Going 'Overkill' with the Aventum II

Suffice it to say, I'm done with cutting corners. I've tried pre-built Gaming PC's. I've tried other Custom Builders. I've been disappointed time and time again. Be it with a rig's limitations. Short lifespan, or the shortcomings of the company that made it (IE: Bad Customer Service/Tech Support).

I'm not cutting corners this time. Research led me to Digital Storm. And I'm hoping that this time I'll have a PC that will serve all my needs as both a gamer and a streamer (with hopes of making a career out of it).

Expectations: A gaming rig capable of handling all that I want and need. High, fluid frame-rate with as few drops as possible in games running on their highest settings. All while being able to easily handle streaming software (OBS, Ankhbot, Twitch Alerts, etc.) with as little strain as possible.

I also am hoping that it lasts 5+ years without any sort of hitch. Really, the longer lifespan the better. Because I have *no* experience in building/repairing computers myself (Not to mention shaky hands), and unfortunately the local repair shops are only experienced with more simple rigs. (Neither of the two I've gone to have even heard of water cooling before...)

Honestly, when my warranty runs out. I'd be willing to pay money to Digital Storm for me to send it in for repairs/replacement part installation. I would only trust them to handle their own product considering that this is their custom work.

Budget: Simply put? I've got around $14500 to spend, not including taxes and shipping.

Special notes: RAID 1 will be set on the 2 4TB HDD's. Not the 2 1TB SSD's.

Monitor ordered will be the second in a dual monitor set up. One monitor is committed to programs and what-not while the other (the one ordered) will be committed to games.

Here is my planned setup. Please give your thoughts and advice on the matter. Keep in mind: This is SUPPOSED to be overkill (while still within my budget range).

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS Aventum II
Exterior Finish: Onyx Black Matte Finish with Red Stand
Trim Accents: - Not Available
Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 5960X 3.0GHz (Eight-Core) (Extreme Performance)
Motherboard: ASUS X99 RAMPAGE V (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2800MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX (Extreme-Performance)
Power Supply: 1500W Corsair AX1500i (Digitally Controlled Power)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Slim Slot Loading Edition)
Storage Set 1: 2x SSD (1TB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 2x Storage (4TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: RAID 1: Mirroring: Drive Failure Data Fault Tolerance Protection (Requires 2 HDDs)
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 4x SLI Quad (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (ASUS Strix Edition)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Copper: Digital Storm Copper Pipe Custom Cooling System (Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (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
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)
LaserMark: - No Thanks
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
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (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: Asus ROG SWIFT 27 inch PG278Q (G-SYCN) (144Hz Refresh) (2560 x 1440 Resolution)
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Corsair Vengeance K95 (Fully Mechanical Gaming Keyboard) (Black Brushed Aluminum Finish)
Mouse: Corsair Vengeance M95 (Laser 8200 dpi) (MMO and RTS Gaming Mouse) (USB Wired)
Portable Gaming: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 15-20 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 6 Year Limited Warranty (6 Year Labor & 4 Year Part Replacement)

I do wish to point something out you don't really need DS to tweak and disable things on the OS as it comes in bloat free and honestly you won't really know what they disabled

A dream machine is all about overkill. : )

It looks to me like you nailed it. I'm cautious about overclocking video cards but the strix should handle it.

Enjoy the dream, the best ones don't come often!

If you really want overkill and can wait a few weeks, the Titan X will be launching. They will have a lot more video memory and can handle dual UHD/4K monitors. The Aventum 3 also comes out sometime in the near future.

I'd change the 2 x 4TB drives in RAID 1 to a 4 x 2TB drives in RAID 10. The 2TB drives have better reliability and the stripping of the RAID configuration will improve the performance. You could actually have a larger RAID array as the chipset RAID controller will support up to 6 drives in it. Both the Aventum 2 & 3 have 8 drive bays in them.

Later this week at NVIDIA's GTC, hopefully we'll get a clearer picture of what they're doing with the GM200 chip on the Titan X. Some of the latest indicators are that there will be a cut-down version in the guise of the 980 Ti.

RAID 10 is RAID 0 stripping of two sets of RAID 1 mirrored drives. If you do have a lot of information to store, then yes, I would stick with the 4TB drives. The $/GB is best at the 2TB level right now and there are performance advantages with a RAID 10.

I honestly had to turn off overclock cause it gave me the BSOD when i first got it.

It's not common but not unusual for a newly arrived rig with overclocking to BSOD, etc on booting or later.   It's stable at the DS facility but alters a bit in a different environment.   A call to DS where they tweak the voltage for example is an easy fix. Once they adjust it, the overclocking is good to go.

Hope this helps.

Originally posted by The Mad Gypsy Oh geez! D: Well, hopefully they'll test the overclocking a good bit before shipping it over.ArkansasWoman777, when would it blue screen when the overclocking was on? On boot-up? Or elsewhere?Admittedly I've never dealt with overclocking before, so I wouldn't even know how to turn it off if I had to. : l

When i first turned it on, i'm sure it was stable though when they were overclocking it. But like Bprat said, it's stable at the DS facility but alters a bit in a different environment.

Edited by ArkansasWoman777 - 16 Mar 2015 at 11:45am

Originally posted by  Later this week at NVIDIA's GTC, hopefully we'll get a clearer picture of what they're doing with the GM200 chip on the Titan X. Some of the latest indicators are that there will be a cut-down version in the guise of the 980 Ti. RAID 10 is RAID 0 stripping of two sets of RAID 1 mirrored drives. If you do have a lot of information to store, then yes, I would stick with the 4TB drives. The $/GB is best at the 2TB level right now and there are performance advantages with a RAID 10.

search the internet and you'll find some believed to be legit performance leaks of the GM200 (titan x), cut down GM200 (GTX 980ti) and the AMD 390X.  the 390X crushes the 980ti and is a better performer than the Titan X in all but power draw.  and you can bet that the Titan X will be far more expensive than the 390X.  oh, and the 390X is said to come with 8GB of HBM instead of the 4GB we were led to believe (could explain why they pushed back release to June). 

i plan on having 2 of these AMD cards (on custom water loop of course) in my new Aventum III (if DS will provide us with some ETA info...hint, HINT) build later this year.

Complete monster of a system!!      

and I thought I went over board with my specs!!   

Edited by Clay - 22 Mar 2015 at 7:42pm