"Future Proof" RGB monstrosity.

[thegeneral30]

Purpose of the build: I wanted this to be a high end gamin build that had RGB components that would be controlled with one RGB program (in this case AURA sync). I also wanted to have a bit of upgrade-ability for further on down the line. This mainly takes form with the CPU, GPU, and memory. Additionally I wanted to try water cooling and decided that hard tubing was the way to go. My budget maxes out at about $3,200 USD. Some things to note in the build is that for the motherboard, memory and GPU the inserted prices are there because it's out of stock but those are the listed prices (PCPartpicker won't show the prices if it's out of stock). The build will be driving a 2560x1440p 60hz and a 1920x1080p monitor (I plan on getting a 2560x1440p 144hz monitor in the future to replace the 1080p monitor). Are there any recommendations of things I should swap out/replace and am I missing anything for water cooling? I was planning on slowly acquiring the parts and with black Friday and cyber Monday approaching along with sporadic sales in the lead up It looks like that would be the way to go.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor  ($369.89 @ OutletPC) 
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste  ($6.55 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus - ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($238.99 @ OutletPC)

Memory: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 1.0TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($277.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($45.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GAMING X Video Card  ($730.00) 
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox MB530P ATX Mid Tower Case  ($117.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($102.99 @ Amazon) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit  ($0.00) 
Other: RGB CPU cooler ($99.99)
Other: PETG tubing (1500mm) ($23.50)
Other: Compression fitting (4pack) ($31.99)
Other: Heat gun ($23.00)
Other: Plugs ($12.99)
Other: T splitter ($8.99)
Other: Valve ($16.99)
Other: Addressable RGB strip (x2, 60mm) ($36.99)
Other: Pump/Reservoir combo ($179.99)
Other: 360mm Radiator ($87.99)
Other: 120mm Rad ($49.99)
Other: Graphics card water block ($154.99)
Other: Compression fitting (2x6pack) ($87.00)
Total: $2954.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-02 19:46 EDT-040
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[Enderman]

There's no such thing as future proof.

Also don't buy all your watercooling components from the same place, do some research on what is best.

[Firewrath9]

ur mobo costs more than ur cpu...

so confuz

just get a good 200$ one.

get an 1 tb NVME ssd instead of those 2 regular ssd with the 250$ you saved from that mobo.

[xdeathshot20]

if you want everything to work with aura sync then why do you have a msi gpu in there?  replace that with a strix card so it acually will all work together

[brob]

I don't believe Vengeance RGB Pro modules are Aura Sync compatible. Vengeance RGB modules are compatible. 

 

G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 is compatible and much less expensive with almost identical timings.

 

@xdeathshot20 has already mentioned the lack of an Aura Sync compatible gpu. 

 

 

[thegeneral30]

1 hour ago, Enderman said:

There's no such thing as future proof.

Also don't buy all your watercooling components from the same place, do some research on what is best.

I understand that It won't be completely future proof but I would still like it to last for 2-3 years with the option of upgrading should something come out (I.E. RTX cards or a reason to get an RTX card).

Although what's the problem with using watercooling components from the same spot? I went with EK because it seems like they are a favorite and they provided what I want in terms of making a disgusting RGB build. I also haven't seen anything bad from them.

44 minutes ago, xdeathshot20 said:

if you want everything to work with aura sync then why do you have a msi gpu in there?  replace that with a strix card so it acually will all work together

The reason I chose the MSI card is because the GPU waterblock from EK works with AURA sync and it was the second cheapest that was shown (I refuse to buy anything from GIGABYTE due to bad experience with some of their products).

58 minutes ago, Firewrath9 said:

ur mobo costs more than ur cpu...

so confuz

just get a good 200$ one.

get an 1 tb NVME ssd instead of those 2 regular ssd with the 250$ you saved from that mobo.

I never really thought twice about the mobo cost but yeah I agree with you here, Ill update the main post with a new mobo/storage setup.

[thegeneral30]

18 minutes ago, brob said:

I don't believe Vengeance RGB Pro modules are Aura Sync compatible. Vengeance RGB modules are compatible. 

 

G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 is compatible and much less expensive with almost identical timings.

 

 

I took the suggestion on the memory. I knew that the normal Vengeance model was compatible I guess I shouldn't just assume that the 'pro' version is compatible too.

[Enderman]

2 hours ago, thegeneral30 said:

I understand that It won't be completely future proof but I would still like it to last for 2-3 years with the option of upgrading should something come out (I.E. RTX cards or a reason to get an RTX card).

Although what's the problem with using watercooling components from the same spot? I went with EK because it seems like they are a favorite and they provided what I want in terms of making a disgusting RGB build. I also haven't seen anything bad from them.

Well yeah that will definitely be ok for 2-3 years, but that's not what future proof means.

There's no "future proof" with PC components unless you're talking about something like a power supply or case.

 

And if you think EK is perfect for all components then clearly you haven't done enough research on watercooling.

You probably want to learn a bit more before attempting to build a custom loop.