Sharing my new build for photography and a little gaming

[Amin S]

Hi all,

 

I mainly use my PC for photography.  A little gaming here and there.  Once every 4-5 years I do a new build and wanted to share my latest one here for comments and advice.

 

Specs:

• Case: Fractal Define R6
• CPU: i7-8700K with all cores overclocked to 5GHz at 1.275v
• CPU cooler: Corsair H115i Pro
• Power supply: Corsair HX850i
• OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
• Boot and app drive: Samsung 970 Evo 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD
• Storage drives: 3 x Seagate 4TB BarraCuda (2 mounted on back plate, one on the bottom near PSU)
• RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E
• GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2

 

Here's a pic:

 

 

 

A few questions I have:

 

1) Does my fan setup look okay?  If you include the H115i fans, I have 4 intake fans and just one (rear) exhaust.  My temps seem to stay okay under CPU + GPU max load, and they aren't excessively loud.

 

2) Would there be a noticeable performance boost from photo editing on a second NVMe SSD designated as a scratch disk vs importing them to and editing them on the primary NVMe SSD where my boot and apps reside?

 

3) If I rarely have use for more than 32GB RAM, is there any sense in adding two more 16GB sticks?  My understanding is that there would be a performance penalty if I use 4 sticks vs 2 sticks and therefore am better off with just 2 unless I find myself needing the extra RAM.

 

Thanks!

 

[Jimkirk363]

I built my main PC (Beast)  My Ryzen 2700x 32GB DDR4 for most of the same things u wanna do with ur pc + some video work and i really am pleased with it.

 

Your build looks great and clean.

[Amin S]

Thanks, Jim!

[Jimkirk363]

No Probs :-)

[brob]

4 hours ago, Amin S said:

...

A few questions I have:

 

1) Does my fan setup look okay?  If you include the H115i fans, I have 4 intake fans and just one (rear) exhaust.  My temps seem to stay okay under CPU + GPU max load, and they aren't excessively loud.

 

2) Would there be a noticeable performance boost from photo editing on a second NVMe SSD designated as a scratch disk vs importing them to and editing them on the primary NVMe SSD where my boot and apps reside?

 

3) If I rarely have use for more than 32GB RAM, is there any sense in adding two more 16GB sticks?  My understanding is that there would be a performance penalty if I use 4 sticks vs 2 sticks and therefore am better off with just 2 unless I find myself needing the extra RAM.

 

Thanks!

 

1. Top should be exhaust. Personally I would mount the H115i on the front as intake and have the rear and if needed the top as exhaust.
2. There might be a small improvement.
3. In a dual channel system, there is no significant performance difference between two and four sticks. Four sticks does put a small additional load on the memory controller. Until you need more memory, stick with the two sticks.

 

[Amin S]

Thanks, I'll try the H115 in the front.  If I don't need a top exhaust, I can put the solid panel back there, which will make the whole thing much quieter, not that it is loud now.

[Amin S]

I should have mentioned that right now I have the PC on its side as shown below, so top isn't really top in my case.  All four intake fans are at the same height as the exhaust.  But I'm planning to put it upright eventually, so then it will make sense to put the H115i in front.

 

[Amin S]

Okay, here it is now after the changes.  CPU temps are a little lower, GPU temps unchanged, and the whole thing is quieter now.  A nice improvement.  Thanks @brob for the suggestion!

 

[brob]

Looks a touch neater too .