$5000 Budget

Hi MasterCommander,

Welcome to the Forum.

What resolution monitor, or monitors, will you be using.

Frank

I have a 1080p and a 4k monitor.
Sorry I'm still pretty new. I liked the Digital Storm HailStorm II

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Hailstorm II Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD4 (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX1000i (Digitally Controlled Power)
Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: Wireless PCI-E ASUS PCE-N53 (Dual Band Performance) (Supports 802.11n/g/b)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 1: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (CPU Only)
H20 Tube Color: White Tubing (Requires Custom HydroLux Liquid Cooling System)
Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)
Airflow Control: Digital Storm Thermal Management Control Board & Software
Chassis Mods: Hailstorm II: Bottom Baseplate Mod (Cleaner Wiring Look & DS Logo Branding)
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 2 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds with Noise Dampening Material)
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires High-End Motherboard Selection)
Graphics Boost: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Memory Boost: Memory Fan Kit Only (Does not include memory overclocking service)
OS Boost: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (64-Bit Edition) (FREE Upgrade to Windows 10)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
NVIDIA SHIELD: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: Bundle: T-Shirt (MEDIUM) + Water Bottle + Carbon Fiber Pen + Leather Keychain
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Hi MasterCommander,

Well you beat me to it with your system. That gives us something to go with. The HailStorm II is a good case for liquid cooling. I don't think it is the best choice for air cooled GPUs but a lot of people go that way. Seems like we were thinking along the same lines with other things.

Make sure you know how big the HailStorm II case is. It is a Corsair 900D and it is BIG. No problem if you have the room.

Frank

Edited by FrankW - 13 Jul 2015 at 2:16pm

Hi MasterCommander,

You have a good build. I would only change a few things.

1. Change the SSD EVO to the PRO 256. A better choice

2. I wouldn't get the N53 wireless option. It only works with 802.11 n,g,b and I would want the 802.11 ac,n,g,b. The AC gives you way more speed. If your router is 802.11 n,g,b and you won't upgrade your router soon, then the N53 will be OK. If you carrier is providing your router then check out what issue it is. Many carriers are providing ac level routers.

3. I wouldn't boost the 980 Ti graphics cards unless you are capable of adjusting them yourself. The 980 Ti is already a smoking card and you don't want to create stabilization problems. If you did have a problem DS will help you make adjustments. Their tune is usually mild.

4. I wouldn't boost Windows. I just think you are better off to get your system set up the way you want it before this is done. You can turn off features if you find something that is a bother. Just my preference.

It's slightly above $5K (remember, there is still a $200 discount), but this one has the GPUs watercooled as well, which makes sense if you are going to get Hydrolux cooling, especially in a Hailstorm case.

Configuration URL:     https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1239387
Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Hailstorm II Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K 4.0 GHz (Codename Devils Canyon) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-PRO (Intel Z97 Chipset) (Features 802.11ac Wi-Fi Connectivity)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 850W EVGA SuperNOVA
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (256GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (2TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 3: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (2x Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)
H20 Tube Color:White Tubing (Requires Custom HydroLux Liquid Cooling System)
Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking
Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (64-Bit Edition) (FREE Upgrade to Windows 10)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Portable Gaming: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

The processor on the X99 platform will be upgradeable for a few years, yes. But, the I/O will be stale in a year or two as many things are going to be moving to the new USB Type-C connector and NVMe M.2 (and possibly U.2) drives begin to replace SATA drives as the high-end storage offerings. I/O improvements will be much more significant than generation-to-generation improvements of the processors. If you want DDR4 memory, wait a few weeks (August 5th) until the new i7-6700K processor and the Z170 motherboards are released, which replace the i7-4790K and Z97. With the money you save on the non-"E" parts, you can then use that to upgrade again in a couple years.

The clock speeds and, therefore, the single through octuple threaded workflows on the non-"E" parts will be a good deal faster, too. You only need the additional cores in the "E" processors with things like photo and video processing and other compute intensive applications, but definitely not games.

Edited by  - 13 Jul 2015 at 5:07pm