Help on choosing the right custom PC

1) The Aventum II is still available, but only as their Aventum II Pro model. They have the Aventum 3 now.

2) How much space will you have for your computer? Are you going to be in a dorm room? Realize that the Aventum II and 3 are very large super towers. They are also specifically designed for a full water-cooled system with a separate compartment for radiators...if you aren't doing a full water-cooled system it is not worth it.

3) The Canadian dollar is relatively weak at the moment at around CAD$1 ~= US$0.75, so your system goal is no more than US$4125.

Here is what I would suggest:

Configuration URL:     https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1315396
Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Velox
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz (Codename Skylake) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VIII HERO (Intel Z170 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX1000i (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 SSD (500GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (3TB 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 (ASUS Strix Edition)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D15 (Extreme Performance)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires High-End Motherboard Selection)
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)

The Velox is a full tower size, so still large, but not rediculously so, like the Aventum. With the Z170 platform, you get a processor with integrated graphics; you can try to use a video capture software that uses Intel Quicksync on the iGPU to unload some of the major encoding work from your other hardware. You can use something like Predator in MSI Afterburner or Open Broadcast Software for this. Here is a quick video on how to set up OBS to use Quicksync. If that doesn't work, you may want to consider getting a dedicated hardware solution like: Avermedia, Hauppauge, or Elgato.

If you can swing it, I'd upgrade the SSD to the 400GB Intel 750 SSD.

If you want a system in your price range that has complete AIO water cooling on the CPU and both GPUs, take a look at this thread where I posted a configuration do just that.

Edited by  - 11 Nov 2015 at 11:05pm