My Next Build: Glacies

[Aux10]

Build Status: Built

As I mentioned over in the Skylake thread, thanks to New Egg's horrible wallet burning emails I found myself starting out on my next build to replace Cassandra as my main rig. (I'd give the link to the old build thread but it seems the old forum archive is no longer available?) Cassandra was built just about six years ago has an i5 750 with two EVGA GTX 460's so I'm sure you'd all agree that it is more than time to upgrade!

So far I have the PSU, CPU, CPU cooler, and the OS. (Parts list at end of post below.) As I previously mentioned I've been debating over which Skylake CPU to get and well... Turns out thats not what happened. After seeing how insanely cheaper CPUs were at Micro Center I made the short journey to the nearest store. When I got there I still hadn't decided which CPU to get and spent about two hours browsing around their computer porn section before I FINALY decided. The sales guy managed to get me to buy not a shiny new Skylake but a i7 5820K. (12 WUs at once anyone? ) So I guess I'm going the X99 route, not the Z170 route like I first thought.

I also just happened to come across a sals rep from Nvidia who flipped what I thought I knew about SLI upside down. (looked it up, turns out he was right) So in other words I guess I'll go with a higher end GPU than a 960 and buy a second one later when the time comes about. Until then I do have an old GTS 250 (I think) that I could pop in for crunching.

The PSU is a Corsair AX760 which I got for an unbeatable deal on New Egg. After a discount code and the mail in rebate (which I have already mailed of course ) it was only $99. (Micro Center was selling it for $250 when I was there today.) As for the CPU cooling unit I got the trusty Cooler Master 212 EVO. As for the OS I got an OEM copy of Windows 10 at an whopping $20 off from New Egg.

Now I need to decide on my X99 MOBO, the case, GPU, storage, RAM. For the case I'd really like it to be white on most of the exterior with a side panel window. I was thinking of something like the Corsair 600T. Does anyone else have any experience with this case? Any better recommendations? Fan color doesn't matter because I'm going to replace them all with blue LED fans regardless.

Being the picky guy I am I'd like to adhere to the blue, white, and black color scheme to have it give off an icy appearance (it is it's name sake after all). I was liking the look of the X99 MSI Krait Edition or the ASRock Extreme 4. Any comments or suggestions? The MOBO reviews are sorely lacking to make a good comparison too. What's better? MSI or ASRock? GPU? Please enlighten me with breaking my bank.

As for storage a SSD is a must but they get costly fast. I was hoping I could run a SSD and a HDD together. Thoughts?

Parts List/Status:

PSU: Corsair AX760 (Received)
CPU: Intel i7 5820K (Received)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master 212 EVO (Received)
OS: Windows 10 OEM (Received)
Case: NXZT H440 (Received)
MOBO: MSI X99S Krait Edition (Received)
RAM: G.skill Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (Received)
HDD/SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB (Received)
GPU: EVGA GTX 980 ACX 2.0 (Waiting for Christmas )

[FourOh]

Congrats on the new build! Your 760W PSU should be able to handle dual GTX 960s or 970s. Dual 970s is a pretty stout setup, my wife's home office computer has them I like EVGA cards and I've had really good luck getting quiet GPUs that OC well from them.

I like Fractal Design and NZXT cases for affordable, quiet, roomy cases with good cable management & cooling options. Check out the Fractal Design R5 and the NZXT H440:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-053-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-218-_-Product

I can't really say if MSI mobos are really any better than Asrock. I've had all kinds; some gave me trouble and some were rock solid. Unfortunately sometimes it comes down to luck. I'd pick the one with the features you want at a price you can live with.

For my next build I'll be looking at an M.2 SSD drive for the OS & programs. I find that 120Gb is plenty for a cruncher, 240Gb is enough for most other computers. I've had good luck with Samsung SSD drives, so I stick with what I know. Then add a 3.5" HDD for storage - I like the NZXT cases because they have a hiding spot for ugly old hard drives

[c303a]

For an inexpensive case in white with a side window I like this one.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7829715&CatId=32

It comes with a nice cable management space on the back side and has supports for the long GPU's that some of us has. I bought 3 of these (all they would allow) when the price was $59.95 with a $50.00 rebate and do not regret it. I parceled out all 3 for new builds and made $50.00 on each one. I now have another 2 of these running on my "farm" here. By the way they come with nice blue LED fans.

[Aux10]

The sales guy at Micro Center did show me around a NXZT H440 but I was really put off by the lack of the 5.25" drive bays since I wanted to put Cassandra's Blu-ray drive in. Well... The case seems to have grown on me and after I was able to configure the sharing settings on Cassandra to play dvd's over my network it sealed the deal. The case has been decided to be the H440.

As for the RAM, what about these?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231790

[c303a]

I'd hold off on ram until you settle on a MB. Some of the X99 boards have 8 memory slots and can take 64 or even 128 g of ram. I doubt if you would need that much but who knows.

[Aux10]

Well for the MOBO I was thinking either of these two:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130812
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157543

I really like the colors of the MSI one but if purchasing decisions were made on eye candy alone we'd be scammed into oblivion. I should mention that USB 3.1 means nothing to me. Find me a singe drive than can actually use that bandwidth or I'll keep calling it an overpriced gimmick.

[c303a]

Well for the MOBO I was thinking either of these two:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130812
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157543

I really like the colors of the MSI one but if purchasing decisions were made on eye candy alone we'd be scammed into oblivion. I should mention that USB 3.1 means nothing to me. Find me a singe drive than can actually use that bandwidth or I'll keep calling it an overpriced gimmick.

As you can see they both have 8 memory slots with a 128 g limit. That is a lot of memory capacity but it might be good for future use. I think I would put in 2 sticks of 16 g for now with a possible upgrade later. I also do not look at the recommended lists for the motherboard and have never had a problem with installing memory. I just bought some cheap 16 g sticks of DDR3 and dropped them into a boox and they work fine. I know that that is so against what everybody says but then that's they way I am. I always go against the grain.

[Aux10]

Well, I went ahead and ordered the RAM, MOBO, case, and SSD. I also plan to pull Cassandra's 1TB backup HDD out and use it as the secondary drive for bulk storage.

[Mike029]

Congrats.. You are going to love your setup..

[c303a]

Looks like you are going to love that build and room for improvement later. Congrats.