Is this high-end build just too much overkill? Advice please

[S0ULphIRE]

Fifth, I don't really see a need for a large NVMe OS drive over having larger SSD storage. If you plan to record game footage in high bitrate and edit on the same rig I still recommend having the large SATA SSD in the rig. As somebody who does just this there have been times where I wished I had bigger than 512GB SSDs in my rig for footage record drive and scratch. I recommend a good balance, maybe a 4TB EVO SATA and a 1TB 960 EVO for the boot. I do not recommend a RAID for the setup at all (in case that was your intention for the dual 4TB SSDs). Swinging back to the second point, 99% of applications you won't notice a difference in raw speeds differing between the NVMe and SATA SSDs. Most notably the difference lies in IOPS and that's what Optane drives are going for. Thing is, until we have an OS designed for these high speeds the difference is nill. This is why I still rock an older gen 2 4x PCI-E SSD and I wish I opted for a higher capacity M.2 SATA 850 EVO instead. I say this not only as an enthusiast but also a crappy content creator.

Yeah agreed. I'd say stick with a 1TB evo as well, I put the 2TB pro in because your original build looked like you wanted a ton of storage and didn't care about price
A note though re Optane, you'll have to buy a new mobo/cpu if you go with those choices and want to use optane when it comes out - X99 chipset isn't supported and neither is skylake according to intel's site.

Sixth, RAM speed. No. For large amounts of RAM do not exceed 2400 or you could have stability issues. Actually for any rig I don't recommend faster unless being dealt with by an experienced user who has time to tweak settings to stabilize the machine. To top it off, there is 0 difference

We're running 16+ workstations here all with 3200mhz ram installed since our upgrade like 9 months ago, zero issues with any of them so far so I dunno that I'd be worried about exceeding 2400 tbh that said, for gaming performance yeah there's no real benefit to upping the speed. I wouldn't say literally 0 because that's not right, but negligible yes.
If the 2400Mhz sets are cheaper by a significant amount then definitely stick with that, but if it's a $25 difference then IMO may as well stick with the faster set (especially if you're looking to future-proof this build).

 

[King$nake]

Just want to make a few corrections here.

Firstly, all the high end Origin builds are watercooled, and the one mentioned in the OP is a dual custom loop.

Second, M.2 is an interface, it runs SATA, PCI-E, and NVMe PCI-E SSDs.

Third, for any of these chips I recommend a closed loop cooler regardless of opinions on "water". They're 0 maintenance and as long as you don't do anything half retarded with the tubes they won't leak ever. There's a couple of reasons for this. THe first being, they provide superior cooling compared to any air setup. Second, depending on how the radiator and airflow is setup you'll need to clean it less often. To extend on that, you don't have to take the block off the CPU to clean the rad either making it less of a hassle and less likely to mess up on remount causing issues later. THey can also be setup to dump heat directly out of the case meaning less heat in the case to saturate the video cards.

Fourth, the Titan X Pascal is faster than both of my Maxwell Titans together in most situations, and a good deal faster than the 1080. With the money being tossed around, it'd be a waste to go with a 1080 or pair over a couple TItan X Pascal. I can do a direct comparison later if need be since I own the cards in question.

Fifth, I don't really see a need for a large NVMe OS drive over having larger SSD storage. If you plan to record game footage in high bitrate and edit on the same rig I still recommend having the large SATA SSD in the rig. As somebody who does just this there have been times where I wished I had bigger than 512GB SSDs in my rig for footage record drive and scratch. I recommend a good balance, maybe a 4TB EVO SATA and a 1TB 960 EVO for the boot. I do not recommend a RAID for the setup at all (in case that was your intention for the dual 4TB SSDs). Swinging back to the second point, 99% of applications you won't notice a difference in raw speeds differing between the NVMe and SATA SSDs. Most notably the difference lies in IOPS and that's what Optane drives are going for. Thing is, until we have an OS designed for these high speeds the difference is nill. This is why I still rock an older gen 2 4x PCI-E SSD and I wish I opted for a higher capacity M.2 SATA 850 EVO instead. I say this not only as an enthusiast but also a crappy content creator.

Sixth, RAM speed. No. For large amounts of RAM do not exceed 2400 or you could have stability issues. Actually for any rig I don't recommend faster unless being dealt with by an experienced user who has time to tweak settings to stabilize the machine. To top it off, there is 0 difference.

Seventh, I run a 34" Ultrawide 1440p currently with my older Maxwell Titans. It gets the job done easily, and the Vive even easier. The 1080s will easily tackle anything on either display BUT the Pascal Titans will hold a bit more longevity and help for those VR titles not utilizing SLI. One thing I want to make clear is, even with this setup it does not mean you'll continue to max out titles on the Ultrawide for the next 5 years. I expect the Pascal Titans to easily get overwhelmed in about 3 years when true DX12 titles release full force utilizing more of the tech. It's up to you whether you want to decide on a couple 1080s now then upgrade to post-Volta cards in 2019. If you don't mind turning down a bit of settings in 3-4 years then the Titans will suffice. Just don't expect miracles just because you're dropping 2400 on cards.

Finally, processor and motherboard. As somebody who uses Premiere Pro I will admit that dropping from 6 cores to what's essentially an i7 6700 it does the rendering with ease. That being said, I suggest the middle ground. If you don't want to do custom loop water I suggest against the 6950x because of it's lower clock speeds and settle for a 6900k which will be suitable for gaming and still have 16 threads for content creation. I also suggest not splurging on the expensive Asus board. If you aren't overclocking or benchmarking you'll be spending a massive amount of money to utilize 20% of the board. Now, if you just don't care then that's up to you.

All that being said, this is what I'd choose granted the situation.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wcHhd6

If money is no option at all I'd just get bigger storage. 2TB 960 Pro and/or second 4TB 850 EVO.

There are also two more options in the near future. A Ryzen 1800x or Skylake-X.

Dude I want you to know I am so grateful for your detailed reply. I seriously spent a solid 45 minutes typing my reply with questions and appreciation for how much knowledge you have shared and then when I went to submit the reply, my lastpass plugin re-logged me in and somehow I lost my session and clicking back could not save the message lmao.

All that to say thank you. Few questions

1.) Can you explain the difference between the LGA1151, LGA2011-3 and LGA 2066? I thought kaby lake (7th gen) was the latest tech but it uses an LGA1151, but the Skylake-X will use a 2066? Perhaps I am just wondering which mobo will be the best for long-term, or to avoid perhaps having to change motherboard in the future for a new chip, for example.

2.) Also does EVGA or ASUS make good CPU Liquid Coolers? I guess Corsair is the standard?

3.) Any recommendation for a really nice case? I've seen some of the cool digital temp readouts and transparent side panels with LCD readouts, very cool - not sure if gimmicky or not though, or if it is custom.

4.) Any suggestion for optical drives, media card readers, etc? Not sure if optical drives are still a thing


So with the money spent on this I wasn't sure if I wanted to build one or just order it from Origin or something (if there is a better pre-built option, Im open to hear), but now I am thinking maybe I will just build again. I just don't want to be stressing over running the cables cleanly and efficiently, or spending too much time on it - but perhaps it is still as easy as I remember, even with the latest tech.

Yeah agreed. I'd say stick with a 1TB evo as well, I put the 2TB pro in because your original build looked like you wanted a ton of storage and didn't care about price
A note though re Optane, you'll have to buy a new mobo/cpu if you go with those choices and want to use optane when it comes out - X99 chipset isn't supported and neither is skylake according to intel's site.

Thank you soulphire for your time. Is Optane SSD technology or something? If it is, why would someone need to get a new mobo/cpu? thanks. as you can see I am waaaayy out of the loop! I appreciate your help,

 

[PP Mguire]

Yeah agreed. I'd say stick with a 1TB evo as well, I put the 2TB pro in because your original build looked like you wanted a ton of storage and didn't care about price
A note though re Optane, you'll have to buy a new mobo/cpu if you go with those choices and want to use optane when it comes out - X99 chipset isn't supported and neither is skylake according to intel's site.



We're running 16+ workstations here all with 3200mhz ram installed since our upgrade like 9 months ago, zero issues with any of them so far so I dunno that I'd be worried about exceeding 2400 tbh that said, for gaming performance yeah there's no real benefit to upping the speed. I wouldn't say literally 0 because that's not right, but negligible yes.
If the 2400Mhz sets are cheaper by a significant amount then definitely stick with that, but if it's a $25 difference then IMO may as well stick with the faster set (especially if you're looking to future-proof this build).

The only thing Optane is doing right now is being used for a cache and it won't even ship until Q2 or later. It's not something to be concerned about yet.

Yea, but are they running at 3200, and how much? As for gaming performance, yea there's literally 0 difference. Just like there wasn't any difference between 1600+ from DDR3 to DDR4. Linus even went to test DDR3 1066 and showed no real benefit of faster RAM for gaming. We're at a time where memory just isn't anywhere close to being a bottleneck before other components. Only time you'll see a difference is when you use a RAMDisk. In some instances the faster RAM was slower even, and stuff like quad-channel is just dick slinging these days.

Dude I want you to know I am so grateful for your detailed reply. I seriously spent a solid 45 minutes typing my reply with questions and appreciation for how much knowledge you have shared and then when I went to submit the reply, my lastpass plugin re-logged me in and somehow I lost my session and clicking back could not save the message lmao.

All that to say thank you. Few questions

1.) Can you explain the difference between the LGA1151, LGA2011-3 and LGA 2066? I thought kaby lake (7th gen) was the latest tech but it uses an LGA1151, but the Skylake-X will use a 2066? Perhaps I am just wondering which mobo will be the best for long-term, or to avoid perhaps having to change motherboard in the future for a new chip, for example.

2.) Also does EVGA or ASUS make good CPU Liquid Coolers? I guess Corsair is the standard?

3.) Any recommendation for a really nice case? I've seen some of the cool digital temp readouts and transparent side panels with LCD readouts, very cool - not sure if gimmicky or not though, or if it is custom.

4.) Any suggestion for optical drives, media card readers, etc? Not sure if optical drives are still a thing


So with the money spent on this I wasn't sure if I wanted to build one or just order it from Origin or something (if there is a better pre-built option, Im open to hear), but now I am thinking maybe I will just build again. I just don't want to be stressing over running the cables cleanly and efficiently, or spending too much time on it - but perhaps it is still as easy as I remember, even with the latest tech.



Thank you soulphire for your time. Is Optane SSD technology or something? If it is, why would someone need to get a new mobo/cpu? thanks. as you can see I am waaaayy out of the loop! I appreciate your help,

1: No motherboard on the market right now will support Skylake-X or Kaby-X. It will require the new socket. 1151 is for mainstream 6th and 7th gen Core i CPUs, 2011-3 is for Haswell-E and Broadwell-E enthusiast desktop processors and Xeons, and 2066 will be for Skylake-X and Kaby-X. Wanting to avoid changing later is why I mentioned it.

2: They all use the same OEM for their units.

3: Let's figure out the parts first then we'll chose a case based on what's selected.

4:Uh not really, if you need one get an external USB3 drive. I personally haven't used one since 08 and that's why I was like really dual optical drives?

Running cables cleanly and sleeved is easier than ever. ****, you can pre-measure how long your cables need to be exactly then order a cable set off Cablemod exactly how you want it. You can order a setup from Origin or Maingear that's up to you if you just can't be bothered.

Intel Optane uses their new 3d Xpoint technology which is a newer form of 3D NAND. Intel hopes to replace SSDs and DRAM down the road with this. It hasn't been released yet and it's another thing like NVMe which will require bios and platform support. Currently only 7th gen Core i stuff will support it if/when it launches this year. When it does come out, it will come in a 16GB or 32GB flavor and be used as a cache basically like how SSDs were introduced back in the day. I wouldn't get too flustered about it because by the time this stuff is around and actually affordable and large enough to utilize you'll be on a new platform.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

The only thing Optane is doing right now is being used for a cache and it won't even ship until Q2 or later. It's not something to be concerned about yet.

Only thinking that OP mentioned he kept his current rig for 10 YEARS I figure if he wants to upgrade his storage in 2 years, having to redo his mobo/cpu and potentially memory as well won't be worth it if he can just buy compatible stuff now that'll last him 5 years at least. Hell, I'm still using the build I put together in 2010 with just the gfx card and ssd upgraded, and I don't see myself having to upgrade for at *least* another 6-12 months. Starting to get tempted by dem 960's tho...

That said, more cores will be very noticeable if you work with premiere pro or after effects (esp paired with 64GB ram), so if you do work with that stuff a lot it'd be a very good reason to go with the 8 core 6900 vs a 4 core 7700.

Comes down to what you wanna use it for. If you're not going to use any programs that'll utilize the extra cores, don't waste your money on it and get something more future proof. If you do use it and need the most immediate performance possible, then by all means go for it!

 

[PP Mguire]

Only thinking that OP mentioned he kept his current rig for 10 YEARS I figure if he wants to upgrade his storage in 2 years, having to redo his mobo/cpu and potentially memory as well won't be worth it if he can just buy compatible stuff now that'll last him 5 years at least. Hell, I'm still using the build I put together in 2010 with just the gfx card and ssd upgraded, and I don't see myself having to upgrade for at *least* another 6-12 months. Starting to get tempted by dem 960's tho...

That said, more cores will be very noticeable if you work with premiere pro or after effects (esp paired with 64GB ram), so if you do work with that stuff a lot it'd be a very good reason to go with the 8 core 6900 vs a 4 core 7700.

Comes down to what you wanna use it for. If you're not going to use any programs that'll utilize the extra cores, don't waste your money on it and get something more future proof. If you do use it and need the most immediate performance possible, then by all means go for it!

He may have mentioned wanting 10 years, but Optane still won't be relevant for the foreseeable future. It took almost a decade for the importance of SSDs to finally be realized. He'll also still need to upgrade at least his graphics in 5 years, which IMO will be more important than platform to utilize Optane. Flash is evolving really frequently and so far with where it's going there isn't much point in paying attention unless you just **** out money and needing bleeding edge. Definitely having more cores would benefit over having anything related to Optane right now and let's face it, their 16 and 32GB cache options will probably cost as much as a 1TB 960 Pro for little to no benefit besides gaining dat epeen. Look at how they treated NVMe with their 750 drives. Massively overpriced until competition came along. 64GB of RAM, couple of fast SSDs, and 16 threads to work with Premiere and he's set. Couple of Titans for graphics, good to go.

Me, I'm moving to Ryzen.