$6500 budget. Help with config!

This will be my first time purchasing at Digital Storm and my first gaming computer. I am not computer/tech savvy at all so any help is appreciated!

Budget: $6,500 USD

Expectations/usage: I plan on producing music with FL Studios and playing the newest games at their highest settings for the next 2-3 years at good frame rates and minimum to no hardware upgrades. I would like this computer to last for at least 5+ years. 4k would be a plus.

Special Needs: Dust prevention, but good airflow and cooling.

This is what I put together, can someone help tweak this and make it better or recommend a different build?

Thanks!

https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1319507

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Hailstorm II Edition
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99 RAMPAGE V USB 3.1 (Intel X99 Chipset) (Up to 4x PCI-E Devices)
System Memory: 64GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1500W Corsair AX1500i (Digitally Controlled Power)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Storage Set 1: 1x Storage (4TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 2: - No Thanks
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: Creative Sound Blaster Zx (Includes Audio Control Module)
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 3: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (2x Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)
H20 Tube Color:Red Tubing (Requires Custom HydroLux Liquid Cooling System)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis 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: Stage 2: Overclock CPU - Up to 4.8GHz (Depends on Cooling and Motherboard)
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 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
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)


Edited by Geothan - 18 Nov 2015 at 6:48pm

Originally posted by  You can step down to an i7-5820K processor without losing much performance. Get the Strix graphics cards. Better power delivery circuitry and come with a decent factory overclock. You can further overclock them on your own with EVGA Precision or MSI Afterburner (won't void warranty), especially with them being water-cooled. Drop the sound card. On board audio is good. If you want stellar audio (especially if you're going to be doing any mastering) use the audio pass-through in the HDMI and hook it up to a dedicated receiver that can properly drive monitors. You can move down to a 1000W PSU for this level of build. HDD's are relatively loud. You may want to consider going to an all solid-state storage solution with a large SSD or two. That will help keep the noise floor low. Looks good otherwise (it's a lot of RAM, but you can do a lot of multi-tasking with it or set up a RAM drive for fast program access).

If they put a couple of 2tb ssd's in there it's probably gonna jump the price to a little over 7k

Edited by ArkansasWoman777 - 19 Nov 2015 at 3:38am

No performance loss taking the suggestion to go with the 5820k cpu.  The slightly slower clock speed means nothing with the added overclocking and the only real difference is the number of PCIe lanes for the graphics cards.   The 5820k has 28 lanes and the 5930k has 40 lanes.    Unless you go 4 way sli then you'll have all the bandwidth you need for the cpu to talk to the gpu.  

The SSD is Much faster, depending on the programs of course.  If in game textures are constantly upgrading or your music files have  a number of channels being manipulated, updated, stored and retrieved,   then it'll be smoother.   A platter drive HDD will also work great, they too are fast, but solid state drives rule in speed.

The 5820k can handle 3 way sli, with each card at x8 lanes.  No problems.  3 way sli is not all that great for the majority.   2 way is very well scaled but once you get into 3 way, the 3rd card usage plummets, if used at all.   3 way isn't useless at all, just a lot of money for a relatively small increase in performance, in most cases.   You'll probably want to upgrade to newer gen cards in a couple of years instead of adding another 980ti. 

MSI Afterburner and Precision are pretty straight forward.  I have used them to under volt a card that was getting too hot    but I've never oc'd with them.   I've also used them to set custom fan curves instead of relying on the factory curve.  Manufactures like to keep the rpm down to hold back the noise and only when needed turn up the rpm.  I set my cards, in the past, for a 1 to 1 curve.....50C at 50 percent rpm, 70c at 70 percent, etc.   But, not needed if all is good.

No experience with sound cards. 

The Hailstorm, Corsair 900D, is an excellent case.  Made for water cooling.  The other option is the Velox, but either is good.   Personal; choice and looks has a say. 

Warranty pick can be tricky.    I like at least a 3 year parts, meaning their 5 year warranty(3 parts, 5 labor), because its a single place to call for any issues and they do a great job from my experience.   But, most parts like video, mobo, psu, etc have 3-5 year warranty's already.  But you have to RMA the part through the manufacturer after talking to DS.  DS warranty is one stop shopping, so to speak.  I like 2 or 3 years on parts.





Edited by bprat22 - 19 Nov 2015 at 11:22am

The 980ti over clocks decently. You do get a bump, maybe 10% if your lucky, but for a single monitor, even 4K , It's not a game changer.   Sli 980ti is a lot of horsepower.

   For $45, having DS do it at your price point isn't a bad deal. Saves you from worrying about it. I think they use Afterburner or Precision for the oc, so I'd write down the settings if you do it, in case the program's stop working and you lose the oc you paid for. Or have DS give them to you.   Precision used to just stop loading my settings on boot every few months.

I probably wouldn't pay for their oc, but that's me.

   Go for it.   

Keep us updated on the progress.   

This may be a really stupid question, but does the H20: HydroLux Level 3: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (2x Video Cards + CPU + Chipset) require maintenance (topping off, draining, etc)?

That's something I have never done and it seems daunting. How easy/difficult would topping off the liquid be?

Originally posted by Geothan I think I will stick to the HDD. Having the SSD will push me over my budget. Thanks for the info though, now at least i know more about hard drives and cpu :) (1). If in the future I decide to add another 980ti graphics card (for a total of 3 cards) will the 5820k still be optimal? (2). Is the MSI Afterburner or the EVGA Precision straight forward and easy to use? I have never overclocked anything before and don't want to damage my machine. (3). In regards to the sound card. Are there any difference between the Creative Sound Blaster Zx (Includes Audio Control Module), Creative Sound Blaster ZxR (Ultimate in Audio Playback and Creation), audio pass through hdmi with a dedicated receiver? (4). Is the chassis I picked good? Is there another one you recommend or think will suit me better? (5). If you were me, which warranty plan would you choose, considering how much this desktop will cost.Thank you guys for your help. I really appreciate it!

1) On the Rampage V Extreme board, you can do an x8/x8/x8 set-up, which is more than adequate for a 3-way SLI configuration. But as mentioned by bpratt, 2-way 980 Ti's is very powerful and can manage pretty much all current generation games at 4K/UHD resolutions.

2) There are plenty of guides on the web for them. I refer people to check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF_89emuI9k. If you need any more information, there are lots of places to check, so search engines are your friend here.

3) It looks like the SNR of the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is better on the ZxR, but they are both excellent. The Zx has a similar SNR to the on-board audio of the Rampage V Extreme. However, HDMI pass through does not do the conversion to analog and passes the digital signal directly to the receiver, so it introduces no noise. You also have to consider that other components: amplifiers, speakers, and anything else in the audio path will introduce noise into the system after the signal is converted to an analog signal. Components designed for use as mastering equipment usually have an excellent SNR and total harmonic distortion (THD) along with a flat signal response to minimize coloration and distortion of the audio. If a system is described as being "warm" or "live," watch out, because if you are mastering audio with a distorted system like that, you are going to adjust it so the opposite will happen on a system that is flat.

4) Yes. If you need additional dust filtering beyond what is provided with the case, you can get this: http://www.demcifilter.com/c195/OBSIDIAN-900D.aspx

5) You get an extra year with the special in the default plan, so I would stick with the standard 3/1 warranty.

Another nice build!