Help With Aventum 3 Build

Sorry about all the questions. I greatly appreciate any build suggestions!

if you're thinking you might opt for  third vid card down (or even more pcie storage) the line you definitely want an X99 system over the Z170.  i'm actually concerned about throughput between x2 sli and a single pcie ssd (which is how my system is configured) on Z170.  imo, after having actually used a Z170 high end system, if i had to do over i'd probably go back to my original X99 config.  i think it has long legs even without the under the hood improvements of Z170.  even with the lowest sku (5820K) you still get 28-direct to cpu pcie lanes compared to 16 lanes with Skylake.  those extra 20 from the chipset are suspect imo.  everything still goes thru the pch, and even though the DMI 3.0 interface is beefier than DMI 2.0 on X99 there's still bottleneck concerns when loaded with maxed out pcie 3.0 devices (e.g. 2x GTX 980ti graphics+Intel 750 NVMe pcie storage for a total of x8/x8/x4 = 16 lanes) together with additional SATA storage and USB 3. devices.  like i said, EVERYTHING goes thru the pch.  remember those 20 additional chipset lanes?  yeah well, they aren't as flexible as once promoted, or at least what everyone was led/allowed to believe. 

personally, i think that's part of the reason we keep seeing lots of connectivity and power delivery issues with Z170 mobos (a little conspiracy theorist i know).

back to Haswell-E procs over Skylake:  the cheapest as i said is less expensive than a Skylake proc and gives you more pcie lanes from the cpu.  with the two 40-lane procs you get a lot of connectivity flexibility.  you can run both gpus at x16 mode and have room for high speed storage.  or you can run greater than x2 sli/crossfire if that's worth it to you-can't do that with Skylake/Z170.   as for "legs", we won't be seeing another HEDT (high end desktop) platform for a couple of years.  by that time DX12 multi adapter will be widely innovated/iterated upon with game developers and then you'll see how much more you can get out of 3+video cards!

if i were building a single graphics solution pc today i would definitely jump on Skylake/Z170.  for multiple gpu configs, even x2 sli, i would probably recommend going with Haswell-E/X99, especially considering you can reach even the low tier 5820K for right around the same price as 6700K.  

in regards to your specific config for X99: i think 32GB of system memory is overkill for just gaming, but you did say you might do some casual video editing and the extra ram will come in handy for that.  today's games barely even take advantage of 16GB in the most demanding titles.   you can save money here if desired with a 16GB kit. 

i used to have hardline tubing in my Aventum 3, DS is replacing it with flexible/quick disconnect tubing as of this moment.  acrylic is cool looking, but it's a pain in the rear trying to work around and troubleshoot at home, unless you like draining your entire loop and disassembling the it just to reseat a vid card.   i can't really tell if you have the quick disconnects from the configurator desc.  make sure you confirm with DS, i highly recommend them for convenience's sake. 

i have the Intel 750 pcie drive for my OS+games.  it's fast as long as you go into the bios and enable x4 mode for the pcie slot it occupies.  otherwise the default setting is x2 mode (at least on Z170) and that cripples your speed.  hey, you paid extra for the speed of this drive, so why not get the most out of it?  for some reason DS doesn't tune the bios to maximize the performance of the drive.  i've advised them, but...

regarding your choice of hard drives for data drives.  personally, with the drop in NAND prices i've completely gone away from mechanical drives.  even budget drives are faster.  personal preference i guess.

yeah, you don't need that modded side window.  in fact, imo it's just another source for dust.  you'll get plenty of cooling from your custom water loop.  i've tuned my 2x Strix 98ti's to the max and never seen them get hotter than 65C even under benching conditions.  for some reason the cpu gets a little warmer than i'd expect (mine was oc'd to 4.7Ghz), perhaps because it was lower in the loop due to the rotated mobo?  anyway, the temps on my cpu cores never got higher than 70's C.  with a perforated chassis and all of the fans in this system you're gonna get dust (probably more than you're used to).  just get a power vac or blower and every couple of months open er up and pop the fans off to clean around them/blow out the rads.   no biggy.  



 


Edited by db188 - 03 Apr 2016 at 5:14pm