New DS Customer: Setup advice

Budget:
$3k

Expectations:
Fallout 4 in Ultra

Usage:
Gaming only (and light browsing)

Special Needs:
None

Specifications:

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Apollo
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 5820K 3.3GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X99-SLI (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2800MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 750W EVGA SuperNOVA (750 B1)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: - No Thanks
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 Ti 6GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex 240mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
Chassis Fans: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - 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)

Hello DS Community!

I impulse-purchased (no joke, damn you BillMeLater/Paypal) the above configuration 2 days ago. I don't recall the last time I was this excited about a purchase!

Now, with more time to think about it I've been wondering if I have all the right pieces in place. My concerns are:

1. DO I have enough cooling?
2. Is the PS powerful enough?
3. Is this the right MOBO for single GPU?
4. How do I know if the SSD will be attached to be MOBO via M.2?

Originally posted by  1) Yes, you have enough cooling. The CPU is being cooled by a 240mm radiator that can dissipate up to 600W of cooling. The CPU is rated for 140W and any overclock DS puts on it at the 4.0-4.4 GHz level won't raise it to more than 175W. The GPU has the integrated blower-style cooler on it and can handle itself. 2) Yes, the PSU is powerful enough for your system. You can technically add a second GPU if you wanted, but you may need to remove the overclock on the CPU to handle everything. You'd want to measure the power draw under heavy load at the wall power outlet to determine what you can handle. 3) It's a fine motherboard for what you have. I don't believe DS has a cheaper option available for the X99 platform. 4) The SSD you selected has a SATA interface and will be connected to the SATA port. The only drives that use the M.2 are the Intel drives with the SFF-8643 connectors that use a hyper card kit in the M.2 slots. The motherboard you selected only has up to x2 PCI-e 2.0 lanes, 1/4 the bandwidth the drives can use with the x4 PCI-e 3.0 interfaces...you'd need to switch up motherboards to get that. You can, however, use the PCI-e card SSDs at full bandwidth.

You are so helpful! Thanks!!

Can You please follow up on #4? Does this mean that the Video Card, also connected to a PCI-e slot (right?) is going to be slowed down in any way due to limited MOBO bandwidth?

Ugh... I recall when these things were easier. Buy an AGP card, avoid PCI and max out those 512MB of RAM... :)

Hi Orcvader,

db188 has answered your questions but here are my thoughts on your power supply. If you think you might someday want to add a second GPU I would go with the 850 Super Nova PS. It never hurts to have a little extra power available. Or, the 750 Super Nova is modular and you could change it out in the future if you decide to add a second GPU. Only problem is you pay twice for a PS. As db188 said, the 750 is fine for this system as is.

Frank

Originally posted by Orcvader You guys have been remarkably helpful! Thanks again! So, essentially, my "limits" (on the MOBO) circle around the amount of "lanes" available more than the capacity of the lanes actually in use... So, since I don't plan to use SLI and I am fine with the 850 SSD on SATA - I should see no artificial limitations on the CPU and MOBO (beyond their own total capacity, of course)? Thanks again, awesome community!

well, the throughput over pcie 3.0 doesn't normally get over saturated with today's hardware (so using all 28 lanes of the I7-5820K shouldn't cause any bottlenecks), still many people like to have the "head room" of 40 (of the 5930K and 5960X) lanes when combining multiple video cards plus high speed pcie storage and wi fi devices. 

on this particular mobo, the way they've engineered and configured it (from their printed material): " thanks to the onboard external clock generator combined with the direct connection of one of the x16 lanes to the CPU (switchless design), GIGABYTE X99 motherboards can unlock the full bandwidth available and provide the best graphics bandwidth possible to the user."  lower end motherboards don't utilize 100% of the possible lanes, which is why you'll see 3 and 4-way sli configs on lesser boards drop down to x8 on all vid card slots and disable the M.2 slot when the other pcie slots are occupied with multiple gpu's. 

imo, you've got a lot of mobo for what you've stated your needs are.  this is an expensive board for just 1x vid card, even when you factor in the possibility of expanding your storage with high speed pcie cards. 

that and it's really the only way (currently) to enjoy 4k (if you can get sli to work well in the game) gaming.  

single card, single monitor, yes for the most part.  you will see minimum frames at points drop to 40-ish depending on the game (like GTAV).  this is of course with settings at high to ultra without any advanced features (like hairworks) turned on.