Here is my build thus far. It isn't a far cry from many other builds I've happened upon here while checking through other similar builds. I'm the US, aim to game and touch on Photoshop occasionally. I have my own peripherals, screen and OS. I just need a hand with the actual tower.
It's my first build, and I'm not a complete noob to PC parts, but only understand on a pretty high level, so extra feedback in more than welcome. I've also done a handful of basic repairs and upgrades on PCs, but never actually removing a motherboard.
My primary concerns are, though, would I be able to fit this in a Fractal R5? I could get a full sized Crosair instead because I'm not necessarily married to the idea of this R5, but I am definitely digging it. Secondly, I do plan on playing with overclocking and learning more (this is why I am building, not buying) so would I need a liquid cooling solution for this? I was told I could OC the i5-4690k to 4GHz and would definitely like to do so just to get my hands dirty.
It didn't seem like I would gain too much from an i7 for my needs, unless I was betting on hyper-threading picking up in terms of general usefulness in gaming.
Do you think I'm mistaken for betting that the i5 will carry me long enough in terms of relevancy? or would I see enough of a difference in general productivity or Photoshop to invest in an i7?
I think you want to keep a system as balanced as possible. You're shooting for the stars with every part, except the CPU, and I find that strange lolz. You're going to add two high performance GPU's in that system, you'll need all the CPU power you can get your hands on to avoid bottoming out in critical applications in my opinion. It's not even more expensive if you're going for a Xeon, but you'll probably also want to overclock because you're spending so much on a mobo.
Did you check for VT-d compatibility of the mobo? I have no idea, but it's nice to check whether it's kvm certified, because that's definitely something you'll need in the bery near future with the way things are going ahead.
Just add one more 140mm fan to the front of the r5 and you'd be sweet, make sure it's on at least medium on the fan controller though, mainly coz of those 2 980s, maybe get a fourth fan for the bottom mount for the 980s to be safe, you'd have to put it on the mobo fan header though.
VT-d is support for virtualization. If want to use multiple OS in a virtual machine without doing a multiple boot and want the VM to have direct access to your hardware you need to have VT-d.