980ti reference or aftermarket?

[DaPCbuilder]

Hi, I'm going to build a pc and these are my current specs:


Case: nzxt h450
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VIII hero
CPU: intel i7 6700k
GPU: 980ti reference or aftermarket
RAM: Corair CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 (DDR4 16gb 3000 MHz
PSU: corsair i1000 (is this enough?)
2x samsung SSD 500gb 2.5 inch
Cooling: corsair hydro series H110i GTX

This is my first personal build, I want to play all games on max/ultra in 1440p with atleast 60fps. I'm not sure if this would work with a single 980ti too.

But my main question is: should I go with a reference 980Ti or the windforce G1 980ti for example? At the beginning I will have a single card, but I'm planning to do SLI in the future if the overall FPS in 1440p is bad.

I like the style of the reference much more, but I'm a but worried about the temperatures so I thought an aftermarket cooler will do better? But would it in SLI?

 

[geofelt]

At 1440P a single GTX980ti should do the job.
Even on a 4k monitor it will do well; I get 60fps, the limit of my monitor, in my games.
If you want to plan for sli, then you are looking at about 850w:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
You are good on the psu.

As to the card to select, I suggest using one with the stock blower cooler. It does the job and gets heat directly out the back of the case. A blower cooler will not get starved for air if there is a second card in sli.
The EVGA GTX980SC is a factory overclocked version with a titan cooler.

You may find that a graphics upgrade next year will be to replace the GTX980ti with a much stronger pascal or AMD offering.

On the rest of your build;

1. stick with 1.20v ddr4 1333 or 2400 speed. Higher voltage makes it harder to overclock and there is very little difference in actual performance.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html

2. A single samsung 1tb ssd will likely cost less, be easier to manage, and perform better.

3. Have you seen the Samsung 950 pro m.2 device?
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html

4. No need for exotic cooling. 14nm Skylake runs cool. While testing, I used a small noctua NH-L12 cooler. It had no problem at a 4.7 OC so I abandoned the thought of a huge NH-D14 which I had on hand.
A simple tower type cooler with a 120 or 14omm fan is really all you need.
You will run out of vcore before you run into thermal limits.
Air will be quieter too.
5. Your case is fine, the main intake should be the front mounted 120mm fans. two would be plenty.

 

[DaPCbuilder]

At 1440P a single GTX980ti should do the job.
Even on a 4k monitor it will do well; I get 60fps, the limit of my monitor, in my games.
If you want to plan for sli, then you are looking at about 850w:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm
You are good on the psu.

As to the card to select, I suggest using one with the stock blower cooler. It does the job and gets heat directly out the back of the case. A blower cooler will not get starved for air if there is a second card in sli.
The EVGA GTX980SC is a factory overclocked version with a titan cooler.

You may find that a graphics upgrade next year will be to replace the GTX980ti with a much stronger pascal or AMD offering.

On the rest of your build;

1. stick with 1.20v ddr4 1333 or 2400 speed. Higher voltage makes it harder to overclock and there is very little difference in actual performance.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html

2. A single samsung 1tb ssd will likely cost less, be easier to manage, and perform better.

3. Have you seen the Samsung 950 pro m.2 device?
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html

4. No need for exotic cooling. 14nm Skylake runs cool. While testing, I used a small noctua NH-L12 cooler. It had no problem at a 4.7 OC so I abandoned the thought of a huge NH-D14 which I had on hand.
A simple tower type cooler with a 120 or 14omm fan is really all you need.
You will run out of vcore before you run into thermal limits.
Air will be quieter too.
5. Your case is fine, the main intake should be the front mounted 120mm fans. two would be plenty.

Thanks for the reply! I will probably still go with 3000 for the ram because I most likely won't overclock the memory. I was thinking of 32GB at first but maybe that's just completely overkill?

For the cooler I like the all in one solution water cooling because my case is going to be windowed, and a huge aircooler like the one's from noctua are going to block my view. And the noise difference would not be that big does it?
And how cooler your CPU how better right? Also the main part that
I would be overclocking is the CPU so I think I need to run I as cool as possible to get the max out of it.

On the GPU side I will probably choose the reference 980ti. It's astheticly better in my opinion, but I was worried about the heat, noise and performance, because the aftermarket one's are sort of overclocking out of the box. And I was willing to wait till Pascal, but the romours say that the proper cards will come in summer 2016 - Q1 2017. And I want my system to be futur proof, for atleast 2 years. As this build is going to cost my quite much.

I forget to mention that the monitor I'm going to buy is the asus rog pg279q. It has 165hz refresh rate, and IPS at 4ms response time. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[geofelt]

3000 speed ram is 1.20v 2133 speed ram that has the ability to run at 3000 speed when overclocked by upping voltage to 1.35v.
You can always run such ram at 3000, but why pay more?
My suggestion is to buy the lowest latency 1.2v ram you can find.
And,16gb is more than enough for gaming. Only if you have an app like photoshop that can use ram as a workfile might 32gb be better.
Whatever you buy, get all your ram in a single matched kit.

On the cooler, consider the noctua NH-d12s.
Here is a review which includes comparisons with some liquid coolers:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6916/cooler-master-seidon-240m-and-12-more-coolers-the-retest-and-megaroundup/3

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well with a decent air cooler.

On overclocking the cpu, you will run out of a safe vcore limit before you run out of thermal headroom.
If you want the ultimate i7-6700K pay a premium for a binned chip at silicon lottery.
A certified 4.7 chip is $390
http://siliconlottery.com/products/6700k47g

 

[DaPCbuilder]

3000 speed ram is 1.20v 2133 speed ram that has the ability to run at 3000 speed when overclocked by upping voltage to 1.35v.
You can always run such ram at 3000, but why pay more?
My suggestion is to buy the lowest latency 1.2v ram you can find.
And,16gb is more than enough for gaming. Only if you have an app like photoshop that can use ram as a workfile might 32gb be better.
Whatever you buy, get all your ram in a single matched kit.

On the cooler, consider the noctua NH-d12s.
Here is a review which includes comparisons with some liquid coolers:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6916/cooler-master-seidon-240m-and-12-more-coolers-the-retest-and-megaroundup/3

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Your pc will be quieter, more reliable, and will be cooled equally well with a decent air cooler.

On overclocking the cpu, you will run out of a safe vcore limit before you run out of thermal headroom.
If you want the ultimate i7-6700K pay a premium for a binned chip at silicon lottery.
A certified 4.7 chip is $390
http://siliconlottery.com/products/6700k47g

I agree with you on the memory, but doesn't overclocking ram lower the lifespan of it? And what about the warranty? I've never overclocking yet, except for CPU on a test rig.

I got the idea of liquid cooling because most builds I look up on youtube which are simulair to my build have it too. For example paul's hardware 2000$ live build: http://youtu.be/z___wYBQGj8

A custom loop is too difficult for a first build. The aircoolers just look so big, andere heatsink is in the case with a fan blowing it around, doesn't that heat up other components? And it cools the CPU also with what you call pre heated air not?

I'm just unsure what's the best cooler, I was leaning towards liquid because the air one will block my whole view through the window and is kinda ugly.

 

[geofelt]

Every major ram vendor has a lifetime warranty.
3000 speed ram is typically implemented/overclocked by invoking the appropriate XMP profile.
XMP is a set of settings selected by the ram vendor and imbedded in a XMP profile in the ram stick itself.
One does not typically set overclock settings unless you are a competitive overclocker seeking records.
And, only if you are seeking records are fancy heat spreaders useful at all.

Liquid cooling was more important for older tech processors that generated lots of heat.
Typically, the AMD FX processors and the older sandy bridge from Intel.
As the manufacturing process got smaller, now 14nm, the heat generated became less, but it is still somewhat of an issue because it is more concentrated. Plus, liquid cooling looks cool, and that aspect is promoted.
If that appeals to you, by all means go for it.

I plan on changing to a Noctua NH-U12s. Primarily for reducing noise more than for cooling.
This is what it might look like mounted in a case.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.imgur.com/1QUN0DVh.jpg&imgrefurl=http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/28629-absolute-silence-a-mid-range-intel-r4-build-with-loads-of-noctua-finished/&h=680&w=1024&tbnid=M0DEQxyNG_vxdM:&docid=28kiVjTGHf3RpM&ei=N9o0VubtKcXHmQGf64XwAw&tbm=isch&ved=0CEgQMyghMCFqFQoTCKbl8LX_7MgCFcVjJgodn3UBPg
Some might be put off by the bland beige color of the noctua fan; you could change that if you wish.
Those who know will be more impressed by recognizing noctua quality.