Desert Environment PC

About 5 or 6 years ago I purchased a DS PC. It ran amazing, and has never ever caused me any problems. Even today, it still runs very well and I am even going to donate it to a friend who cannot afford a new PC, and theirs is like 1990's old. I am confident it will serve them as well as it has served me.

Obviously it is time for a new one, can't cling to the past forever, no matter how awesome it worked. I thought about other companies, or building myself, but my experience dealing with DS the first time around was simply so good, I decided on sticking with them. They talked me through upgrading until it couldn't be upgraded anymore and I just don't feel I could get that anywhere else.

So here goes:

1. Budget is ~$3,000, could go a bit higher, but would prefer not to.

2. Expectations are pretty simple. I need a PC that can perform all games well and last a very long time. I expect it to be upgradeable for the foreseeable future, as the one I am currently using was.

3. Usage will be mostly for gaming and video streaming. I play pretty much all games with no real specialty. Obviously there would be web surfing, netflix, etc., but I want it to perform very well and still be playing games well in 5 years or so.

4. Special needs are dust resistant. Like, EXTREMELY dust resistant. It's so bad that I have to clean out my current PC every 3 days or so. If I take a pic of my PC right now, you'd think I left it there for months, but it was just cleaned a few days ago!

So far I have been looking at the Slade, a while ago I had posted here and someone had recommended it, but I cannot remember why. It's slightly above my price range, but it looks sweet. Any ideas if I can get more for my money with the dust protection I need would be greatly appreciated.

Basically I am looking at the default Slade level 4 Model.

I believe I was one of them that recommended the 550d about a year or so ago.   Reason being, you mentioned blowing sand and what makes the 550d so quiet, the closed top and sides, would also hopefully keep the sand out.   Plus it is a nice case.

Another couple of questions I have:

I have never run a PC with 2 HDDs, am I going to have to do anything special with them or will the system know what to do?

And I have never used liquid cooling before, is there any special maintenance that I need to perform on it or is it pretty straightforward?

There is plenty of space in the 550D, so you should be able to space out the hard drives a good deal. The only issues you'll encounter is when you have many in very close proximity to one another.

Oh, got it. They will be recognized as two different volumes, by default. Your SSD, where the operating system and frequently used programs should be installed, should be the C:\ drive and the HDD will be the D:\ drive. When you want to put files in one place or another, you'll see the drive at the very beginning of the directory location. So, yes, when you put a file on your computer, you will have to specify which drive (anything put on the desktop will be the C:\ drive with the operating system). But there are sufficient smarts in the operating system and hopefully your programs to handle it from there (e.g. once you've set up where you want game files to save, if given the option, the game will always look to that location for saved games and save future games there).

I finally purchased my new Slade level 4! Today, I will keep you all updated as it goes through the stage checks!

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Corsair Obsidian 550D
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair CX750M
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Seagate)
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): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex 120mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (High-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
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: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Graphics Boost: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system

Thanks for choosing Digital Storm again!

And Stage 1 today. Can't wait to get it!

Stage 2 & 3 today! Kickass!

Getting there. 

Phase 6 on Saturday Feb 28th!

Now the anxiety really begins.   : )

just keep chanting -   sooon soooon   soooon