My Upcoming Build! Big Project, could use some input!

[Brettfavor]

I will be purchasing and building this PC by the end of the year so when I list the parts don't get your panties in a twist, I'll find good deals on all of it. I've got Black Friday and Cyber Monday at least.....not to mention just the price drop that comes with time!

But I would like your thoughts, I'll be using this PC for gaming and as a Media Center. I'll have a 60" 4k Resolution Panasonic Vierra LED TV and two 30" monitors that I already own hooked up to it. My tentative price-range is around $2000-$3000 (I'll probably go a bit over to get exactly what I want if I have to, I usually do), I know right now that isn't possible, but like I said I'm planning this out. I welcome any input/criticism, I've been reading up on what is currently the best and what will be the best, but I haven't done a build in two years so if you guys see something I'm missing please point it out. I welcome all input/criticism.

Please keep in mind though I have my favorites like anyone else. I have heard bad things before about MSI customer support in the US, but I have had nothing but great luck with them so I'm kind of biased. I used to be all ASUS then I started to prefer EVGA graphic cards and they are still good so this may change some. As of now though MSI is getting the benefit of the doubt unless either the price or the features are drastically different.

Motherboard: MSI X99S Gaming 9 ACK LGA 2011-v3 Intel X99
CPU: Intel i7-5960X Haswell-E 8-Core 3.0GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W
GPU: MSI GTX 980 GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 980 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 in QUAD SLI *OR* MSI GTX TITAN X 12GB DUAL SLI (Really Depends on Pricing, but I'd prefer the latter)
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (8 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4-19200) Memory Kit
SSD: Plextor M5P Series PX-512M5Pro 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC (*OR*) SAMSUNG 850 EVO MZ-75E500B/AM 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical
Optical Drive 1: ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM
Optical Drive 2: Lite-On 12x DVD-ROM with Custom Firmware for burning Xbox 360 backups
PSU: EVGA 220-P2-1600-X1 80 PLUS Platinum 1600 W 10 yr Warranty ECO Mode Fully Modular (I am OCD about cables and spend more time hiding/tying cables than I do building the actual PC and hooking it up to everything so Modular is a MUST HAVE for me!)
HDD: 2TB WD Black Series 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" (I already have 3 x 4TB WD Black Series in a Server setup using RAID 5 so I can access and stream all the data I want to keep and don't want to lose) (That obviously includes media, but I am a teacher/coach and have kept all my papers, lesson plans, playbooks, etc. since I was 17 years old, it begins to add up and while I have a lot of it backed up to the cloud too I like to know it's safe with me)

I kinda live in a rural area, Suddenlink is the only internet provider. But I get 20mbps down/12mbps up for only $25 a month, I know that sounds crazy. It used to be 8mbps down/1mbps up with a 250GB cap for the same price, but the dropped the cap and gave the upgrade for free. I'm not complaining lol....I liked living in the city, but Comcast rules around here and I hate them.

Case: TBD I really like Cooler Master, always have. But the size really matter and it has to be all black to match the rest of the room.
I'm not like a lot of gamers or PC builders..... I HATE LIGHTS......I like the clean, simple, elegant look!

Cooling: Either a modified ULTRA 120 TRUE COPPER (the best heatsink ever) or I'll go with liquid cooling. I've never done liquid cooling so that could be fun, but honestly I find it unnecessary. I have pushed Overclocking to the limit with air cooling and have never had a single issue or had any loss of life because of the excess heat (I'm sure it's happening, but as long as it lasts 3-5 years then who cares?)




This is just a general idea I've come up with over the past week or so. I know things will change just on the basis of time and prices, this right now would probably run closer to $5-7k than $2k-3k, but I'm aiming for the end of year build time. Remember I don't have to buy storage really at all besides the SSD and I have all my monitors and TV setup just like I want it as well as wireless throughout the house capable of at minimum 1080p streaming (I haven't testing 4k) and I have the entire house wire with cat6 ethernet cable, outlets in every socket. (It's not as expensive as you'd think and very, very useful).

 

[Robert17]

Wait a few days. Intel's Skylake is coming out, the 100-series boards are coming along for the ride, and with that budget go ahead and look at PCIe SSDs. Scorched earth time.

 

[Brettfavor]

Wait a few days. Intel's Skylake is coming out, the 100-series boards are coming along for the ride, and with that budget go ahead and look at PCIe SSDs. Scorched earth time.

This is exactly the type of feedback I'm looking for....I was looking at some PCIe SSDs, but I honestly don't know a ton about them. That's why this is a year end project, I've researched the past week and I know what it is good now, but I need to know what will be good. I know you can't make a PC future proof, but you can be smart about it so that in two years you don't have to a full upgrade to keep up, just some components. I'd like to be able to keep the Motherboard, RAM and Storage and then in a few years upgrade the CPU/GPU if needed. If that's possible even if I want to start a new build at that time I can still do a few minor upgrades and sell this upcoming build so my budget is larger. I've been doing this for years with family members, friends, and even acquaintances an it's been working out great. There is a difference between being a tight wad and being frugal.....plus I'm probably one of the more liberal people you meet so if I can recycle or keep electronics in use longer I will; so they aren't sent to China, broken down, and sold for parts leaving vasts amounts of waste in the wake.

 

[Dlaw]

If you want to go quad SLI, a PCIe SSD isn't an option. However, 3-way SLI 980Ti's is a better idea, and you can get the PCIe SSD. 980s, while great cards, aren't the best bang for the buck any more. You're talking ~$500 each for the 980, where as the 980Ti is ~$650 each, but performs so close to the Titan X that you'd be crazy not to go with them.

I would go with this board. Same general features, but almost $100 less expensive.

X99 is going to be relevant for much longer than Z97/Z107 (or whatever), because it's the enthusiast class platform. If that's the route you want to take, you will be very happy for years to come.

 

[trents]

Getting two 240gb SSDs and putting them in RAID 0 will significantly improve their performance and give you a total of 480gb of storage. This will be cheaper than an PCI-e SSD but has the usual risk of RAID 0 if one drive fails.