Building a high-end PC

xathal

Hello all.
Thank you very much for helping the novices. I'm not au fait with hardware, having not bought a new desktop PC in 15 years. I will be using this professionally and personally a lot and want to future-proof myself.

Ultimately, I would like a water cooled dual 1080 SLI setup but would be happy enough with a single air-cooled version for now.
Similarly, I'm familiar with Intel Processors and would ultimately like to go with water-cooling for an i7 but can stick with air for now.

I'll need 16-32 GB RAM (32 preferred), 128GB+ SSD, 2 TB+ HDD etc.

Something like the PCS-D1165534 seems reasonable but I don't know about the quality of the mobo etc.


1. What is your budget? E3000+ Obviously I don't want to spend this but I want to do this right.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Deep learning, 3D modelling, editing VR, processing very large datasets, occasional crypto messing and gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]: Yes, but I default to Linux

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have a mouse, keyboar, optical drive and basic cables.

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 4k 28"-29"

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless will certainly be necessary. Anything anyone recommends. Wireless headphones with a mic and a 1080p Webcam would be nice

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes, but I'd rather avoid it unless absolutely necessary

8. How can you pay? Bank/Debit Card/Bitcoin

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I won't need help

Appreciate anyone's input. Hopefully, I'll get to know some of you in the gaming arena as I get into it. :-D

Metric Tensor

The lads here will come up with a great spec I'm sure but in my opinion there's no point going to the effort/hassle of water-cooling if you're not going to overclock!

Also you sound like an ideal candidate for Threadripper if it's all it's cracked up to be! Definitely worth waiting to see anyway.

frozenfrozen

you're looking for too much with your budget

do you really need to do all that other stuff or is it just gaming and slightly messing around with the other stuff you listed?

xathal

Metric Tensor wrote: »

The lads here will come up with a great spec I'm sure but in my opinion there's no point going to the effort/hassle of water-cooling if you're not going to overclock!...

I intend to ultimately (in a year or two) encase the system in a manner that will restrict air flow. At that point, I intend to be using water-cooling on it and a number of other systems. If that works well, I'll start overclocking. I don't mind getting the practice in now, but if things are getting too pricey anyway... :-(

Thanks for the tip on the Threadripper

frozenfrozen wrote: »

you're looking for too much with your budget

do you really need to do all that other stuff or is it just gaming and slightly messing around with the other stuff you listed?

Mostly the other stuff and I hope to use it as an excuse to get back into gaming and some crypto nonsense. It's been a while but it's gotten a lot more social.
Deep learning and VR editing are what actually matter to me.
I take it the systems I've seen with similar specs (one GTX 1080) for around E2000 used other components of lesser quality?

Given that I ultimately want to scale to quite extreme levels of parallel processing, how would you recommend starting off? What would you consider a reasonable system to build around a 1080? I'm guessing the Ti is out of the question.

K.O.Kiki

xathal wrote: »

Hello all.
Thank you very much for helping the novices. I'm not au fait with hardware, having not bought a new desktop PC in 15 years. I will be using this professionally and personally a lot and want to future-proof myself.

Ultimately, I would like a water cooled dual 1080 SLI setup but would be happy enough with a single air-cooled version for now.
Similarly, I'm familiar with Intel Processors and would ultimately like to go with water-cooling for an i7 but can stick with air for now.

I'll need 16-32 GB RAM (32 preferred), 128GB+ SSD, 2 TB+ HDD etc.

Something like the PCS-D1165534 seems reasonable but I don't know about the quality of the mobo etc.


1. What is your budget? E3000+ Obviously I don't want to spend this but I want to do this right.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Deep learning, 3D modelling, editing VR, processing very large datasets, occasional crypto messing and gaming.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]: Yes, but I default to Linux

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? I have a mouse, keyboar, optical drive and basic cables.

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 4k 28"-29"

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless will certainly be necessary. Anything anyone recommends. Wireless headphones with a mic and a 1080p Webcam would be nice

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes, but I'd rather avoid it unless absolutely necessary

8. How can you pay? Bank/Debit Card/Bitcoin

9. When are you purchasing? ASAP

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? I won't need help

Appreciate anyone's input. Hopefully, I'll get to know some of you in the gaming arena as I get into it. :-D

Not even mad; I can't beat that PCSpecialist build on price (PCS-D1165534 - €1477)

Even their 1080 Ti machine is fairly priced (PCS-D1204887 - €1891) but of course, we don't know what parts it has exactly.

I'd look at a Ryzen 7 setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (€309.90 @ Caseking)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - MasterLiquid 120 66.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (€74.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI - X370 SLI PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (€136.18 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (€275.94 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€94.94 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€94.90 @ Caseking)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card (€805.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: be quiet! - Pure Base 600 (Black/Silver) ATX Mid Tower Case (€71.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (€115.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1979.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-26 22:37 CEST+0200

4k IPS monitors are €370-500 (60Hz) / €470-700 (75Hz)

xathal

You lived up to your name, K.O. Knocked it out of the park. That's amazing, thanks!

Serephucus

Two main things I think should be clarified before speccing starts:

Workload:
What kind of work are you going to be doing exactly, and how parallelised are we talking? Just multi-GPU, or are you going to be running clusters? It kinda seems like you intend for it to eventually end up there, given the next bit.

Cooling:
You mention restrictive airflow. What's this mean exactly? Because water isn't necessarily going to help as much as you might think with **** airflow, but again it depends on specifics.

xathal

Serephucus wrote: »

...Just multi-GPU, or are you going to be running clusters? It kinda seems like you intend for it to eventually end up there, given the next bit...

In the event that my efforts are profitable, I'd certainly consider retooling for clusters, but it's not the current plan. 2 1080 Tis should be able to handle anything I need locally for the next while.

Serephucus wrote: »

You mention restrictive airflow. What's this mean exactly? Because water isn't necessarily going to help as much as you might think with **** airflow, but again it depends on specifics.

The box is intended to be embedded within a larger mobile structure. Said assembly will have its own heat management systems and my plan is to integrate them. This is probably 2-3 years from being in a working state so it's not urgent.

Serephucus

Ah grand. Nothing too exotic for the short term so.

Without knowing workload specifics, either of the builds Kiki specced will do the job. You could wait for Threadripper* though if you're using CUDA I'd hazard a guess the CPU won't matter too much.

* The value proposition here is just insane in comparison to anything Intel can strain out, at this point. Current timeline sees Threadripper launch August 10th. If it's of benefit to you, I would 100% wait.

xathal

Well I'm convinced. Will do. Thanks.

The Threadripper seems amazing; I could really use all those cores when CUDA can't cut it. Won't be limited addressability of memory, either. Yeesh!

K.O.Kiki

https://videocardz.com/71211/amd-ryzen-threadripper-systems-are-now-available

Pac1Man

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Not even mad; I can't beat that PCSpecialist build on price (PCS-D1165534 - €1477)

Does this look too good to be true? Seems like a great deal.

K.O.Kiki

Pac1Man wrote: »

Does this look too good to be true? Seems like a great deal.

The only things I'd ask is what motherboard chipset & PSU they're using.

Billy86

Just a slight few tweaks on K.O.Kiki's build above if you'd rather shop from the UK.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£275.89 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - X370 SLI PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (£132.61 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£231.80 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.96 @ BT Shop)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.58 @ Eclipse Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Gaming OC 11G Video Card (£659.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£62.97 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 (EU) 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£83.99 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: AOC - U2879VF 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor (£299.98 @ PC World Business)
Total: £1903.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-28 11:31 BST+0100

€1896 = 2,118

- I did not include an aftermarket cooler as I have not heard a single complaint over the Ryzen stock cooler but maybe someone else can chip in on this?

- The case is going to be quite subjective so do take a loot at what you prefer, but it's a high power build so being able to keep temperatures down will help and I'm pretty sure this one has a great reputation for it. Also not sure how they got it looking exactly this way but while I generally really don't like bit full ATX tower types, a different poster got this case looking unbelievably good recently (can't find the thread though!).

- Monitor meets your requirements, and I use a 1080p projector so could be wrong on this but have heard to really get the most from 4K you would want to go to 32" and above - so just throwing this one out as the best priced I could find above that size at £520 for 42.5" -

Whitewater-AGS

Billy86 wrote: »

Just a slight few tweaks on K.O.Kiki's build above if you'd rather shop from the UK.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£275.89 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - X370 SLI PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (£132.61 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LED 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£231.80 @ Alza)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£85.96 @ BT Shop)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£70.58 @ Eclipse Computers)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Gaming OC 11G Video Card (£659.97 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT - S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£62.97 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 (EU) 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£83.99 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: AOC - U2879VF 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor (£299.98 @ PC World Business)
Total: £1903.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-28 11:31 BST+0100

€1896 = 2,118

- I did not include an aftermarket cooler as I have not heard a single complaint over the Ryzen stock cooler but maybe someone else can chip in on this?

- The case is going to be quite subjective so do take a loot at what you prefer, but it's a high power build so being able to keep temperatures down will help and I'm pretty sure this one has a great reputation for it. Also not sure how they got it looking exactly this way but while I generally really don't like bit full ATX tower types, a different poster got this case looking unbelievably good recently (can't find the thread though!).

- Monitor meets your requirements, and I use a 1080p projector so could be wrong on this but have heard to really get the most from 4K you would want to go to 32" and above - so just throwing this one out as the best priced I could find above that size at £520 for 42.5" -

Think it could have been my build I used the S340 elite though and found it great for a first time builder, cable management was handy and the thermals are working out great with the case. Here is a link to the original thread with pics http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057758913/1/#post103962776

Billy86

Whitewater-AGS wrote: »

Think it could have been my build I used the S340 elite though and found it great for a first time builder, cable management was handy and the thermals are working out great with the case. Here is a link to the original thread with pics http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057758913/1/#post103962776

That's the one! Thought it was in the 'completed builds' thread but couldn't find it... hats off, probably my favourite looking one on the whole forum (also I find it funny how the lighting from the case mimics the desktop wallpaper in the last picture underneath the desk )!

xathal

So the Threadripper 1950 and Asus ROG Zenith Extreme. They seem amazing. Thanks, everyone for input so far.

Everything else the same? Bar water cooling blocks, of course.