Upcoming Second Build List

Tover · June 27, 2017

Hello LTT forum,

This will be my first post as of yet, I just made my account and I’m excited to share my upcoming build with you guys.

Some parts of this build I already own, as for the pieces I don’t yet own I’ll try and list out why I think these parts fit the aesthetic or the build. Feel free to let me know when I’m wrong or if I could save money somewhere down the line since my budget on this is pretty tight.

As for the aim with this build: 3D modeling and content creation. I do a lot of heavy 3D work and rendering as well as gaming, so this was the best middle ground I could think of.

Aesthetics: Aiming for a Red/White/Blue scheme to represent my country’s flag and my favorite pair of sneakers.

Total budget: €2200

Complete build TLDR:

Motherboard: ASROCK X99 Extreme4 – Re-used

CPU: Intel 5930k OC @4.4Ghz – Re-used

PSU: EVGA G2 850W – Re-used

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 32GB DDR4-3000MHz

GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX1080Ti 11GB Founders

SSD: Crucial 512GB SSD – Re-used

HDD 01: Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200rpm SATA 6Gb/s 64MB – Re-used

Cooling: EK240G Custom Loop

Case: Corsair Crystal 570X and an extra 3-pack of Corsair RGB fans.

My thoughts about the parts I picked and why:

RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 32GB DDR4-3000MHz

I picked the G.Skill Trident Z over Corsair's Vengeance and Dominator Platinum range because of the more competitive price and aesthetic look of the slots. Although my motherboard is blue, I aim to create a red / white / blue build because of my favorite sneakers (Air Jordan 1s Top 3) and my country flag (The Netherlands). The X99E4 allows for 3000MHz overclocking on RAM, although I am not 1000% confident that it can handle 3000MHz when it’s the base clock speed but it does look like it. Getting this in 32GB (2x16) also takes up the perfect amount of spots may I ever decide to expand later.

GPU: ASUS NVIDIA GeForce 1080Ti 11GB Founders.

For the second upgrade, I decided for the 1080Ti over the 1080 because I wanted my build to be as future proof as possible. With me going into dorms the upcoming year there’s no real room for a new upgrade in the upcoming 3-4 years, so a lasting GPU is what I was mainly after. As for the reason I didn’t go with a higher clocked version like the ROG-STRIX, that’s to do with the compatibility on the custom loop.

I’m currently rocking a MSI GTX970 4GB and you may wonder why on earth do I own an 850W PSU with that card, truth be told I used to have two of them in SLI but I sold one of them seen as though SLI was not what I hoped it was.

Cooling: EK240G Custom Water cooling loop

Truth be told this is the upgrade I’m most excited for. I’ve wanted to do a custom loop on my first build but decided against it since it didn’t fit my budget at that time. With this affordable option for a custom loop I can let these dreams come true as well as opening some new doors for possible overclocking.

Corsair Crystal 570X

This has been the most daunting pick yet. After a long debate with many people on the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX TG Black, the NZXT S340Elite and the Corsair Crystal 570X I picked the latter.

The Phanteks, although a great case is kind of sloppy in terms of water cooling capabilities. The motherboard is blocked by the fan/radiator combo at the top and I have to sacrifice HDD spots in order to fit a triple rad in the front. I also dislike the general flow of the case as I’m more of a minimal, rectangle kind of person. As for the S340, I own one currently and it’s a b!t©H to work in because there’s very little options for cable management (no rubber holes) and the build quality is bad. My front fell off very fast as I broke the pins that kept it in place and my fans are literally falling apart. Not to mention the poor custom loop support with only a 240-280mm radiator spot in the front and a single fan at the top.

But Tover, you complain about cable management yet the Corsair PSU cables are entirely visible and the tempered glass shows your cables?

True, but with the Corsair 570X as with Linus’ editor rig upgrades shows great cable management options if you stick some extra time into it, with most large cables fitting inside the compartment or the option to run it past the corners of the case making barely any of it entirely visible. It also gives me an easy spot for my 150ml radiator/pump combo and the option to run a double radiator (360mm front, 240mm top) without it interfering with my motherboard.

Now, for peripherals:

Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 1440p U2715D

Keyboard: Corsair K95 -- Reused

Mouse: Corsair M65 -- Reused

Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 1440p U2715D

As content creator and 3D artist, I was recommended this monitor by multiple friends saying it’s absolutely amazing in terms of the colors. With 100% of the AdobeRGB and sRGB spectrum this will definitely help any content creator out there pick and color grade their footage to the best of their capabilities with an affordable price.

FAQ:

You're planning to do content creation and rendering, why not get a Ryzen 1800X for the two extra cores?

Because truth be told, they don't really outperform 5930k yet in core-for-core work. Yeah sure they have great multi-core performance but there's a 29% increase in multi-core performance on the Ryzen 1800X over the 5930k with two extra cores. That's a 25% increase which leaves only 4% in actual performance increase. That to me is not worthy of an extra €400 out of my budget. My RAM is only 16GB of 2133MHz memory which needs the buff more than my CPU.

That and the fact that Threadripper and Intel's upcoming chipsets might lower the price might make this a bad time for an investment into new CPU's.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Tover
Formatting

brob · June 27, 2017

X99 supports quad channel memory operation. If you do not already own the memory, instead of getting a 2x16GB kit I would suggest a 4x8GB kit. While quad channel does not make much of a difference in gaming, it does with more memory intensive work like various content creation tasks and renders. The motherboard has eight memory slots, so upgrading memory with out replacing parts will still be possible.

Did you consider the Fractal-Design Define S - Window or Corsair Crystal 460X cases?