Sup SEN,
Laying out parts for my 2016 build to take place shortly after new years thanks to my 1k$ Xmas bonus. Wanted to get some SEN feedback on my current list and see if anyone has heard anything I haven't as work has been keeping me pretty busy.


Notes: GPU I am carrying over my 780Ti till AMD/NV release their next lineups next year. Second RAM kit will probably follow to hit 32GB.







Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jan 7 2016, 6:19 am by Excalibur.

Without knowing what the exact purpose of this build is, I can only assume this is a joke. Where you're conserving money vs where you're spending it liberally doesn't make sense to me. The only explanation I can think is that this is a showcase build, rather than building the most powerful or future-proof system with the funds available.

Waiting on the GPU is a smart decision if Pascal is all it's supposed to be. 32GB is a lot of RAM, but again, without knowing what this PC will be used for, I can't say much on it.

First, the things I like about the build:

• That massive HSF is probably the best air performer at that price bracket. Of course, you also have liquid cooling options here, like the H100i GTX.
  
• That's a shit ton of fans; I presume eight for the case and two to replace the HSF fans? Do you have a fan controller for all these fans?
  
• The monitor is nice, though you won't see its full potential with FreeSync with your current graphics card, and you'd need to go AMD in the future to do so.
  
• That thermal paste looks hardcore. Is it just for your CPU, or are you going to use it for your GPU(s) as well?
  

And now for the things that concern me:

• You're dropping less than $400 for the CPU on a $3300 build?
  
• Are you actually going to use the quad x16 PCIe on that motherboard? Or is there another reason you're spending twice as much as you need to?
  
• You could double your RAM right now and spend less. If it's not for benchmarking, why spend such a huge premium on higher clock speeds?
  
• 850 Pro vs 850 EVO - is it worth an extra $50, even in synthetic tests? Don't mention the 10 year vs 5 year warranty, because both of these drives will be obsolete in 1.
  
• The WD Blacks are expensive and don't seem to be much more reliable than other 3TB drives. Toshiba has drives at a fraction of the cost and with fewer complaints regarding early failure.
  
• I can't talk you out of the case, because I know you've had eyes on it for a while now. However, the complaints about heat management issues make me concerned that it might be a bit more form and not enough function. Especially at $500, I'd expect it to be flawless.
  
• A PSU with flawless performance, but a damnable price. I love the XP2 series, but not enough to drop $175 when there are equally good alternatives.
  
• Maybe you have an amazing sound system where a sound card will make a difference. If you don't, you're just throwing away money.
  
• You realize you're spending $161.16 just on case fans, correct?
  

Here are my changes. I don't think you'll agree with many of them, but at the very least, it's food for thought.


I have a hunch that most of that was stuff you didn't want to hear, especially regarding the monitor (which I think we've discussed before). You can point at my CPU pick as a flagrant waste of money, and I'll do the same to your case, and we can both shake our heads in dismay.

A solid choice.

I'll be more than happy to elaborate why sound cards are awful creations with a defunct purpose. They're like the AGP graphics cards of the computer audio world. Only people still make and buy them.

Build Purpose: Extremely overpowered gaming rig that provides an improvement on anything I currently have while looking 100% on point. Cosmetics are as important as performance here.

I have 16GB now and spending 4-5000$ with no improvement in capacity is not okay to me.



-I do not like CLCs. My thoughts on liquid cooling are do it right (custom loop) or don't do it at all.

-If you look at the 909 product page the configuration I'll be doing is the 2x round fans on the CPU HS, 4x 140mm / 4x 120mm option they list.

-Considering. I'm not sure I give a shit about anyone's shitsync.

-I might do both depending on temps.



-True, but as a gamer do I need more than 6c/12thread? You could argue I don't even need that much but I have 4c/8thread now and spending 4-5K$ for the same number is unacceptable to me hence no Skylake / Z170.

-I want an MB that is of the highest quality and matches my color scheme to a T. Got another black/silver/grey MB to recommend that is top tier? Fire away.

-I may be shooting a little high on the RAM but its those or Dominator Platinums. Have to match color, have to be top tier, and I'd like at least DDR4-3000.

-For both the Pro and the Blacks the answer is the same: No compromises. I have used only WD drives since I started building. I have had a total of 0 failures. WD has done me right on such a level personally that it feels silly to go elsewhere. I will also never, no matter what any review, database, or other statistic says trust a Toshiba product. Working in retail our worst and most returned products were always Toshiba and when I say they were returned at 3x the rate of any other brand including HP, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and all the regulars, it is no exaggeration. #1 reason for a Toshiba return: HDD failure.

-The case is exactly the aesthetic I'm looking for. Its either this or the Phanteks Enthoo Primo and the 909 is a much better looking case.
-SeaSonic or bust. As with WD they have an unbeatable track record with me.

-I have had a dedicated soundcard since before I did my first build. I have tried onboard audio multiple times in the last 10 years. It always seems muffled and muddy to me. I will concede that the X99's ASUS is putting out usually have some really great onboard sound but if 50$ makes me feel better about my audio situation, then that's my business. I am powering a set of the extremely hard to find Swan M10s.

-Noctua makes a good fan. I want the colors to match, no LED, and a good noise to CFM ratio. Recommend others perhaps? If you're worried about the 909's thermals the fans seem to only make more sense.



So to help I'll edit this target into the OP:



Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 24 2015, 4:23 am by Excalibur.

Swan M10s have their own power cord, so your sound card isn't powering them. And wouldn't be able to besides.

I wasn't implying it was supplying electrical power, its a figure of speech. v.v

Today's your day, Ex. The XP2 just went on sale: http://slickdeals.net/f/8398199

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4/8 is all you need for gaming, and stronger cores will benefit you more than a higher thread count for many games. Funny you should suggest Skylake would be more expensive when your only X99 option makes you drop $500 on the motherboard. If you get a 6700K (currently at $420) and a Z170 board for around $300, you end up spending less money. Your color-friendly options:

- MSI XPower Gaming Titanium (review)
- EVGA Classified (review)

There's also the Asus Z170-WS, but since it's so new I can't find any reviews on it. It's extremely feature-rich, however. The Sabertooth Mark 1 (review) is another possibility if you don't mind the secondary color on the RAM and PCIe slots (which should be covered up anyway), though its overclocking feature set isn't as robust the aforementioned boards.

With the MSI or EVGA boards, you come in at $50 cheaper before taxes than your current picks, even at the overpriced point of the 6700K (which should be closer to $360). As for the CPU change, here are synthetic test comparisons. As for which one is better for gaming, it really comes down to how well the game is optimized: the 5820K will be ahead if the game can fully utilize all its threads, and the 6700K will be ahead if the game only uses, say, 4 cores. The 5820K is more future-proof, if that's a concern of yours.

Post has been edited 5 time(s), last time on Dec 24 2015, 6:07 pm by Roy. Reason: Grammar

Buying that when I get home. Awesome.

The main problem with the Z170 path is the overpriced nature of the 6700k. I pay ever so slightly more and boom, more cores, more thread, X99 platform. I LOVE the Titanium board. Absolutely enthralled with it. But future proofing is a definite concern and since this build is going to have to be around awhile I'd rather bet on developers continuing to move in the direction of optimizing for more cores. I'm also looking into streaming and some other applications, and again, for almost 5k$, I want more cores than what I already have.

Thanks for the continued feedback Roy.

Update:
Got my 850 Pro, Audigy RX, and 2 of my 3TBs off Jet.com for 520$ shipped. For anyone who hasn't checked the site out yet, its worth a look. They don't always have the best price on everything but the discounts from ordering more items and the 15% off for new customers promo code made this a nice deal for me.

I wouldn't have recommended a sound card, but since your speakers are RCA input I guess it really doesn't matter unless you'd be willing to spend considerably more on audio ($300 - $400).

I still recommend headphones, namely the AKG K240s, which are the best kind you can get for any listening purpose under $100.

A high end audio set up will be part of my re-furnishing of my room which is my next project after this PC.

For now the PC audio just needs to be good-enough which in my book is the setup I've chosen.

When I do my audio build I'd be interested to hear any thoughts you might have on record players, receivers, and speakers.

Oh dude, totes.

I don't see how people can use headphones for extended periods of time.

I would rather listen to audio on my bluetooth speaker than wear premium headphones while watching a movie or playing a game that doesn't require zero input delay.

Anyway, just bought an amazon fire for $35 over black friday and looks like there's a referral code for $5 off amazon for signing into the amazon app the first time: link. Full Disclosure: if you buy something, you'll get the $5 off, and I'll get $5 in promo credits. My brother just used it to drop a $10 case into $5 and chose the no rush shipping for $1 back in promo credit.

Coupled with the Amazon Chase card, you can get an additional $80 in amazon gift card as well, and every time you buy something on amazon, you get 3% back, which makes the card one of the best to get when it's not december anymore and the chase freedom card isn't offering 10% back on amazon.

Also: time to get 2 or more monitors and a fan controller do drop the sound down to barely audible.

Do you have sensitive ears? Otherwise I just suggest to get better, more comfortable headphones. I can wear those AKGs I posted every day, twelve or more hours a day without discomfort. It's a feature of the semi-open design.

Alternatively, get the Amazon Store Card and get 5% "cashback" (limited to statement credit payments) year-round.

Relying on personal anecdote instead of data is silly.

Also, unless you know that all of those Toshiba products actually used Toshiba HDs, then this evidence is misleading. I suspect that Toshiba would often use non-Toshiba components in their products, if they can get a bulk buy at a good price or simply don't have the required stock on hand. It is a perfectly valid strategy for a company to produce top-tier standalone components and sell them for top dollar, and when building their own complete system integrate the standard products from other vendors.

Headphones always hurt my ears after 2+ hours of use, no matter which ones I've tried.

As the person running the technical service, sales, and repair department of course I knew they were using Toshiba drives. We would have been idiots and remiss in our duties if we didn't establish that was part of the pattern and problem.

I understand that at large anecdotal evidence is not on par with certain things like Blackblaze or other databases, if you have first hand experiences of a company producing crap for years upon years, its hard to take a chart's word over your own experiences. Much like the soundcard issue, its my money, its my expertise, and this is the path I think suits me best.

I too would also rather be shot than wear headphones all the time.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 26 2015, 2:43 pm by Excalibur.

Updated as of 1/7/16.

All parts are ordered. Build should commence next week. I found some deals and thus made some changes, Newegg for example had my mobo open box for $120 less than what I was going to pay, we'll see if it works out. Some changes on the memory and case as well. I didn't mind the more expensive options but I want to get building sooner rather than later and with my original parts list it wouldn't be happening for another month.