First Ever Build - PLEASE HELP

[AndrewCooper69]

Hello,

 

I am doing my first ever build - I have been using an Alienware 17 R2 Laptop for the past few years, and it is time for an upgrade.

 

I have gone through and chosen a parts list, a few other things as well I think I might need.  I was wondering if people could take a look at my list, see if everything works, see if anything should be upgraded or downgraded, and provide any input?

 

My plan for the PC (longterm) is to add a second GPU in SLI in about a year, which is why I am adding extra power.

 

Information:

1) My budget is around $3000 CDN - I am in Canada.

2) AIM - An unnecessarily beefy machine.  I realize I don't need this power, but I want it.

3) I have 2x1080p monitors, and am planning on adding a GSync monitor in the future as a third (also 1080p).

4) I have mice and keyboards, but may upgrade those (doesn't need to be now).  - I will need Windows 10, and have that on the list.

5) I want to play every game on Ultra 1080p and I never want my framerate to ever drop below 60. EVER.  I want an average framerate, even in taxing games, to be closer to 144.

 

Parts List (Potential):

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Ti AMP Edition 11GB GDDR5X 352-bit Gaming Graphics Card VR Ready 16+2 Power Phase Freeze Fan Stop

Corsair Tempered Glass Crystal Series 460X RGB CC-9011101-WW Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G3, 220-G3-1000-X1, 80+ GOLD, 1000W Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode with New HDB Fan

ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z370 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core i7-8700K Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.7 GHz (4.7 GHz Turbo) LGA 1151 (300 Series) 95W BX80684I78700K Desktop

Rosewill 120 mm RGB Case Fan RGBF-17003. True RGB Color Ultra Quiet Cooling Fan with Long Life Sleeve Bearing. Standard

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite ML240L RGB AIO CPU Liquid Cooler, Sleeved FEP Tubing, Dual 120mm RGB Air Balance MF, RGB

SAMSUNG 860 Pro Series 2.5" 256GB SATA III VNAND 2-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-76P256BW

WD Gold 2TB Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD2005FBYZ

G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Intel Z370 Platform Desktop Memory Model

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound AS5-3.5G

Stanley 66-344 4-in-1 Bi-Material Pocket Driver

Windows 10 Home Edition 64-bit

 

OKAY SO.  Give it to me hard, what did I screw up?  Do these work?  Should I change something?  Am I missing anything?  Is the air-flow good?  Would I be able to add a second GPU down the line, without much of a problem?

 

Let me know what you think, I appreciate any help you can give.  Thanks!

 

AndrewCooper69

[Cereal5]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  ($499.00 @ Amazon Canada) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.84 @ Newegg Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($250.00 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($189.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($119.99 @ Memory Express) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($73.75 @ Vuugo) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB WINDFORCE OC 8G Video Card  ($599.99 @ Memory Express) 
Case: Corsair - Crystal 460X RGB ATX Mid Tower Case  ($179.98 @ Amazon Canada) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($149.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($119.50 @ Vuugo) 
Total: $2282.03
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-10-31 01:03 EDT-0400

 

 

You can also go with a Ryzen 7 build, but Intel will net you a couple extra frames, especially at 1080p where most games are CPU bound when using high end hardware. Also, there's no real need to spend that 3 grand on a 1080p gaming build. Even what I have is overkill. An i5 or Ryzen 5 and 1070/1070 Ti is plenty (and will save you like $500+), but this will better support you if you decide to upgrade to 1440p or ultrawide or 4k or whatever.

 

As aside, don't go with SLI. In a year there will be more GPUs out and you can just sell your current GPU and buy a higher tier new one. SLI is only for if you have the money to buy 2 of the highest end GPUs right now. There's a lot of headaches associated, so if you're doing it just for the size of your Epeen... I guess it's your money not mine lol.

 

Let me know if you have any questions/concerns

[Spotty]

4 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

I want to play every game on Ultra 1080p and I never want my framerate to ever drop below 60. EVER.  I want an average framerate, even in taxing games, to be closer to 144. 

A 1080ti for 1080p gaming is a complete waste. Go with a 1070ti if you want 1080p Ultra and never drop below 60fps. Otherwise consider going with a 1440p 144hz panel paired with the 1080ti.

 

9 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

SAMSUNG 860 Pro Series 2.5" 256GB SATA III VNAND 2-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-76P256BW

WD Gold 2TB Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM Class SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD2005FBYZ

Go with the 860 Evo 500GB instead. There's no reason for you to get the Pro series
Go with a WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda 2TB instead. There's no reason for you to get the Gold enterprise series. WD Golds aren't designed for consumer PCs, so they may be noticeably louder.

 

4 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G3, 220-G3-1000-X1, 80+ GOLD, 1000W Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode with New HDB Fan

With the single GPU, 1000W is about double what your system will actually use under load, even with overclocking. A decent 550W PSU will be fine.

 

6 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

Would I be able to add a second GPU down the line, without much of a problem?

There's absolutely no reason to be adding a second GPU, especially not if you're gaming at 1080p. However, for the sake of providing thorough advise, I would recommend an 850W PSU for a dual 1080ti + 8700k set up.

[AndrewCooper69]

OK awesome I have a bunch of questions, and I really appreciate the help!

 

As an aside, I want to be able to use my system for triple monitor (3x1080p) and potentially vr down the road, which is why I am going overkill.

 

1 hour ago, Cereal5 said:

Motherboard: ASRock - Z390 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($250.00 @ Vuugo) 

This is an upgrade from the motherboard I had, while everything else you put seemed like a downgrade.  Was the motherboard I chose a crappy one?  What was wrong with it? - I am just trying to learn about them because I don't know much.

 

1 hour ago, Cereal5 said:

You can also go with a Ryzen 7 build,

I do like Ryzen, but I use statistical software for work and I am unsure if it will work well.  I do know Intel processors work, so I want to stick with it just to be safe - and I am a fan.

 

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

Go with a WD Blue or Seagate Barracuda 2TB instead.

In my research, I saw that Seagate has a higher failure rate.  Is this true?  Would you recommend WD?  They seem to be more expensive than Seagate.

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

There's absolutely no reason to be adding a second GPU, especially not if you're gaming at 1080p. However, for the sake of providing thorough advise, I would recommend an 850W PSU for a dual 1080ti + 8700k set up.

Thanks I appreciate it, cus I am weird and I want to be prepared.  So you think 850W is good for everything OCed?

 

1 hour ago, SnowWolf370 said:

When you're spending that much on a computer maybe it's time to ditch the old 1080p monitors and get a 1440p one?

I think I would prefer a triple monitor 1080p setup but let me know what you think!

 

Thank you all so much, I appreciate it!

[Cereal5]

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

As an aside, I want to be able to use my system for triple monitor (3x1080p) and potentially vr down the road, which is why I am going overkill.

A 1080 should still run triple 1080s just fine, but you can upgrade to a better GPU if you don't like your framerates later on.

 

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

This is an upgrade from the motherboard I had, while everything else you put seemed like a downgrade.  Was the motherboard I chose a crappy one?  What was wrong with it? - I am just trying to learn about them because I don't know much.

No, it's just the one I clicked on. By all means, the Killer SLI/ac is a good board.

 

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

I do like Ryzen, but I use statistical software for work and I am unsure if it will work well.  I do know Intel processors work, so I want to stick with it just to be safe - and I am a fan.

Works for me

 

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

In my research, I saw that Seagate has a higher failure rate.  Is this true?  Would you recommend WD?  They seem to be more expensive than Seagate.

I have a WD 2TB drive. Yes I believe the seagate drive does have a higher failure rate, but it's not very significant. If it would make you feel better, you can go with a WD blue or black 2TB. Or whatever. Again, I just put that for mass storage and you can swap it out for whatever you want if you have a preference.

 

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

Thanks I appreciate it, cus I am weird and I want to be prepared.  So you think 850W is good for everything OCed?

I'm running a 8700K at 5.1GHz, a 1080 Ti, and a 1080, and I'm having no power issues. I have that exact PSU I put on my list.

 

10 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

I think I would prefer a triple monitor 1080p setup but let me know what you think!

For gaming, triple 1080s is kind of a three-or-four-year-ago thing. But if you like it, then go for it. Triple 1440p monitors is a bit much unless you have like a 2080 Ti. However, you can always get an ultrawide later on. They're kind of the best of both worlds, but again, up to you.

[Spotty]

40 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

I think I would prefer a triple monitor 1080p setup but let me know what you think!

Are you gaming across the 3 monitors with the game stretched over 3 screens? Or do you just game on the middle monitor and have the other monitors for multitasking, like a browser window open and such?

 

40 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

In my research, I saw that Seagate has a higher failure rate.  Is this true?  Would you recommend WD?  They seem to be more expensive than Seagate.

Any drive can fail. That's why you should always have a backup.

The "Seagate has a higher failure rate" garbage you've probably come across was either A) WD fanboys criticising Seagate because brand loyalty, or B) info from about a decade ago when there was a particular model of drive (7200.11) that was known to be flawed and had a higher than normal failure rate. It was fixed by Seagate in newer models and since then their drives have had fairly normal failure rates AFAIK; nothing that would cause alarm. If you still don't want to go with the Seagate Barracuda, then the WD Blue 2TB option I also mentioned is equally fine.
Just make sure you buy a consumer grade drive (Barracuda/WD Blue), as that will be designed for consumer PCs in mind with things like noise levels. Those enterprise are designed with other applications in mind that won't benefit the average consumer PC, and are often far more expensive. For example the WD Gold 2TB is about $115, but the WD Blue 2TB is less than $60.

 

 

40 minutes ago, AndrewCooper69 said:

Thanks I appreciate it, cus I am weird and I want to be prepared.  So you think 850W is good for everything OCed?

For two graphics cards? Yes.
For a single 1080ti, then 550W will be fine.

 

 

30 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

If it would make you feel better, you can go with a WD blue or black 2TB.

 

Spoiler

Never buy the overpriced WD Black. There's absolutely zero reason to do so in 2018.

The WD Black offers <5% performance increase (at most!) over the WD Blue, but the WD Black uses twice as much power, is more than 5dBA louder, and costs TWICE as much!

WD Black (2TB $115) https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc/website/downloadable_assets/eng/spec_data_sheet/2879-771434.pdf

WD Blue (2TB $57) https://www.wdc.com/content/dam/wdc/website/downloadable_assets/eng/spec_data_sheet/2879-771436.pdf

 

10 years ago before we all used SSDs for our OS, the WD Black was a premium product to get an extra 5-10% performance from your boot HDD - something that was actually important when you were waiting 60+ seconds for your operating system to boot. Nowadays you'd be better off buying the WD Blue and spending the $60 left over on buying an SSD as well. Buy two of the WD Blues and run them in RAID. Spend the money on a 32GB optane module to speed up the WD Blue if you really want to... All better options than wasting money on a WD Black in 2018.

[Spotty]

4 hours ago, SnowWolf370 said:

I used to have HDD's from Seagate. I had a couple of 1 TB drives and a three that had 5 TB.

 

A bit under a year I had 4 drive failures, two died randomly while the other two somehow the reader head had actually made contact with the magnetic platter and given it deep scratches, destroying tons of data.. (Was a few TB of ripped Blue-Ray's so not a huge loss)

How long ago? Were you able to get warranty RMA on them? Do you remember which models they were?

 

Were they the 2.5" 5TB Barracudas, or were they the older 3.5" Seagate Backup 5TB drives that were shucked from the external enclosures?  I don't think Seagate has ever retailed an internal 3.5" 5TB HDD, could be wrong though... If it was the 3.5" drives since they likely would have been shucked from the external enclosures and then resold, you wouldn't have any warranty with them.
Whether it was the 2.5" model or the 3.5" external drive that was shucked, they would have most likely both been SMR drives which are absolutely dreadful, regardless of who manufacturers them, and I'm not surprised you had issues with them.

 

That's a lot of drives to fail. Seems like you've had some bad experiences with Seagate drives though, so I don't blame you for swapping over to WD drives.

 

@seagate_surfer did Seagate ever retail any internal 5TB 3.5" drives, or were they only OEM drives used in external USB enclosures?

[seagate_surfer]

4 hours ago, Spotty said:

How long ago? Were you able to get warranty RMA on them? Do you remember which models they were?

 

Were they the 2.5" 5TB Barracudas, or were they the older 3.5" Seagate Backup 5TB drives that were shucked from the external enclosures?  I don't think Seagate has ever retailed an internal 3.5" 5TB HDD, could be wrong though... If it was the 3.5" drives since they likely would have been shucked from the external enclosures and then resold, you wouldn't have any warranty with them.
Whether it was the 2.5" model or the 3.5" external drive that was shucked, they would have most likely both been SMR drives which are absolutely dreadful, regardless of who manufacturers them, and I'm not surprised you had issues with them.

 

That's a lot of drives to fail. Seems like you've had some bad experiences with Seagate drives though, so I don't blame you for swapping over to WD drives.

 

@seagate_surfer did Seagate ever retail any internal 5TB 3.5" drives, or were they only OEM drives used in external USB enclosures?

Hi Spotty! Looks like there was a BarraCuda version for retail, it was released couple of years ago to ship with the Backup Plus 5TB drive: https://www.seagate.com/www-content/product-content/seagate-laptop-fam/barracuda_25/en-us/docs/100804767g.pdf 

 

 

[AndrewCooper69]

13 hours ago, Spotty said:

Are you gaming across the 3 monitors with the game stretched over 3 screens? Or do you just game on the middle monitor and have the other monitors for multitasking, like a browser window open and such?

Yes that's the plan.  Not all the time, and obviously not every game supports it, but I want to be able to do it no problem.

11 hours ago, SnowWolf370 said:

But yeah, I had really bad luck with Seagate but no problems with Western Digital Blue's, just thought I'd share my experience.

Thank you so much for sharing, I think will stick with WD then!  

 

13 hours ago, Spotty said:

Never buy the overpriced WD Black. There's absolutely zero reason to do so in 2018.

When I looked up this part, it said it was a cache drive but not internal.  Is that just how its phrased?  I was afraid it wasn't an internal drive or something.

 

Thanks all!