Question from a confused & sleep-deprived shopper

Hello everyone,

I may be asking this question on the wrong forum, but I haven't found many places elsewhere to get some advice on my question.

First and foremost, I should say that I am not a gamer in anyway nor am I going to be doing 3d rendering or high end computations any time soon. However, I do like to work on a computer where I don't find myself timing my bathroom break for the lag time i get whenever I try to open photoshop and I don't mind spending if it saves me a few milliseconds every click or two on my mouse.

The problem I have is that no matter where I search, when I type in high end desktop reviews I get nothing but gaming computers saying go intel I7 with x99 this and titanx that and when I search for fast workstations I get xeon x5 this and ecc that, and then when I finish both of them I run into a bunch of people preaching that you are wasting money if you don't just build it yourself.

To put it simply, I am lost...

can anybody point me in the right direction as to what kind of area I should be looking. This will be a home computer and I do the majority of my work on internet research, albeit fairly in depth research and I typically run multiple browsers with many tabs open on each and extensions all over the place.   I also occasionally work with a few memory grabbing adobe products and am starting into video editing very soon. One more thing is that I do have a few businesses where I keep multiple dvr security monitoring windows open, typically on a 2nd or 3rd display attached to my desktop while i work on the others. My ideal computer would have 4-6 monitors setup in a videowall. I am not so much worried about massive storage as I can always add that with a network attached synology setup or something like that so a mid sized samsung evo ssd and a few tb hd should cover me there and I assume I would want 16 or 32 ddr4 ram, whether I am better with an i5, i7, xeon, broadwell, haswell, skylake .. I have no clue...

If anyone has made it this far into my book of a post and is still reading, could you please guide me a little into where I should be looking or am I in way over my head and should just go back to looking at ------ and ---- instead of digital storm and ------.

Like I said before, I am not afraid to spend money to get a good, reliable and fast computer, but I hate to spend just cause I can.   For all I know I might not even need that much of a computer and could tone mine down and get a second one for my kids with the difference.


somebody please, slap me in the face and tell me which way to go.

Thank you

(BTW -- if I come off erratic, It is now 6:40am and I started looking this crap up as a quick thing to do before going to bed at 11pm last night)   







removed competitor's names...

Edited by Snaike - 17 Aug 2015 at 4:59am

Hi rickyrenn....Welcome to the forums.

Here's a place to get started....

Config # 1263233               Cost $ 3026

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: ASUS X99-DELUXE USB 3.1 (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series
Power Supply: 850W EVGA SuperNOVA
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
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): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB (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: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: - 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)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Portable Gaming: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

I selected the Haswell-E, X99 with 5820k , for its 6 core processor.  For your heavy multitasking, video editing, etc. the extra cores will come in handy as opposed to the latest Skylake with 4 core as of now.   The 5939k is clocked a little higher and has more Pcie lanes, but the overclock will take care of the first and 2x gtx 970 doesn't need the extra lanes.

Went with the Asus deluxe mobo because I like Asus, its Bios interface is better in my opinion and it has usb3.1 support. 

Not sure you need the 32GB ram.  16GB for sure, so up to you.

I didn't do much with storage.  You can tweak the drives you need.

The  2x gtx 970 , non-sli, is for your desire for up to six monitors.  The cards each can drive 4 monitors and with no gaming the gtx 970 should be all you need.  The 980 is about 15-20% better in gaming, but I don't believe you need it.  Depends what rendering you plan on.  You wouldn't hook the two cards in sli because that restricts you to 4 monitors. 

The Apollo, Corsiar 760T, case is just a starting point.   There are others to pick from, but it does have decent airflow.   The Velox is the best for airflow, not counting the Aventum , and the Slade is the quietest.   Lots to pick from. 

Hope this helps and good luck.

To get the Slade you can hit Change and select the Corsair Obsidian 550D, which is the Slade.  Or, just go to the Slade on the config home page and select the parts.  If you go with the Slade you might consider changing the cpu cooling to the 120mm rad.  The 240mm rad mounts under the top which means the top acoustic panel needs to stay off and the case won't be as quiet, but still not bad.  The 120mm rad mounts inside the back wall to exit the heat.out the back.
If you want quiet I would start with the Slade config and make any changes you want, following their Notice about keeping it quiet.   This is a closed case meaning the airflow isn't as good as others  but for your setup should be no problem.  Level 3 is the X99 platform. 


Edited by bprat22 - 17 Aug 2015 at 11:05am

sounds like your needs would be best fulfilled by one of their work station builds.