get the second 1080ti, both at full load, i know that the new gpus have lower power consumption and i probably shouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Yep 32GB at the moment is probably overkill for gaming, since upgrading later it's no problem at all.

 

The M.2 was kind of a luxury for data transfer, since the SATA SSD has more or less the same boot and load time as you said.

 

Yeah i love noctua but that freaking brownish color is the stuff of nigthmares, probably going to swap them with the noctua redux for the silvery theme of the build.

 

I checked a little bit about ryzen, but the 7700k was an easy choice for gaming, since it's single core performance is higher (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

A 750W is easily big enough for 1080 ti SLI. It won't do any harm to stick with 850W but I would look at a Corsair RMx/RMi or EVGA G2/G3 etc as a cheaper option than the AX860i.

 

You could always go with a BeQuiet Dark Rock 3/Pro 3 as they look a lot nicer out of the box and will give you a very similar noise output i.e Very quiet. They are a bit more fiddly to install but thankfully you only do that once. 

 

As you get to higher resolutions the gap is a lot smaller. At 4K it will probably be a couple of fps difference as the gpu is more of a bottleneck. At 1440p though Ryzen is still going to give very good framerates.

[GIan Marco]

1 hour ago, lee32uk said:

 

A 750W is easily big enough for 1080 ti SLI. It won't do any harm to stick with 850W but I would look at a Corsair RMx/RMi or EVGA G2/G3 etc as a cheaper option than the AX860i.

 

You could always go with a BeQuiet Dark Rock 3/Pro 3 as they look a lot nicer out of the box and will give you a very similar noise output i.e Very quiet. They are a bit more fiddly to install but thankfully you only do that once. 

 

As you get to higher resolutions the gap is a lot smaller. At 4K it will probably be a couple of fps difference as the gpu is more of a bottleneck. At 1440p though Ryzen is still going to give very good framerates.

I'll think about going for a 750W psu, and i'll definitely check out the EVGA.

 

The Dark Rock Pro was also one of my first options, the choice was between it and the nh-d15, but i'm probably gonna put in some more effort and swap the brownish fans and go with noctua even if in the end it does cost me more. (i'm probably a noctua bitch)

 

mhm what did you have in mind for ryzen? the R7 1700X? just to be on the same page

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, GIan Marco said:

I'll think about going for a 750W psu, and i'll definitely check out the EVGA.

 

The Dark Rock Pro was also one of my first options, the choice was between it and the nh-d15, but i'm probably gonna put in some more effort and swap the brownish fans and go with noctua even if in the end it does cost me more. (i'm probably a noctua bitch)

 

mhm what did you have in mind for ryzen? the R7 1700X? just to be on the same page

 

The R7 1700 is the best value imo. You will probably need to get an AM4 bracket for the cooler, so either from Noctua or the retailer if they stock them. I would probably go with the D15S over the D15 for better clearance (Ram and pcie).

 

You can check compatibility on Noctua's website depending on which cooler/board you decide on.

 

http://noctua.at/en/support/compatibility-lists