Time to fill "Big Red"

Rammix

Rammix

Rammix

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Joined
21 Jan 2015
Posts
126
Location
East Of England
Hello all

I'll be ordering All the components for my new build next week and was hoping for some critique of my proposed setup.

I want this build to be as good as I can afford and the install to be as neat as possible as it will be visible in our main living space. I have chosen not to watercool due to the fact I haven't done before and I don't feel confident practicing on such an expensive system. Basically I'm a bit of a pussy :D

I'm starting off with a Corsair Carbide 540 Air I received from my wife at Christmas. The first thing I did was take a grinder to the bottom of the case and cut out the drive bays from the floor (she was NOT impressed). I then installed a 3mm carbon fiber sheet to create a new floor.

This weekend I'll be installing some angled channeling for the LED lighting. This should defuse the light a little and angle the light into the case rather then up the window. I'll also be spray painting the metal mesh of the front and top of the case Red. Once that is complete I can order the fun stuff.

For the CPU cooler I'm waiting for overclockers UK to take delivery of the Corsair H110i GT

Here's what I'm thinking:
YOUR BASKET
2 x Asus GeForce GTX 980 Poseidon Platinum 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £539.99 (£1,079.98)
1 x Intel 5930K 3.50GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - OEM (CM8064801548338) £449.99
1 x Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 EATX Motherboard £349.99
2 x Samsung 512GB SSD 850 PRO SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-7KE512BW) £289.99 (£579.98)
1 x G.Skill Ripjaws 4 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit - Red (F4-2666C15Q-16GRR) £259.99
1 x Corsair AX1200i Digital ATX '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020008-UK) £239.99
1 x CableMod C-Series AXi, HXi & RM Cable Kit - Red £69.95
3 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £22.00 (£66.00)
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW) £14.99
Total : £3,124.34 (includes shipping : £11.25).



What do you guys think, have I forgotten anything? Has anyone had bad experiences with any of the main components? I'm assuming I should be OK for a conservative overclock of say 4.0Mhz - 4.2Mhz?

Thank you for your time

Ram
 
The price is a bit high but I'm in the fortunate situation of being able to afford it ATM. I hate the feeling of wishing I had gone for the better component especially as I'm hoping the lifetime of the system will be 5 years+

I'll mainly be using it for gaming, video capture, video editing and general use
 
Waiting for overclockers UK to take delivery of the new corsair H110i GT as I like the look of it :)
 
Quartz said:
Your PSU is complete overkill.

Are you going to need to buy a SLI bridge?
Click to expand...

Do you think the AX860i would be sufficient? I thought it would be a good idea to have some overhead...

As for the SLI bridge I'd love to be able to get my hand on one of These. Until then I'm assuming a compatible one will come with the motherboard?
 
A suitable set of bridges come with the board.

EVGA G2 PSUs are made by superflower, 10yr warranty and you can get those braided cables for them.
 
This is £900 cheaper and will give the same performance.

You are overspending on some components which won't give you any performance increase i.e Motherboard, PSU, RAM, SSD and CPU.

The Gigabyte G1 cards overclock very well.

The 5820K is the better choice if you are only running 2 way SLI. It is only 200MHz slower.

The 1TB 840 Evo is far better value and it is still a very fast SSD.

Geil Ram is the same speed for £50 less.

The Plastidip is there as an optional extra. You could use that to paint the case as it is easily removed if you don't like it. You just peel it off.


YOUR BASKET
2 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 G1 Gaming 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £469.99 (£939.98)
1 x Intel 5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75820K) £314.99
1 x Samsung 1TB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE1T0BW) £309.98
1 x GeIL EVO Potenza 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit - Red (GPR416GB2666C15QC) £209.99
1 x Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5 Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 ATX Motherboard £199.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £114.95
1 x CableMod E-Series G2 & P2 Cable Kit - Black / Red £69.95
3 x Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow - Dual Pack (CO-9050002-WW) £22 (£66.00)
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW) £14.99
1 x Plastidip Aerosol Spray - 400ml Red £12.95
Total : £2,267.26 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
Thank you Lee, I will defiantly take your suggestions on board.

and thank you Josh but i'm not really an "epeen" kind of guy, just trying to get some advice :)
 
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As boring as I may sound (I bet its a lot), I have to side with Lee on this one.

Those choices are much more sensible, price wise, while not having much/any impact on performance.

CPU wise in benchmarks (more so gaming one) the 5820k is within 1%-2% of the 5930k, which probably account to core speed. (As the 5820k overclocks well this is no major issue). Both have the same cores and threads but one is SO much cheaper.. Only if going QUAD SLI would you need a 5930k (24 PCIE lanes vs 40 PCI-E lanes)

GPU wise is there ANY reason you pick the Poseidon range? Were you looking to watercool it all in future? or is that not an option for you?

The PSU too, 1200w is a massive amount. For 980 SLI 850w is ideal. Loads cheaper (and as its EVGA, probably better made too).

The only thing I'd change about lees spec is putting 2 SSDs back in, whether they be 250(256) or 500(512). In RAID0 you'll get might (near to over 1000 mb/s, which is INSANE)

Still saving a lot on your original spec...

Thoughts? Questions?
 
if it were me i'd go along these lines, simple loop for the cpu which can be added to at a later date for the gfx and those gpu's would fly underwater, still enough in the kitty for your cable mods etc.

i'd maybe pick up an Aquearo 5 LT fan controller which you can hide round the back of the case as there software controlled.


YOUR BASKET
2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Classified ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (04G-P4-2988-KR) £549.95 (£1,099.90)
1 x Intel 5930K 3.50GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - Retail (BX80648I75930K) £479.99
1 x Asus Rampage V Extreme Intel X99 (Socket 2011) DDR4 EATX Motherboard £349.99
1 x G.Skill Ripjaws 4 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300C15 2666MHz Quad Channel Kit - Red (F4-2666C15Q-16GRR) £259.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova 1000W '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply (220-P2-1000-XR) £161.99
2 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £107.99 (£215.98)
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DDC 3.2 PWM X-RES 100 £96.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel £52.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99
1 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Matte Black £24.95
3 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Red LED Fans (CO-9050029-WW) £16.99 (£50.97)
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Red Coolant 1L £14.99
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/11 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
Total : £2,885.65 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
Thank you all for your input, I think I'm fairly sure I'll go for the ROG motherboard. I've always wanted one and I think it'll match the look I'm going for. I know Gigabyte are a good brand but I've been on one of their boards for 5 years now and TBH I haven't enjoyed the experience as mine seems to have a very buggy BIOS (even after several updates).

The SSDs were always going to be run in raid 0 for the fast read speed and boot up times. I know a single drive can be faster for some tasks but I think the pros out weigh the cons. Having lived with small capacity SSDs for a few years now I do miss having a large system disk. I will probably add a further 4 SSDs over time for game and video capture purposes.

I think I'll have to do some research about the processor and at what point the 40 pcie lanes will be necessary. my upgrade cycle for my rig is normally motherboard, chip and memory every 4 - 5 years with a GFX card replacement after 2 - 3 years.

As for the GFX cards partly chose them for performance partly for looks / matching the ROG motherboard. I like the idea of having the option to watercool them if I decide to man up and do a custom loop, but having never watercooled before I am a little nervous about the idea.

I think I defiantly need to take the advice on the PSU. Are EVGA PSUs just plan better then the corair ones? Would 850w be enough if I did to decide to put in another GFX or 2 and a further 4 SSDs?

Thank you all for the advice so far has defiantly given me some things to think about, I really do appreciate it.

Ram
 
watercooling is very easy just a little daunting for the first time, a cpu only loop is a very good starting point. Me personally if i were to add water with electronics i would want to be the one that plumbed it and not to buy an aio, from reading over the years more stories have been over failed all in ones than leaks from self builds and imo you would buy an aio for the the clean looks over a heatsink/fan but the performance gain is very little.

And there is nothing better than having a very powerful set up such as your planning and have it running in near silence, bliss ;)

If you were to have ago at WC you can set it up on a table without a components attached with no risk involved, practice run over now you can install ;)

Also too much of 1 colour is not always a good thing!! which is one reason why i went with the classifieds, classy looking with a touch of red and probably one of the best 980's on the market.

As for psu's there is nothing wrong with corsair ones and i can see why you would want one(to tie in the looks) but there are better options available, 850W would be fine but i'd still go with a 1000w to give you more wiggle room and you never know a new gpu may come out which requires a bit more grunt. Always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.


obviously these are just my opinions.
 
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Even though nick is very much right about water cooling don't let us (nick) pressure you into it if you're not 100% sure. There are many options of AIOs so you don't have to worry about setting up a loop yourself.

OCUK even stock the triton coolers which are basically small (240mm rad) loops in themselves. A mid way between custom water and AIO.

I'd seriously consider look throughly into some motherboards before you do go for the rampage. Its a huge amount of money on 'just a change'.. As said the gigabyte is solid but as you've had niggles with previous boards I can understand your motivation to move away. MSI are well worth look at too, as normally there boards are cheaper (then gigabyte and ASUS) but offer similar features, they also perform really well,..

As for the GPUs, I feel the Poseidons arent the cards for you, I'd either opt for the ASUS strix, Gigabyte winforce (G1) or the EVFA ACX2.0 (I think the classifieds are pricey for what extra they offer). All there aremuch cheaper too, saving you mmoney to put into other components.

PSU wise, while 850w is more than adequate I wouldnt nlsme you for getting a 1000w version. The current trend in GPU tech is power saving, so we may be likely to see even more high end power efficient cards, the fact is though we can't be sure. I would like you to miss out on (let's guess at) an AMD 490X2 (Saul GPU) just because it needs 600w for itself, for some reason... The fact is we don't 100% know what's around the corner. As PSUs go EVGA or superflower are the brands to go for.
 
My Corsair 850W made so much noise I could hear it scream through the 540 case. Replaced it with an EVGA 1300w as they were on offer and its silent, 10 year warranty so I can just run it til it dies. Its never going to be under powered and was £15 more than the 1000w at the time
 
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