New Gaming PC

Budget:
$13000

Expectations:
Top of the line PC for 4K gaming at preferably 60 FPS or more. Ideally also have some room for future upgrades when new hardware comes out.

Usage:
Mostly gaming (FPS, RTS, RPG mostly) and general web surfing but I will probably dabble in things like rendering videos, 3D modeling, and photo editing.

Special Needs:
PC will most likely be on a wooden floor since the desk I have isn't very big. Must be fairly cool and somewhat quiet so I wont wake people up at night.

Any help on what parts to get for this would be much appreciated.

Would having 3 or 4 GPUs be better in the long run? and would you recommend the Titan X or 980 Ti.

Would 32GB of RAM be fine?

What is the difference between PCI-e NVMe and SSD?

modeling favors fast single cores while rendering favors more cores.  i've seen performance tests in 3DS Max and AutoCAD where an I7-5820K beat out Xeon processors simply because the I7 is much faster.  rendering is a different matter, and while you can render just fine on an I7, the 10-14 cores of Haswell Xeons are what you want if most of what you intend to do with the comp is heavy rendering work. 

based on your stated needs, being heavily weighed towards gaming w/some light dabbling into modeling and rendering, i would concur with the previous poster that an X99 system centered around an I7-5820K or I7-5960X would probably be the best advice.  you want a min. of 32GB of system ram (2666Hz is fine).  i'd also recommend a couple of high capacity ssd over mechanical hdd for reliability, speed and silence.  just factor in that if you go with ssd on a pcie connection it will occupy and take away from the total number of pcie lanes from the cpu.  so, the I7-5820K has 28-lanes, both the I7-5930K and I7-5960X have 40-lanes.  the vid cards (depending on mobo) will either be in a x16 or x8 config, while the pcie ssd will be in x4 config.  now, whether running at x16 or x8 doesn't really effect graphics performance in any meaningful/measurable way.  so, if you do the math you will see that you can run 3x vid cards and 1x pcie ssd (28 total pcie lanes occupied) in a x8/x8/x8/x4 config on even the entry level Haswell-E cpu (assuming the mobo you select offers that config). 

i'd normally recommend the GTX 980ti over the Titan X for the same reasons as the previous poster; however, since this isn't only a gaming rig and will be used for productivity work i think the extra vram of the Titan X will be of value to you and your budget allows for it.  for realistic 4k gaming, you're going to want at least 2 of them.  3x cards is arguable (due to poor sli scalability), 4x cards is a waste of money (and won't be doable with an I7-5820K because of its 28-pcie lane limitation).  if you're going to try to drive multiple 4k monitors a 3x card investment might be a good investment, on a single 4k monitor stick with 2x cards. 

i also favor a custom water loop over both air cooling and AIO CLC options.  a custom loop offers better thermal and sound performance and is expandable.  be aware that a Hardline acrylic or copper piping config will make it harder to maintain/and or expand on the system, so if you go with either of those options you'd probably want to get the config pretty much nailed down during the initial build. 

      


Edited by db188 - 10 Sep 2015 at 4:00pm

Will the PCI-e NVMe make a huge difference and is it worth the price increase?

I am still not quiet sure what storage configuration and capacity will I really need but I wonder if this is fine:

2 x 512GB Samsung PRO
2 x 2TB or 3TB Western Digital - Enterprise Edition
and maybe a Intel 750 series if I believe it is worth it.

it's a minor speed bump and tbh you can achieve the same results by oc'ing your 2666Hz kit as long as you get modules that are capable of it (both the LPX and Dominator lines can oc).  i wouldn't even worry about it, just set the XMP profile and you're good to go.  the capacity is more important anyway for the work you want to do. 

regarding the water cooling options-it's not that you can't swap out components on a rigid tubing (acrylic or copper) config, it's just much easier to do with flexible tubing equipped with quick disconnect fittings (that seal themselves).  since DS only does single loops (meaning all water cooled components are being cooled by the same liquid source) you'd have to drain the entire loop just to swap out a graphics card for example.  you'd also have to remove fittings and tubing.  you'd still have to remove the water blocks themselves from both regardless of the tubing types. 

one downside of flex tubing is that a lot of manufacturers use plasticizers (it's what makes rubber and plastics flexible) in them and can cause leeching over time that flakes off and gunks up the works.  this can be really hard to remove from your loop as it will lodge in the rads, blocks, etc.  if you decide to go with flex tubing, stay away from tubing that uses DEHP plasticizer in its manufacture process.  you need lab-grade tubing and it's expensive.  the only non-leeching flex tubing that i know of is Primochill Advanced LRT and the Tygon E1000.  clarify with DS on this. 

on the subject of storage-i would think you'd want raid 1 on you data storage hdd for safety.  nothing's faster than those pcie ssd, so if you need the bleeding edge go for it.  however, i seriously doubt you'd regret the speed of the 850 Pro even over SATA III and you can go with a higher capacity single ssd for OS+games for the price of the Intel 750 drive.  again, it just depends how much cash you want to shell out.   


Edited by db188 - 11 Sep 2015 at 1:28am

I would like to have copper pipes but will they be available on that aventum that's coming out because I cant find them on the configurator.

Also, are AMD GPUs any good compared to nvidia? I am currently looking at the 2x 980 Ti and 2x 295x2

Alex on the ball!

Alex answered the copper/nickel piping question in another thread.  yes, the AV3 will have that as an option down the road, but not at launch.  it looks like they'll only offer flex or acrylic tubing options at launch.

Originally posted by Alex We use Tygon E1000.

Alex, someone else posted this on another forum pointing out that Tygon E-1000 is extremely flexible and may not be retained well enough with compression fittings:

Originally posted by http://www.performance-pcs.com/tygon-e-1000-1-2-id-3-4-od-plasticizer-free-tubing-clear.html Warning: This tubing is basically rubber in consistency; compression fitting solutions may not be possible due to this rubbery/flexible nature of the tubing itself - - the compression collar may not be "tight enough" on the tubing, allowing you to yank the tubing off the fitting with little effort. Therefor we are not responsible for this possibility if you decide to use compression fittings with this tubing. Clamps are recommended!

How is your guys experience using Koolance and XSPC compression fittings (and possibly other brands) with it?





Edited by  - 22 Sep 2015 at 12:19pm

Originally posted by Alex It's been perfectly fine, we've been using our stuff for a long time. If we were not confident i them, we would not be sending systems worth $5,000+ and knowing we have to provide warranty and lifetime support.

I wouldn't think so. This just was a little bit of a odd finding. I'm guessing it may have something to do with DIYer's incorrectly installing stuff.

Beast!