First custom Overclockers PC

[stargrazes]

EDIT: I've made several changes to this build based on your input. New specs are here.

Hi everyone! I've just ordered my first Overclockers PC and I'm really excited. I've always built PCs myself in the past, but I thought I'd leave it to the experts this time as I have a LAN event coming up and needed it fast.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Processor (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (£89.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VIII Hero Alpha Intel Z170 Motherboard (£235.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (£94.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 PCI-e Solid State Drive (£74.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung 1.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive (£249.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce Titan X SuperClock 12288MB GDDR5 Graphics Card (£989.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: In-Win 805 Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Gold (£129.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
LEDs: Alchemy 2.0 Magnetic Connect 15 LED-Strip 30cm - Purple (£14.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RM Series RMi 850 '80+ Gold' 850W Modular Power Supply (£129.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (purchased)
Monitor: Acer Predator X34 34" 3440x1440 IPS 100Hz G-SYNC Super-Wide Curved LED Monitor (£869.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Chroma Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum Wireless Gaming Mouse
Headphones: HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset - Gunmetal

Total: £3,574.79

I ordered it on Saturday night, so Overclockers should be calling me today to make any amendments. As the case is black and gold, I'd like to replace some of the stock fans with Corsair Quiet Edition purple LED fans (just girl things).

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions? Should I watercool the GPU? Will the fans be quiet enough? The PSU powerful enough? The LED strip long enough? You can tell I'm new to this. Thanks!

 

[stargrazes]

Decent spec, I'd make the following changes:

1) Change the Titan X for a 980ti
2) Buy a larger PCI-e drive as I am assuming it is the boot drive?
3) If you are spending this much I'd be seriously tempted to go X99.
4) I'd personally switch the PSU for a Superflower PSU but the Corsair is fine.

Hi, thank you for your thoughts! Do you think I'll need a larger boot drive? And what would be the benefits of going for the X99?

 

[stargrazes]

For £3.5k you really ought to be looking at an X99/980Ti SLI system. For the X34 you're going to be wanting that, trust me.

I'd also be trimming the fat around the edges. Cheaper X99 board (X99-A or a bundle deal), 5820K, EVGA Supernova P2 1000W (Superflower without the silly LEDs). I'd also consider a cheaper keyboard and mouse.

Of course, Pascal reveal is tomorrow so that's worth waiting for too. You'll get an idea of what's coming up and exactly where the value is.

I wanted to futureproof (as best you can in the PC market!) so I went for Titan X over the 980Ti SLI as firstly, the majority of the games I want to play have faulty or no support for SLI, and secondly, it's an easy upgrade to a single Pascal card next year when I want to continue in 4K with the newest games. I just don't think SLI is worth it in the current market.

I'll have a chat with Overclockers when they call today about the X99, as you're right that it might be worth trimming there. A lot of people have recommended Superflower or Supernova PSUs so I'll ask about that, too. Although you should know that I love the silly LEDs. Those make the keyboard and mouse fundamental (plus, my G500 is at the end of its life).

It's just a shame that I'm having to build right before a new GPU update.

 

[stargrazes]

Go with a single Ti then m8 and just turn the odd setting down when needed until the new Daddy's come out early next year

Believe me, with the X34 res you may as well save a bundle of cash and get a Ti instead (4k then fair enough)

When the new cards are out I'm gonna get OcUK to build me an awesome watercooled PC

Looking at benchmarks, the Titan X hugely outperforms the single Ti in 4K FPS.

I would have loved to build a system with a custom loop; but I wasn't brave enough to do it myself, or rich enough to have OcUK do it for me.

 

[stargrazes]

I don't know what benchmarks you're reading.

Go for a single 980Ti if that's the case OP, not a Titan X. The latter isn't going to give you any performance advantage over a 980Ti, and both aren't 4K cards. There isn't such a thing yet, no matter how anybody will try to spin it. Medium-high settings, you should get decent frame rates.

Worth considering the AMD side too, though it's a little more difficult to get the desired frame rate with a single card at that resolution.

Utter madness to spend that money on peripherals though, but if the LEDs are what you want that's your call. Just know that you will be able to buy better for less money ultimately.

I'm beginning to consider buying the 980Ti over the Titan X, although I definitely want a single card as SLI just isn't supported enough in the market right now IMO. What peripherals would you recommend?

I would personally go X99 and 980Ti SLI but that's up to you. A single Titan X is dependant on the game and setting as the 980Ti generally clocks higher. There is only 200 odd cuda cores between them. 2816 or 3072...

If you look around you can get Ti's for £500 each. 980Ti SLI by FAR will outperform the Titan and will certainly be needed for the acer x34 or 4k monitor.

If you do get x99 swap that 2x8gb of RAM for 4x4GB. For the added performance of quad channel vs dual.

The problem is that SLI isn't well supported currently, and certainly not on the majority of the games I want to play. For me, it's only worth having a single card, but will a single 980Ti match the Titan X?

 

[stargrazes]

I would drop the M.2 SSD and just stick with the 850 EVO. For things like gaming then the SM951 won't make any difference at all.

You only need a 650W psu if you are only going for a single gpu.

That Ram is pretty expensive considering you can get a fast 2666MHz kit for less. The difference will be pretty negligible.

The H110i GT should perform slightly better as it has a bigger rad.

The 980 ti is better value for pretty much the same performance.

Thank you so much for your help. I think I have definitely decided on getting the 980Ti instead of the Titan X now. I'm glad I posted in the forums before confirming my order!

Would the bigger rad still fit in the 805 case? It's a mid-tower.

 

[stargrazes]

I seriously would go for a Ti. Even at 4k its performance is identicle to that of a Titan x. extra £500 really not worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GGvvjmb5L4

I'm just wondering what games your looking to play? 99% of my games utilise SLI fully and play with no issues. With the exeption the division is a bit dodgy atm but still utilises SLI performance.

I am going to go for a single 980Ti now after much deliberation. These benchmarks make me feel pretty good about going for a single GPU. I don't want to spend the extra money on SLI when I'll be upgrading to Pascal in 12-18 months, either.

 

[stargrazes]

That seems like the best choice. I was only suggesting SLI if you were seriously considering the Titan. As its pretty much the cost of two 980Ti's. But a single 980Ti is definately a better choice rather than a single titan.

I would still however suggest x99(5820k) over skylake(6700k). Unless you pc is purely for gaming.

Thank you for your help. My PC will purely be for gaming. Otherwise, what advantage would the 5820k have over the 6700k?

 

[stargrazes]

5820k has 6 cores (12 threads)
6700k has 4 cores (8 threads)

So for editing, rendering etc the 5820k is faster because of its 50% greater multi-threaded abilities. There are more advantages as games generally will only utilise 4 cores at maximum. So you can use those spare 2 cores for other software while gaming at the same time. Such as I am running a virus scan and playing bf4 at the same time. DX12 should also allow utilisation of all cores but will be a while before it comes into full effect. Some games do like the extra cores.

In terms of gaming clock for clock. There is negligable difference in perfomance between the two.

Both are also very closely priced and both overclock well.

Thank you for your fantastic advice! You would have sold me on the 5820k, except... Doesn't that mean I would have to change my motherboard?

 

[stargrazes]

Yes you would need to swap to an X99 board. Also change the Ram to a Quad channel kit.

If you want the same colour board then the MSI Gaming 7 is the same sort of price.

If changing the CPU means changing a huge amount of my build now, post-purchase, I'd honestly rather not go down that route. I also wouldn't want a quad channel kit just yet as I plan on updating the 2x8GB to a 4x8GB 32GB in the future, likely when I upgrade to Pascal.

Also I really, really wanted the Maximus VIII Hero. I saw it at launch and I just... Wanted it. All this time. For reasons I'm not even sure of myself anymore.

 

[stargrazes]

There is nothing wrong with sticking with a Skylake build, and if you like that Asus Skylake board then stick with it.

The quad ram kit was just for the X99 board as that platform has a quad channel memory controller. For Skylake then stay with the 2 x 8GB Kit.

Thanks! The people on this forum are so nice and so helpful. I do want to stick to a Skylake build. I've asked OcUK to swap the Titan X to a 980Ti, upgrade the boot PCI-e SSD to 256GB, add a second 1TB EVO SSD for RAID0 config, and swap the Vengeance RAM for Dominator Platinum. That last one is purely for aesthetic reasons.

And of course, I want to swap the stock fans for purple LED fans so my build looks more like this.

 

[stargrazes]

Based on everybody's feedback, I made the following changes to my build pre-delivery:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Processor (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (£89.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VIII Hero Alpha Intel Z170 Motherboard (£235.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Samsung SM951 128GB M.2 PCI-e NVMe Solid State Drive (£109.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: 2 x Samsung 1.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA Solid State Drives in RAID0 (£499.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 980Ti Matrix 6144MB GDDR5 Graphics Card (£649.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Case: In-Win 805 Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Gold (£129.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
LEDs: Alchemy 2.0 Magnetic Connect 15 LED-Strip 60cm - Purple (£14.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Fans: 5 x Corsair Air Series 1500RPM LED Purple Quiet Edition fans (£44.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair RM Series RMi 850 '80+ Gold' 850W Modular Power Supply (£129.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (purchased)
Monitor: Acer Predator X34 34" 3440x1440 IPS 100Hz G-SYNC Super-Wide Curved LED Monitor (£869.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Chroma Wired Gaming Keyboard (purchased)
Mouse: Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum Wireless Gaming Mouse (purchased)
Headphones: HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset - Gunmetal (purchased)

Total: £3,633 (roughly. I used the Overclockers config. )

 

[stargrazes]

For that build I'd without doubt get the eVGA Ti Hybrid instead. MUCU much quieter and a far better warranty

I wanted the hybrid but it was a tad too big for the case.