Budget: I am willing to go up to 4000$ now, maybe a little over depending on what the difference of hardware would be.
Location & Currency: CT, USA and USD
Preferred Retailer: Not particularly, but I tend to favor Amazon and Newegg because of past experience with them, nearest MicroCenter is in NY, I believe which is a ways out.
Peripherals: Logitech Z523 speakers, Gigabyte Force M7 Thor mouse, Cooler Master Quick Fire Rapid keyboard (MX Red), Razer Sphex mousepad, Sennheiser HD 558 headphones, Zalman ZM-MIC1 Microphone. I like what I use, but all could be better, I'm don't think it necessary though.
PC Usage: Primarily Gaming, I am trying to get into 3D design and modeling. I program on top of that, and I need a bluray drive for burning video edits for my brother.
OC? I've been interested in it, I want to try it eventually, but if I don't need to I won't for while. I would like to have either the capability to do it in the future OR the upgrade capability for it.
Custom Watercooling: I would think that the final stage of this build would require watercooling and I wouldn't mind doing it either, so I am up for it, especially with watercooling I may OC just to utilize the cooling moreso.
OS: Yes, though I am on the fence about Windows 7 or 8.1, I am much more used to 7, but 8.1 is newer obviously, I'm willing to change over, I'm worried about compatibility with games, as well as the customizability of the OS (I do a lot of tweaking.)
For Gaming:Current Games I Play: Arma3, Arma2 (A2&3 Modded and unModded), Dota 2, Skyrim (Heavily Modded), CS:GO, DiRT Rally Series, Borderlands 2, Metro 2033, Bioshock, GRID, Rage, F1 2013.
Settings/FPS: I'd thoroughly enjoy ultra settings at minimum 60fps for games that it is possible in, though having FPS above and beyond that would be wonderful because I could clamp it if need be.
Gaming Resolution? Right now I play on 1920x1080 which I am entirely fine with although there is a Samsung 4k monitor that looks tempting.
Rendering/Editing:
What application do you use to render? All of adobe suite for the most part for video/photo. I use blender mostly for 3D modeling, soemtimes Maya depending the project. I use Softimage|XSI occasionally and Photoshop for these projects as well. My brother will be using the machine occasionally to render some film because that is what he does for a living.
Even though I have peripherals:
Keyboard preference? Cherry MX Red Mechanical, I'm open to others, but I enjoy these switches. I don't need backlit, but it's a plus. I don't care much for a numpad, but again, a plus.
What type of mouse-grip do you have? Palm, claw, combination? I'm right-handed, I claw with my thumb, index and middle, and them palm with my ring and pinky.
What kind of games do you play? FPS/TPS, RTS, I tend to do find without extra buttons, I've always managed.
Monitor Preference: I'm totally down with TN, I prefer 1 or 2ms response because why not. For 1920x1080, I will not go over 24", that is for larger resolutions because of pixel density. Overall I'd prefer higher refresh rate, 60HZ has a tendency to bother me.
This is what I'd like to be the final build (without watercooling or cooling in general):
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8WNdJx
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8WNdJx/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($1039.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer Micro ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($246.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($899.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Plextor M6e 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($214.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($569.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($569.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold Evolution 1200W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.98@ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Samsung U28D590D 60Hz 28.0" Monitor ($599.99 @ Adorama)
Total: $4998.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-26 20:16 EDT-0400
--The initial build would be the above without the Samsung monitor, and only 1 GTX980.
Other Notes:
Building experience and etc: I've built computers before, I worked as a tech for repairing them as well. I used to keep up on the parts more than I do now, I want to make sure I am getting everything down pat. I am VERY aware the CPU and GPU are immensely powerful and not needed for gaming, but I have the budget, and I have use for them elsewhere.
Must Haves: I would love to have mATX, I realize space is confined, but I have bias towards mATX. This is why I suspect watercooling will be a must to reach the final build.
Other parts to replace the above with:
CPU: Instead of the 5960k, I could do the 5930k or 5820k, the prices are vastly less on top of the clock being higher. I'm not entirely sure of the trade offs between the cores and clock, so I am open to getting a different one, which I may do in the end anyways.
HDD: Basic WD Blue would be fine, but the cache on the drive is nice, I don't really need anything more than 1TB, anything done for rendering that is too large can be taken care of otherwise.
SSD: Instead of the M2, I currently use a 240GB Sandisk Extreme II SSD that is quite fast and that I wouldn't mind using if it came to that.
PSU: I calculated out the wattage needed for a maxed out wattage scenario and it came to something around 994W, so 1000W would be suitable, in that case I was looking at the Seasonic platinum 1000W, but I'm not quite sure if I should bump it up a bit more. Though I would still prefer full modular over anything at all.
- Stuff I'm hesitant about changing:
RAM - I calculated the timings for reads and this speed/CAS is the fastest, I am a nut when it comes to ram, I use ramdisks a lot may be the reason.
Monitors - I've been eying these monitors for a while, if you can find something similar or better let me know.
Blu-ray - I have this on another PC for my dad, works great, and for the price with it's available speeds, I really can't say I want anything else, but again let me know.
OS - Although 7 is my forte at the moment, I'd be open to 8.1, I just need some persuading.
Case: In my opinion, the nicest mATX case, it's sleek. I know about the available fan positions on it and with what I posted originally it may have heat problems, so if anything better, let me know, although I'd prefer staying mATX sized. With this particular case, I'd have to do more examination, but I was thinking in the case of too high temperatures, I might mod the window so it can hold a 2x2 grid of 120mm fans, and if watercooled I may do radiators (thin if normal is too think).
GPU: I want to stick to a 980 basically, suggestions/comments let me know.
MB: I don't really have much a reason, I just particularly like everything it has, plus I got an Asrock for my Dad's PC, and I liked it a lot.
COOLING: I don't really know what I am going to do specifically for cooling, at minimum I'd probably get a closed loop for the cpu and throw fans in the other places for the gpu and other cooling. For watercooling custom loop with the SLI 980s, I'd prefer they be watercooled as well, optionally, depending on temperatures and compatibility I may opt for RAM blocks, and mofset/volt regulator blocks, but again ONLY if temperatures are a problem.
Feedback,suggestions,comments,etc. please post, If you are talking about the parts, PLEASE for the love of all that is hardware and reason, make a logical post with support for your choice over mine.