Critique my gaming desktop build

Expectations & usage: I'd like to have a reliable gaming rig that will last me for a while. I'd like to run today's games with the best graphic settings and frame rate possible for my budget. I'll occasionally do some design work with Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. I currently have two 1920x1080 monitors, and may upgrade to a set of 2560x1440 or a single 4k in the future. I only game with one monitor at a time.

Budget: I'd like to be around $3k. I could go a little higher if an upgrade is a good value.

Special snowflake needs: I'd prefer one fast HD instead of a primary fast drive and a secondary data dump drive. I don't store a ton of large files like video or anything, so 1TB should be plenty for my needs.

My attempt: 1502369

Any suggestions or tweaks? Is the Velox the right place for me to start, or should I consider the Apollo or something else? Thanks for your time!

Well we need to first figure out what it is you want game on at max settings, is it 1080p, or 1440p or 4k? each have a different need and if you want to get the best bang for your buck then I need to know the res you want to power.

At 1080p a 1070 is more than enough, at 4k you need sli 1080, or single titan on LC oced high, or sli titan. As you can see there is a big price difference between those.

Now don't be discouraged there are ways around that but basically what I need to know is:

1. when are you plaining on going from 1080p to higher res.

2. when you do go up in res which is gonna be? 1440p or 4k? keep in mind there are gonna be lot of 4k monitors out soon, I'm calling 2017 year of 4K.


Also for adobe and etc you may want to look at a 6 core or higher processor, they have use for the extra cores, but the down fall is that its the old tech vs the new tech of z190 (skylake) and probably cost more. Just something to think about.

Your own config needs some changes. let me know your situation and we will fix all of that.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Oct 2016 at 12:05am

I was referring to the cpu with adobe but if you are happy with what you have as far as adobe goes, then the z170 build will blow what you have away so we are good there.

Ok so some of your parts are changed due to better performance / reliability. For 1440p a 1070 will do great on ultra high settings, but what I did was config a system that has one 1080 now (this will kill at 1440p, its actually overkill) and then if you go 4k and you want highest settings, all you do is drop in another 1080 to go sli if needed, basically with this system you are not sli 1080 but you have the option to do so via just getting another 1080.

If you are 100% sure you don't want sli now or if you get 4K, let me know I want to run a different idea by you then.

so here is the sli option:



Click Image To Go To Configuration Page


tell me what you think

The new 960 pro will have much bigger sizes, but they are not out yet.

They don't offer a good air option anymore, so the next best thing for closed loop is the one I picked for you. the closed or sealed aio systems need no maintain ace but they also don't offer real LC performance.

Upgrading case fans would be good but in this case teh h115i will go on the top of the case I think and the front has the fans already so there is no where to add fans, ask DS to install your h115i on the top.


The other ideas would be going with a 1070 now and then upgrading to a 1080ti in the future when you go 4k. More expensive but single card.

My pleasure and good luck