Wife will NOT be happy

[Lanceor]

I'm looking at building a new machine to replace my heat-damaged 2600K computer and was wondering if any hardware experts could give some opinions. Here's what I have in mind so far:

CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K
CPU Cooling: Corsair H110i CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero (Z270, 4x DDR4, 3x PCIE3.0 x16, 6x SATA3, 2x M.2, 4x USB3, 2x USB3.1, HDMI, DisplayPort, ATX, AC WiFi, SupremeFX S1220, ROG Aura)
Graphics: 2 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Xtreme Gaming Waterforce (Base:1784MHz,Boost:1936MHz), 8GB GDDR5X (10,400Mhz), PCI-E 3.0, DVI-DL, HDMI2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4, WATERFORCE All in One Closed Loop Water Cooling, Xtreme VR Link
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 32GB (2x16GB) PC4-25600 (3200MHz) DDR4, 16-16-16-36-2N, 1.35V, Dual Channel Kit
SSD: Samsung 1TB SSD, 960 PRO Series m.2 (PCIE), Read up to 3500MB/s, Write up to 2100MB/s, Type 2280
HDD: Seagate 6TB BarraCuda Pro SATA III, 7200RPM, 256MB, Includes 2yr Seagate Recovery Services
Case: Corsair Carbide Air 740 High Airflow ATX Cube Case, Side Panel Window, No PSU, 2x USB 3.0, 8x Expansion Slot, Dual-chamber Direct Airflow Path
Power Supply: Corsair 850W RM850i Gold Power Supply 80 PLUS Gold, 135mm Fan, 1x ATX, 1x EPS, 6x PCI-E, 8x Molex, 10x SATA, Fully Modular, Zero RPM Technology
SLI Bridge: Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming 2-Way SLI HB Bridge 2 Slot Spacing

What I'm looking for:

• Gaming overkill for at least 2 years
• Overclockability (for more overkill)
• Dust resistance (the liquid cooled components should allow me to reduce fan speeds and ensure the case is positive pressure)
• Windows 7

Specific questions:

• Are there better choices for any of the components?
• Is anything there that could be replaced with something cheaper without compromising performance?
• Should I switch to a bigger PSU for more stability?
• Any suggestions on which case to use?

Price is no object, but I'd be glad to save a few dollars if it won't really compromise the performance. Many thanks in advance for any opinions offered!

[AndyB]

overkill on the graphics cards, buy one now, get another in a years time if you feel the need, 2 years even.

oh and be careful with the CPU cooler, i had one and moved the hose aside to fit a fan and the extra strain broke the mount of the socket, check if its through mounted, if it is it won't be an issue

[TorTorden]

1080ti should be coming shortly.

[Qpidstunt]

Personally I would split up that 6TB drive... Thats a lot of data to loose if it goes bang, even with the 'recovery service'.

Why not cheer up the Mrs (a little) and go for 3 x 2TB drives, put 1 in your PC and then 2 in a NAS box? That way everyone at the home can access it for 2TB of media / storage and then, as it backs itself up onto the last 2TB drive, you (she) gets peace of mind knowing all your important files are safe.

[TorTorden]

Personally I would split up that 6TB drive... Thats a lot of data to loose if it goes bang, even with the 'recovery service'.

Why not cheer up the Mrs (a little) and go for 3 x 2TB drives, put 1 in your PC and then 2 in a NAS box? That way everyone at the home can access it for 2TB of media / storage and then, as it backs itself up onto the last 2TB drive, you (she) gets peace of mind knowing all your important files are safe.

This.

But on site backup = no backup.

[Lanceor]

@ AndyB - Good advice - I'll start with one GPU and see how I go. I'll be getting the seller to assemble the machine for me, so I'll check with them about the cooler.

@ TorTorden - Thanks for the tip about the 1080ti - I'm really tempted to get one but I want water cooling and I'm hesitant to go straight from air-cooled to a custom built water cooler in one jump. Maybe in my next upgrade.

@Qpidstunt - I actually only need about 2 TB of secondary disk space... I actually chose the BarraCuda Pro as it was the smallest 7200 rpm / 256 MB cache model I could find. Reviews for it were also good. Checking the prices, 3 x 2TB / 7200 rpm / 128 MB drives look like they'd actually cost more. This machine will be for gaming and entertainment, so losing data isn't too much of a biggie.

Thanks for all the advice so far!

[Loriath]

Does that case have Filters for Dust? Even in the PS compartment? THAT will keep the dust down if it does. PS looks good.

I agree with the rest, raid the data drive. Overkill on the SLI. ED does not even behave well in SLI if you search the main forums.

Oh and about Hard drives, read This: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-dri ... s-q1-2016/

And then get a Backblaze Cloud backup account for 5$ US a month to back the WHOLE SYSTEM up. No limit on the size of your backup for 5 a month except the drive must be attached to your PC to be backed up.

Their recovery plan is easy for a Whole Drive death: You pay for an External USB Drive with a Dupe of your data and they ship it overnight. Then you have 30 days to return the drive to them for a full refund. Just need a few files, done online. Need access to a couple of files while your on vacation? They have iOS and android apps as well.

Are you selling the Wife to pay for it? Post pics. Does she have a Boat?

[TorTorden]

Does that case have Filters for Dust? Even in the PS compartment? THAT will keep the dust down if it does. PS looks good.

I agree with the rest, raid the data drive. Overkill on the SLI. ED does not even behave well in SLI if you search the main forums.

Oh and about Hard drives, read This: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-dri ... s-q1-2016/

And then get a Backblaze Cloud backup account for 5$ US a month to back the WHOLE SYSTEM up. No limit on the size of your backup for 5 a month except the drive must be attached to your PC to be backed up.

Their recovery plan is easy for a Whole Drive death: You pay for an External USB Drive with a Dupe of your data and they ship it overnight. Then you have 30 days to return the drive to them for a full refund. Just need a few files, done online. Need access to a couple of files while your on vacation? They have iOS and android apps as well.

Are you selling the Wife to pay for it? Post pics. Does she have a Boat?

Pigeon net ?
Why can't I download it.
It would be much faster than a usb, let alone the time in shipping...

[Loriath]

[

Pigeon net ?
Why can't I download it.
It would be much faster than a usb, let alone the time in shipping...

You can, just most people don't have "Internets of the Gods" speed so the Delivery service is a nice option. You can download all of it if you want. A lot of people I know have over a Terabyte of data with them.

[thebs]

Personally I would split up that 6TB drive... Thats a lot of data to loose if it goes bang, even with the 'recovery service'.

Putting NAND EEPROM (aka "flash") drives aside (which is another, deep debate) ...

No one should purchase a simple, pure platter spindle drive today. Always purchase a SSHD -- platter+NAND, aka platter-backed or NAND read caching -- like the new FireCuda models in the case of Seagate. Why?

If you look Google and several other studies, including the industry's own SNIA, on Annualized Failure Rates (AFRs) of platter or platter-backed NAND (SSHD) drives, one thing stands out. TheAFRs of SSHD drives are an order of magnitude less, in the 0.2-2% range, instead of 2-20%. Why?

Simple, NAND EEPROM is the ultimate read cache (sucks for write buffer, don't get me started -- NAND is slow at writes, and DRAM is used to buffer it). Having just 8GB totally It totally cuts down on seeks. Windows boot files and commonly accessed programs (Windows is horrendously nasty on seeks -- especially boot and Windows Update) quickly get cached in the NAND. It's much, much larger -- 30-120x larger -- than the 64-256MiB of RAM in the same systems, which is then used for write buffer, coalescing writes to the platter.

My own experience with over 100 SSHD drives, from the original, 2.5"x9.5mm 500-700GB 7200rpm + 4-8GB SLC Momentus XT to the latest 2.5"x7mm 2TB 5400rpm + 8GB MLC FireCuda, reflects this. I refuse to buy anything but a SSHD, sans for a NAS, and then it's a 24x7 standby rated 'near-line' (not to be confused with 24x7 use 'Enterprise' rated) drive, not a consumer one.

Why not cheer up the Mrs (a little) and go for 3 x 2TB drives, put 1 in your PC and then 2 in a NAS box? That way everyone at the home can access it for 2TB of media / storage and then, as it backs itself up onto the last 2TB drive, you (she) gets peace of mind knowing all your important files are safe.

Everyone should have a NAS today, and it should have at least 2x drives in RAID-1. I still stand by the cheap, entry-level DS21Xj (3.5") series Synology units, especially for their DNLA/media features and Android/iOS apps, if not the DS41Xj (3.5") or DS41Xslim (2.5") models. Totally worth the investment of $300-600, depending on a 2-disk v. 4-disk option. I only wish they had a DS21Xslim (2.5"), although the 4-bay slim is really only $100 more. The sucker doesn't even use 30W with all 4 drives populated.

I even had a 8 year-old Synology DS211j die, and I not only took the drives out and put them in another, used, 2 year-old DS214j, but it offered me to restore all the old settings it had auto-backed up to the volume, so I was back up in 5 minutes.