ramthor's monster build

[ramthor]

Interesting thread and project Ramaphone. Kudos to you for saving and aiming to do it.

Thanks, but what's a Ramaphone? lol

Why not stick with air cooled?

Because if I am to build myself the ultimate rig I think I should do the best I can both financially and by using whatever building skills I have so the end product would be like my offspring.

The essential consideration here is 3440x1440 resolution and 100 Hz.
My approach would be what rig would beat the living daylights out of the tasks you have outlined at this resolution. Select each component just to fulfil that role.

If you need two gfx cards so be it.

Correct. And I've been watching on youtube several games played on Titan X Pascal at 3440x1440 and 4K and without SLI minimal FPS would drop dangerously under the 60FPS mark.

There is no such thing as future proofing.

Corect. But I don't see AMD coming out with something to beat nVidia on high end market any time soon. Not even Vega won't do it. It may come close but at that point nVidia will release 1080Ti at slightly lesser performance than Titan X but much better price. But still Titan X will remain the king.

Personally, I would not use large drives I would use small ones and multiples, l would also have two backups of everything I could not live without.

I thought about that as well. But then I realized that in a high end build, space is at a premium and you are better served to use that space for proper water cooling which not only looks nice and smart but also allows you to push your rig to the limit if you want to.
Unfortunately it is expensive if you want to do it right but that's the way it is.

Re future proofing, this rig will spank anything for the next 3 years then it will be time to replace the motherboard, cpu and ram and ebay them with their boxes and replace the innards with a 'new bundle' and off you go.

If I buy a caselab then at least I won't have to replace that as well. lol

Finally, OC is Pro and their service is fantastic. I sincerely hope you post a build log and best of luck with this.

I wouldn't mind a discount if they are so great.
Will do and thanks!

 

[ramthor]

I wonder at which price point the laws of diminishing returns kicks in on PC builds these days? £1k £2k?

Like everything else, it depends on what your target is.

If you plan on gaming at 1080p 60Hz medium details then probably £1K would be an overkill.

If you plan on playing at 4K 60Hz maximum details then sky is your limit.

What you should ask yourself is not how much your future rig would cost but how much awesomeness is worth.

 

[ramthor]

Ramthor, have you contacted OcUK to see what they can do for you?

All our opinions are great but a phone call to the pros might be worthwhile?

I did suggest this earlier, I still think it's worth contacting them when spending that type of money. You might be surprised as to what they can do

I've already contacted them trough this forum under the section Pre-Sales Queries and you can see their reply there.

I will contact them by phone when the time is right but first thing on my to-do list is the case. And they don't supply the case I want.

 

[ramthor]

You can't see other peoples posts there. It's a private conversation between you and Overclockers.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Anyways, they said I should contact them directly because any discount they can make can only be done if I give them my banking details over the phone.

I know it seems dodgy but it isn't. I managed to get a great discount the same way when I ordered my Alienware 18 laptop from Dell.

 

[ramthor]

6k is stupid money, might as well get an 8pack build.

I will when 8pack will come together with a great monitor and a VR at the same configuration and the same money but then again where's the fun in building it?

 

[ramthor]

@ramthor

Much respect at still plugging away in the thread - I'd have given up and gone elsewhere given some of the comments in the thread!

I only wish SWMBO would sign off me spending that kind of money on a rig....

Sturgeon's law says: "90% of everything is crap". I believe he was an optimist.

 

[ramthor]

So this rather heavy box arrived today. I wonder what's inside...

Spoiler

 

[ramthor]

Some kind of porn, yes

Spoiler

 

[ramthor]

No, it's a case. I wanted a Corsair case but I got this this instead. Never heard of them. I want my money back!

Spoiler

 

[ramthor]

Case labs case are decent.

For the money I paid for this baby they better be. lol

Specs below:

MAGNUM SMA8 Black
- Add Radiator Side Mounts for the Lower Chamber: Add one 140.4 (560) ..
- Add a Reservoir Mount (MAC-517): Add two (MAC-517
- Flex-Bay 140.2 (280) Fan/Radiator Mount (MAC-532): No Thanks
- Flex-Bay 120.3 (360) Fan/Radiator Mount (MAC-162): 1 x 120.3
- Flex-Bay 120.2 (240) Fan/Radiator Mount (MAC-383): No Thanks
- Flex-Bay 120.1 (120mm) Fan/Radiator Mount (MAC-113): No Thanks
- Flex-Bay Configuration: Solid Bay Covers
- PSU Cover: No Thanks
- PSU Support Mount: No Thanks
- Flex-Bay 5.25 Device Mount: Flex-Bay 5.25 Device..
- Flex-Bay 3.5" Bay Device Adapter: No Thanks
- Caster Kit: No Thanks
- Assembling: No Thanks

 

[ramthor]

This is how it looks like before assembling. Why did I say No thanks to assembling?

Spoiler

 

[ramthor]

A few hours later... BOOM!

Spoiler

 

[ramthor]

Below is the spec I have in mind right now.

The InWin Case is there just to mimic the price of the 2 Titan X's.

Also instead of the EK radiators it will be:
Black Ice SR2 Xtreme+ 560 MP Multi Port Radiator - Black Carbon
and
Black Ice Nemesis Radiator GTS 480 - Black

The plan is for just one rigid tube loop to start with and then after getting more experienced with watercooling to expand to 2 loops.

Since I decided to upgrade to 2 Titans instead of just one I thought I might as well upgrade the CPU to 6950X. Maybe not the smartest decision but when you go all-in you can't just leave the CPU out.

It is way over my initial budget and I'm still considering it, but there it is:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 12 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Black Nickel= £5.45
• 3 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD PETG Tube 1216mm 500mm (2pcs)= £5.59
• 4 x Corsair ML120 Pro 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation Fan= £18.95
• 4 x Corsair ML120 Pro LED Red 120mm Premium Magnetic Levitation Fan= £19.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM - Plexi (incl. pump)= £89.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-RES X3 250 Reservoir= £51.98
• 4 x Corsair ML140 Pro LED Red 140mm Premium Magnetic Levitation Fan= £21.95
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Full Nickel= £71.99
• 2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X Pascal - Nickel + Plexi= £98.99
• 2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X Pascal Backplate - Nickel= £29.99
• 2 x In-Win H-Frame 2.0 Aluminium Full Tower Case - Black + 1065W 80 Plus Platinum Power Supply= £1,199.99
• 1 x Intel i7-6950X Extreme 3.00GHz (Broadwell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80671I76950X)= £1,499.99
• 1 x EVGA SuperNova P2 1200W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (220-P2-1200-X3)= £234.95
• 1 x WD Black 6TB 7200rpm SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD6001FZWX)= £259.99
• 1 x Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (FQC-08789)= £164.99
• 1 x Asus PG348Q ROG Swift 34" 3440x1440 IPS G-Sync 100Hz Gaming Widescreen Curved LED Monitor - Black/Re= £1,099.99
• 1 x Samsung 2.0TB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E2T0B/EU)= £599.99
• 1 x Samsung 950 Pro 512GB M.2 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £299.99
• 1 x Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (CMD32GX4M4B= £269.99
• 1 x Asus Rampage V Edition 10 Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 EATX Motherboard= £517.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD Tube D.I.Y. Kit 10&12mm= £12.95
• 1 x Monsoon Hardline Pro Heatgun w/ Adapter= £14.99
• 1 x Monsoon Hardline Pro Mandrel Kit 1/2 x 5/8 (16mm)= £26.99
• 1 x XSPC PETG Chamfer Tool= £4.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream CE 560 (Quad)= £104.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream XE 480 (Quad)= £102.95

Total: £8,438.56
(includes shipping: £25.20)
​

​

 

[ramthor]

My count was based on using an EK-FC Terminal Dual Parallel 3-slot which I forgot to list. I think this the one I need for x16 x16 SLI on a Asus R5-E10?
I know I need more fittings though for the drain port I plan to install in one of the multiports of the 560 radiator, spares and maybe some 90 degrees.

 

[ramthor]

Your on crack man thats mad money like why not get a workstation board and 2 high clocked xeons if your spending this kinda money its mental.

It's fine. I'll pay with benefits monies. It's not like I worked to earn them.

 

[ramthor]

It's the 4-slot / 80mm one that you need.

You won't have the space to do anything with the extra ports on the 560. Personally, I would get the Nemesis GTX as it has a slightly (although marginal) better cooling capacity.

Although it's up to you... but with the space available you would only be able to have a blanking screw on there which means that as soon as you take the screw out, it'll empty straight away.

Whereas if you do it at a different point with a y-splitter & ball valve... then you have a lot more flexibility.

Also, if you are hard tubing everything, you won't be able to move the bottom radiator to get to any fill/drain port without disconnecting the tubing.

All the tubing in the basement of my case is soft tubing with enough spare in the runs that I can take either of the radiators out and lay it flat on a desk surface in case I need to do anything.


To throw extra annoying nomenclature into the mix... if you want to buy an EVGA high bandwidth sli bridge to go with it (don't get the nvidia one as it won't fit) then you need to buy the "2-slot" version of that... because they name it based upon the space between the cards, rather than a count of the number of PCI slots like EK and most other manufacturers do.

But 80mm is definitely the spacing that you need.



There are two cases in the basket listed above at a price of £1200 each, so that's added £2400 to the basket price.

The price you see next to the item is the per-item price, not the combined price if there is more than one added to the basket.

I looked at this diagram when I thought I need to place the 2nd card in the third slot to get x16 x16

Is the distance between those slots 80mm? I can't see any EK-FC Terminal with that size.

I Also plan to use flexible tube in the lower chamber as it's out of sight and doesn't matter.

Thanks for the tip that I can't use those multiports for what I planned. That was the only reason I went for that rad.

EK is in the process of coming with their own SLI HD bridge. I think I can use 2 flexible regular bridges while waiting.

 

[ramthor]

Don't worry too much about the finer details yet. You need to start buying ROG monitors as it might take 12 months to get a good one.

I thought the QC is better with this one compared to Acer x34

 

[ramthor]

Well tbh i bet no screens out there atm are gonna push your rig unless you go eyefinity, just grab of one of them x34a or ROG ultrawides then maybe trade up next year when some new panels come out, im bettting them titan xps could run 4k ultrawide.

The reason I chose double Titans was the need to have the minimum FPS above 60 @ 3440x1440. The average to be around 100 so I can fully benefit from the monitor's 100Hz refresh.

 

[ramthor]

Yeah what i meant is you could manage that with a couple of 980tis, so 2 titans aint gonna be stressing out much, i guess it means you can run them without an over clock for a while until games get a little more demanding in a few years then.

That is not true. Look at this video. The 980Ti's struggle to stay around 60 average with minimums as low as 40FPS noticeable especially when he goes through the grass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9komRz3vuA

 

[ramthor]

6k and no loop lololol. Tri Titans and x99 pls under water

If you only could read...