Lumos / Velox

Welcome to the forum morzh !

We usually look for a bit more info like what games does he play, what monitor and resolution does he get to use... I can generalize a bit with some suggested Lumos & Velox builds for you to consider.    All will use the Excellent I7-9700K 8 core 8 thread CPU overclocked to Stage1 using the excellent Corsair H100i 240mm (no maintenance) sealed AIO cooler, 16 gb of Corsair Vengeance RAM, Corsair LL Series fans, and the solid Asus Z390 Strix -H motherboard.   These are all very high quality components, and the Corsair branded selections in particular have nice long mfg warranties.

Lumos case is the outstanding Corsair Crystal Series 570X tempered glass ATX case, with normal motherboard orientation and door on normal left side.    I bought a Lumos build for my own son this year very similar to Lumos build2, and that is a great performing gaming rig.   Visually stunning, it’s quite a showpiece with user controlled RGB led fans and case lighting.   Stays nice and cool, and is very quiet in a bedroom location as well.

Velox is a DS designed ATX case, with upside down motherboard orientation and door on the right.   Velox case is more expensive to use, and places the video card upside down at the top of the case. Velox has an unusual option for painting the case in selected colors for an added +$149.

Gaming quality tends to rely most heavily on the video card.    Builds Lumos1 and Velox1 center on using the do-it-all midrange RTX 2070 video card.   This card can play most current game titles at high settings at 1080P or 2k /1440 at very good frame rates.   Good value.

Lumos build1. ($2677). Config # 2440675

Excellent I7-9700K 8 core 8 thread CPU overclocked (free) Stage1
Excellent Asus ROG Strix Z390-H motherboard
Corsair H100i AIO no maintenance CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance RAM 16 gb RGB
DS 750w modular PSU Gold level efficiency
Excellent midrange NVidia RTX 2070 video card
Fast M.2 NVME SSD Samsung Evo 970 500 gb (boot) Drive1
SATA III 2 tb (storage) Drive2
Excellent Corsair LL Series 120mm RGB case fans
Free DS RGB led remote controlled case lights


Velox build 1 ($2811). Config # 2440697
Same above component selections but in the DS Velox case


Builds Lumos2 & Velox2 upgrade to the stronger NVidia RTX 2080 video card and Stronger Corsair 850w PSU.    The RTX 2080 can play most current game titles at High or Ultra settings using monitors with up to 4K resolutions and will produce higher frame rates in gaming. This card would be more likely to stay up near the top tier of performance in gaming video cards for a bit longer than would the RTX 2070.

Lumos build2. ($3070). Config # 2440702

*2 component changes from above selections*
Upgrades to the stronger NVidia RTX 2080 video card
Upgrades to stronger Corsair 850w PSU

Velox build 2. ($3204) Config # 2440717
Same as Lumos build 2 components but using DS Velox case

See what you think, or tinker and come up with your own configurations....



Edited by HockeyBuck - 24 Jun 2019 at 4:29pm

Thanks for replying guys.

From reading some recent threads I realized that Lumos is a bit simpler to deal with (physically) than Velox, otherwise being the same hardware-wise.

What was confusing a bit, when clicking on Lumox, the first Intel configuration (the second out of the four) shows i9 but when going into it, it starts from i7.

So, here's a question: you saying i7 being powerhouse and all, what does (gaming-wise) i9 gen 9 and i9 X-series do for you? They sure do add a sizeable increase in bucks count.

HockeyBuck

Considering what you've just said (and yes I was planning for the 2080 GPU), what would be your suggested configuration?
(I think the memory should be at least 16GB and good disk/SS disk storage is helpful too.)

Mike

PS> In the i7 computers with Windows 10 I have noticed they have recently started struggling. Or does Gen 9 behave better?
PPS> Good Wi-Fi capability is also desirable.
PPPS>> What display would you recommend?

Edited by morzh - 25 Jun 2019 at 12:04pm

Compared to the :

MSI MPG Z390M GAMING EDGE AC (Wi-Fi) (Intel Z390 Chipset) (microATX) (Up to 2x PCI-E Devices)

What do I get from the Z390 Maximus?

HockeyBuck

Thanks for explaining.
I only compared it because when you click on the MoBo choice you get this as an option with WiFi.
OK, got it. Time to think.


So, the last question: the GPU 2080 Ti you recommended: is it strongly recommended upgrade vs 2080 (which in itself is an upgrade)?

Ahh, cooler heads have prevailed. The $487 more for 10-15% performance increase of a 2080 Ti is not a solid return for something you would be unlikely to even notice. That savings can be counted toward the GPU upgrade a few years from now when ray tracing and tensor cores have matured a bit, and all the cards are faster. You will have all the 2080 Ti performance and more in the newest model of a 2080 at that point.

A thing you might wish to consider is something I have found in my use. You might prefer the Samsung 970 250 GB NVMe for its economy of size for your operating system and all the utilities you might want to manage it with (malware and anti-spyware utilities and the like). Also the word processor and other productivity apps and web browsers for school work.

Then you could add a larger NVMe or perhaps a Samsung 1TB 860 SATA drive for the games library. Seems to me to be neater than partitioning, and makes it easier to know where to find things.

Yes, absolutely. The Samsungs are solid state drives (SSDs) they have no moving parts, and the SATA one is up to 4x faster than a mechanical hard drive (HDD). As HB said, the NVMes are even 5x faster than that. You want an NVMe for Windows and all those programs that search all your files for viruses, malware and spyware. Speed really matters a lot with those. If all that stuff is on a small drive, those searches are expedited even better. That's why I prefer a small primary drive.

The suggestion of a SATA ssd for games is rooted in my opinion that those are plenty fast enough for gameplay, and you can get a larger one for less money than an NVMe. Example: here at DS the 1TB 860 EVO (SATA) is $193, the 1TB 970 EVO NVMe is $336.

About the only use many have for HDDs these days is for storage of large amounts of photos, video, audio, and other large files. I kinda made the assumption your son would have little or none of that to store.

When I ran HockeyBuck's config with a 250 GB Nvme and a 1TB SATA Samsung, it saved some money. Really quite a long way down the road when your son needs more space, you can get any flavor of SSD that suits you online and save even more. It is VERY easy to install an SSD, even an NVMe.

This is just a suggestion. If you get the 1TB NVMe In HB's congfig, it will take much longer to search all the files for all that gunk we have to watch out for. A concern is maybe the (young?) man won't do that so often and let his system get bogged down or infected. HDDs are almost obsolete IMO since SSDs have come down so far in cost just in the last 18 months.

Hope it helps.

Edited by Cretae - 26 Jun 2019 at 2:50pm

HockeyBuck

So, based on the recent conversation (sorry, yesterday spent the whole day in a compliance testing lab fighting an EFT test misbehavior, so was out of juice to do anything after additional aggravation of 2hr drive home), could you suggest the finalized configuration?

PS. Oh...where do I find that NVidia tested monitors' list?

Mike.

Edited by morzh - 28 Jun 2019 at 7:31am

Me likes it.

Anything you think I forgot? And how do I place the order?

PS> Other than the Alienware, what would you recommend from the GeForce monitors? I mean, to max out the 2880 performance, do I need particular refresh speed? The resolution limitations or otherwise, maybe some are too low to showcase the performance?

PPS. Amazon has the DELL 140 bucks less than Dellitself

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Alienware-Monitor-Resolution-Overclocked/dp/B0777RY75V/ref=sr_1_3?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyOOz5NmM4wIVgkOGCh2Y-gK7EAAYAiAAEgLN5fD_BwE&hvadid=234003807029&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1022246&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t2&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9514828152669806527&hvtargid=kwd-561768677232&hydadcr=13583_9271526&keywords=aw3418dw&qid=1561742932&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Edited by morzh - 28 Jun 2019 at 10:31am

One last thing: (I was about to pay but have to ask first).

OK, I got the answers from the sales team.

Here's the main question:

The salesperson told me the Stage 2 overclocking is not really compatible with the suggested cooler. He said they would try it but they cannot guarantee it would work, suggesting either Stage 1 OC, or a different cooler.

Do I really need St 2 OC?

Edited by morzh - 28 Jun 2019 at 2:06pm

What about that overclocking?

Yes, I will simply buy external USB devices for CD/DVD and card reader.

Edited by morzh - 28 Jun 2019 at 2:17pm

Thanks HB!

Got it now. $30 is not a biggie :)

Here's the final one:

Configuration Code: 2446887
Total Price with Instant Savings: $3,437.00


Specifications:
Chassis Model: Digital Storm Lumos
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7-9700K (4.9 GHz Turbo) (8-Core) 3.6 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) (Intel Z390 Chipset) (Up to 3x PCI-E Devices)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro (RGB Light Bar)
Power Supply: 850W Corsair RM850x (Fully Modular)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD M.2 (1TB Samsung 970 EVO) (NVM Express)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (3TB Seagate / Toshiba / Hitachi)
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce RTX 2080 8GB (VR Ready)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H115i PRO - 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler (Fully Sealed + No Maintenance) <br><strong></strong>
Cable Management: Premium Cable Management (Strategically Routed & Organized for Airflow)
Chassis Fans: Corsair LL Series (RGB Fans) (Software Controlled Effects)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled Advanced LED Lighting System (Multiple RGB Color Modes)
Boost Processor: Stage 2: Overclock CPU - Up to 5.1GHz on All CPU Cores
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: USB Drive - Windows 10 Installation (Format and Clean Install)
Virus Protection: Windows Defender Antivirus (Built-in to Windows 10)

Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Edited by morzh - 28 Jun 2019 at 2:44pm

Well done sir!    Congrats on your new Verified Customer badge!

Glad to help!   Now the wait begins...lol.