New X99 build

[KentState]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, VM's for development and other general applications.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$5k

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
We can't be expected to scour the internet on your behalf, chasing down deals in your specific country... Again, help us, help YOU.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Intel CPU, Asus MB, Evga graphics card

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Everything from the ground up

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Will overclock

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
Preferably 1440p > 60Hz

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Note that it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.
November 2015

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Have software already

Something along the lines of the build below is what I'm looking for. Not set on the PSU, memory and cooling so looking for recommendations there. Would really like an IPS 144Hz 1440p monitor and the Acer seems decent, but can wait if something great is on the horizon. Are the Samsung Pro SSD's still best for performance?

Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W BX80648I75930K Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117403

ASUS SABERTOOTH X99 LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132518

G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2800 (PC4 22400) Extreme Performance Memory Kit Model F4-2800C16Q-32GRK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231824

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 06G-P4-4998-KR 6GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Classified ACX 2.0+ Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487146

EVGA 220-P2-1000-XR 80 PLUS Platinum 1000 W 10 yr Warranty ECO Mode Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438013

Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i GTX Extreme Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 240mm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835181090

LG Black Blu-ray Burner SATA WH16NS40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827136269

Intel 750 Series HHHL (CEM2.0) 400GB PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SSDPEDMW400G4R5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167300

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE1T0BW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147362

WD Green WD30EZRX 3TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136874

Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011048-WW) Arctic White Steel ATX Mid Tower Cube Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811139032

Acer XB270HU bprz Black 27'' 144Hz WQHD G-SYNC Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS 350 cd/m2 1,000:1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824009742

RAZER Blackwidow Chroma RGB Gaming Mechanical Keyboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16823114051

LOGITECH G502 Proteus Core Tunable Gaming Mouse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=9SIA6BM2TW1428

Going SLI, this comes to ~ $4900 before shipping and tax which is under my budget.

 

[Spydermag68]

Looks like a solid build to me. The only thing I can see is that you might want faster ram. 3000.

 

[Ken g6]

...I'd better stop before I use up all my images allowed in this post!

I do have a few suggestions, though.

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) memory kit for DDR4 Systems Model CMK32GX4M4A2400C14R

You can do better than that. Remember, Skylake does much better, even in gaming, on faster RAM. Your choices are 1.2V 2800, or 1.35V 3000+. I've heard of a few cases of weirdness with 1.35V, so I'd stick with 1.2:

G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2800 (PC4 22400) Extreme Performance Memory Kit Model F4-2800C16Q-32GRK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231824

SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 512GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7KE512BW

If you have 2 SSDs, one should be M.2 or PCIe. That new Intel drive AnandTech showed recently won't work well - your two cards take 8x PCIe 3.0 each, so you only have one x4 slot to work with. A P3600 would work. I'm not sure what other PCIe drives are out there. Or you could get a Samsung SM951 M.2 drive for a lot less.

 

[zir_blazer]

Wrong platform. 4600 U$D and a LGA 1151 Core i7 is like meh. That mounstrosity deserves LGA 2011.

I would use a single Intel SSD 750 PCIe 1.2 TB instead of the two Samsungs 850 EVO. Plus, instead of an expensive WD Black as HD, may want WD Reds or the solid Hitachi HDs and RAID 1 them.

 

[lehtv]

Agree with zir_blazer about the platform. Buy 5930K so you get 6C/12T, and can run SLI in x16/x16 mode while leaving plenty of lanes for a fast PCIe SSD.

BTW you'll want a 1000W PSU. EVGA P2 is excellent.

 

[KentState]

Thanks for the input. I updated the original post with some changes, mostly going from Skylake to Haswell-E.

As far as storage, the Intel 750 will be used for OS and apps. The 1TB SSD will be for games and VM's being used. I stepped down to a WD Green as that drive will only be used for local backups. I have a NAS (with multiple levels of backs) for actual storage.

 

[lehtv]

Looks great, but I'd make a few changes:

980 Ti Classified -> 980 Ti FTW. You're not really going to benefit from the Classified's extra power phases in a relatively hot SLI config, especially if you want to keep things remotely quiet. Classifieds would be supreme for a custom loop.

SuperNova 1200 P2 is just $12 more at Amazon, compared to 1000 P2 at Newegg.

H100i is a little old by now, I would rather buy H110i GTX since the case (Air 540) supports 280mm rads.

If you want silent idle RPM's, the case fans would be smart to replace with PWM fans, connected via a PWM hub to a single chassis fan port. This allows for a greater RPM range so you can idle the PC at very low RPM's, and customize load RPM to your liking more effectively than with mere voltage regulation. In my experience, Silent Wings 2 140mm are superb (but expensive).

850 Pro makes little sense to me, when you can get an MX200 1TB for $150 less.

As for the monitor, the soon upcoming Asus PG279Q seems better. 165Hz, and not an Acer...

 

[Termie]

Since I actually run a system nearly identical to this, I'll throw out a few extra ideas:

(1) the H100i GTX is plenty powerful and is quite new (unlike H100i), no need to jump to the H110i GTX for another $30.
(2) The eVGA cards are going to have trouble keeping things cool in SLI. I'd suggest you consider the triple-fan models from Asus or Gigabyte. You might also consider going with a blower-model for the lower card.
(3) You don't need more than 1000W of power. The system will only draw around 700W at full load even with a big overclock. If you aren't dead-set on Platinum, EVGA's gold-rated 1050 GS model is often under $170.
(4) I'd strongly recommend you avoid RAM rated higher than 2666MHz, as it requires an inefficient and confusing 125 strap, along with 1.35V versus 1.2V.
(5) the Acer monitor is great and available now. The Asus will be great, but is not available, and 165Hz is a marketing gimmick on a G-Sync monitor that will almost always be running at much lower refresh rates, even with SLI. If you're actually at FPS that high, you really need to run higher settings, as you're just wasting GPU power at that point.

By the way, moving to Haswell-E was the right choice for a build like this. Intel's implementation of "20 PCIe lanes" on Skylake was not entirely honest, as some of them are used for USB 3.0. To read more, see this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-100-series-hsio-chipset,30210.html

 

[lehtv]

(4) I'd strongly recommend you avoid RAM rated higher than 2666MHz, as it requires an inefficient and confusing 125 strap, along with 1.35V versus 1.2V.

Can you elaborate what the bolded part means?

http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-2800c16q-32grk
2800MHz at 1.20V

(5) the Acer monitor is great and available now. The Asus will be great, but is not available

What's your point here? It's apparent from my post that Asus is not yet available, I don't understand why you need to reiterate that.

My point was that Asus is generally better than Acer, or at least perceived as better, and may be worth waiting for. When reviews by tftcentral and others are out you'll be able to better judge which monitor to go with, I'd put my bet on Asus as being the better overall performer.

and 165Hz is a marketing gimmick on a G-Sync monitor that will almost always be running at much lower refresh rates, even with SLI. If you're actually at FPS that high, you really need to run higher settings, as you're just wasting GPU power at that point.

Not all games are meant to be run with GSync enabled. For instance, if you play an online twitch shooter, you'll want to get as close to max Hz as possible (preferably locked to max with fps limiting) to keep things consistent. So you lower settings as much as you need to, and turn GSync off. That's where 165 Hz gives a slight edge (of up to 1 ms in reaction time, and a slight difference in motion smoothness) over 144 Hz. Yes, anyone can argue that 1 ms doesn't really matter in practice, but it's not a gimmick, it's a true measurable difference.

 

[Termie]

Can you elaborate what the bolded part means?

http://www.gskill.com/en/product/f4-2800c16q-32grk
2800MHz at 1.20V



What's your point here? It's apparent from my post that Asus is not yet available, I don't understand why you need to reiterate that.

My point was that Asus is generally better than Acer, or at least perceived as better, and may be worth waiting for. When reviews by tftcentral and others are out you'll be able to better judge which monitor to go with, I'd put my bet on Asus as being the better overall performer.



Not all games are meant to be run with GSync enabled. For instance, if you play an online twitch shooter, you'll want to get as close to max Hz as possible (preferably locked to max with fps limiting) to keep things consistent. So you lower settings as much as you need to, and turn GSync off. That's where 165 Hz gives a slight edge (of up to 1 ms in reaction time, and a slight difference in motion smoothness) over 144 Hz. Yes, anyone can argue that 1 ms doesn't really matter in practice, but it's not a gimmick, it's a true measurable difference.

You found one of the only 2800MHz RAM kits that runs at 1.2V, but guess what, G.Skill has been incorrectly vetting its DDR4 RAM, with multiple 2666MHz 1.2V kits unable to run with XMP enabled without 1.3V, so I wouldn't trust the spec sheet you linked to. In fact, I wouldn't trust any G.Skill kit faster than 2666/c16 to run at 1.2V.

And to be clear, you cannot run RAM faster than 2666MHz without a 125 Strap, which sets the CPU to 1500MHz rather than 1200MHz at idle and also requires higher voltage. It's inefficient, and a pretty bad way to overclock, as the gains from RAM speed are inconsequential to what you'd get from a good CPU overclock using the standard and much more straightforward 100MHz strap, which allows more precise fine-tuning.

As for the Asus monitor, your response highlights exactly the issue: you are assuming that an unreleased product will be better than a product that's been on the market for 6 months. Maybe yes, maybe no, but if the OP wants to buy something now, the XB270HU is available and excellent, and in fact it's still TFT Central's top gaming monitor pick, for what it's worth.

By the way, yes, for twitch shooters, 165Hz may be better, but the majority of gamers aren't true competitive FPS gamers, and for them 165Hz isn't useful, nor is it even attainable in most games even with 980 Ti SLI.

 

[Ken g6]

G.Skill has been incorrectly vetting its DDR4 RAM, with multiple 2666MHz 1.2V kits unable to run with XMP enabled without 1.3V

Source?

Edit: How about GeIL RAM?

 

[Termie]

Source?

Edit: How about GeIL RAM?

Guys, I'm not here to argue with you, I'm here to give the OP advice based on my experience building the machine he wants to build.

The source is my own experience with a G.Skill DDR4 RAM kit, as well as a plethora of user reviews on Newegg citing the same problem: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8476 600521523 600531811 600521526&IsNodeId=1

I don't know if Geil RAM will work at 2666/C15/1.2V. What I'm telling the OP is that DDR4-2800 is a bad choice for Haswell-E.

 

[KentState]

I'm considering going with Crucial DDR 2400 like below. I'ved used their DDR3 memory in my last two builds and it has been extremely stable.

Crucial Ballistix Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Desktop Memory Model BLS4K8G4D240FSA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148867

As far as graphics, would the EVGA Hybrid cards do well in an SLI configuration? Talking less than < $100 more than a nice Asus or Gigabyte 3 fan card and maybe quieter. Not really interested in building a custom water loop at this time. Will try to dig up some reviews later tonight.

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hybrid 06G-P4-1996-KR 6GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487144

 

[Termie]

The 980 Ti Hybrid is a great solution for SLI, or at least one of them is. Going with two of them will significantly complicate the installation in your case, as you have only one radiator mount location in the rear, and would need to use a front mount location for the other radiator (since you're using the top for the CPU cooler). Whether or not the tubes are long enough to reach that location is part of the problem, but secondly, it interrupts the natural front-to-back airflow of the system, as you won't want to set the fan to blow into the case.

If the Hybrid interests you, I'd suggest using it in the bottom slot and an open-air model in the top slot.

And yes, Crucial is a safe bet. It doesn't compete in the specs war, but it offers top-notch products at mainstream performance levels. FYI, Crucial does sell a faster DDR4-2666/cas16 Ballistix Elite kit that would be great as well.

 

[lehtv]

As for the Asus monitor, your response highlights exactly the issue: you are assuming that an unreleased product will be better than a product that's been on the market for 6 months.

I don't get why you make this out to be an issue. All I said was it seems better based on specs and, given the brand name, might be worth checking out. I did not assume that it will be better.

Maybe yes, maybe no, but if the OP wants to buy something now, the XB270HU is available and excellent, and in fact it's still TFT Central's top gaming monitor pick, for what it's worth.

He said he's building the PC in November, so I don't see any reason to assume he needs to buy something now. I really don't care which monitor he picks, I was just giving him a heads up that there's another possibly even better option coming up that he might be able to grab for when he's ready to build. Rushing him towards picking the Acer doesn't seem to make sense here.

By the way, yes, for twitch shooters, 165Hz may be better, but the majority of gamers aren't true competitive FPS gamers, and for them 165Hz isn't useful, nor is it even attainable in most games even with 980 Ti SLI.

None of this argues in favor of Acer or against Asus. If 165Hz neither a pro or a con, then it's irrelevant, and both are just as good picks, other things being equal.

And what does the majority have to do with this? What the OP wants out of his PC has nothing to do with what the majority wants.

And yes, 165 fps is most definitely attainable with 980 Ti SLI in most games as long as you're willing to run lower settings (which is a given, if fps counts that much). Only the most demanding games lack that possibility.

 

[Termie]

I think the OP has all the info he needs to make an informed choice.

 

[lehtv]

"I have nothing to reply with, so I post nothing meaningful."

 

[KentState]

Guys, don't want this to spiral too far out of control. I appreciate all the help you gave. As far as the monitor goes, I do plan to get something by end of November so will wait and see what comes out. May just do a the 980ti Hybrid to start out with my current 1440p monitor and then go SLI after reviews are out.