First Custom Gaming ComputerPost Date: 2015-09-05 |
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Uglyyoda 
Newbie 
Joined: 05 Sep 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 12 |
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 Topic: First Custom Gaming ComputerPosted: 05 Sep 2015 at 8:22pm |
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Budget:
5000.00 Expectations: Want a system I can continue to upgrade over three to four years as gaming content requires more power. Would like to add a second Video Card with liquid cooling, add more memory, but keep power source, mother board, liquid cooling system the same. Also want to have raid mirror image as I have lots of photo's, movies, music, video's. Usage: Home and gaming. Single 27 inch screen but also plan to hook up to media room 80inch screen for movies on pc. Special Needs: Hooks into media system. Specifications: Description: QTY: Unit Price: Total Price: Item 1 --- Digital Storm Hailstorm II (Config # 1276810) 1 $4,985.00 $4,985.00 Chassis Chassis Model: Hailstorm II Edition Core Components Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz (Codename Skylake) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core) Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO (Intel Z170 Chipset) System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2800MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX (Extreme-Performance) Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX1000i (Digitally Controlled Power) Storage / Connectivity Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (1TB Samsung 850 EVO) Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Western Digital - Black Edition) RAID Config: RAID 1: Mirroring: Drive Failure Data Fault Tolerance Protection (Requires 2 HDDs) Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Graphics / Multimedia Graphics Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB (Includes PhysX) Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster ZxR (Ultimate in Audio Playback and Creation) Digital Storm Engineering Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 2: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (1x Video Card + CPU + Chipset) H20 Tube Color: Red Tubing (Requires Custom HydroLux Liquid Cooling System) Chassis Fans: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Red) (Up to 6 Fans) Internal Lighting: Digital Storm RGB LED Lighting System (Requires Thermal Management Control Board & Software) Airflow Control: Digital Storm Thermal Management Control Board & Software Digital Storm TwisterBoost Technology Boost Processor: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires High-End Motherboard Selection) Boost Graphics Card(s): Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability |
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DS Veteran 
Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
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Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 8:39pm |
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A few things:
Unless you are set on the looks of the Hailstorm chassis, you may want to consider the Aventum 3 coming out in a week or two. It may cost a little more, but is much more flexible to adding and changing components in a custom water cooling loop. Memory - are you planning on overclocking your memory beyond the XMP settings (2800MHz)? If not, you can scale back to the LPX or DS certified sticks, unless your paying the premium for the looks. Moving down to 2666MHz won't degrade performance much either, as the latency timings will probably be tighter. Storage - you don't want to RAID an SSD with an HDD. The SSD will be plenty fast. If you want a faster drive, opt for an NVMe drive and possibly get a 1TB EVO for mass storage. GPU - I'd highly advise you to get the STRIX version of the 980 Ti over the reference. The factory overclock is substantial and the power delivery circuitry is much more robust. If you are going to be hooking this into a media system, there is no point in a sound card. If you are doing this through HDMI, the audio stream will bypass any digital-to-analog circuitry and be processed at your receiver. This also allows for decoding of lossless DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD audio formats, which can't be processed on a sound card. |
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Uglyyoda
Newbie
Joined: 05 Sep 2015 Online Status: Offline Posts: 12 |
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Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 10:34pm |
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Thank you for the input. I will wait and make all the changes you are suggesting. If I go with the STRIX version would I still need to use liquid cooling for the card?
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DS Veteran
Joined: 28 Oct 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1674 |
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Posted: 05 Sep 2015 at 11:10pm |
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You don't need to liquid cool any GPU, of course, but the advantages are that it will run cooler and allow for greater overclock performance without needing to throttle back at any point (automatically done by the GPU) due to residual heat build-up. The point of the Hailstorm and Aventum cases are to have large radiators with a lot of airflow through them for water cooled systems. If you are going to have an air cooled system, which will be a good deal less expensive, a chassis like the Velox would be a better option.
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