Need Advice on GPU Choice and Compatibility Between Other Components

[aidan.villasenor]

I have a lot to say, so prepare for a mouthful. I'm considering building a gaming PC, and since it's my first time I would like advice on my build. To give a little bit of background on my plan, I would like to build a monster PC. That being said, I still do not want to waste money if it's not necessary. I plan on doing comfortable gaming with a 2K, 1ms, 144-240Hz monitor. Along with that monitor, I wish to have a second monitor if possible, however it does not need to meet the extreme requirements which the first does. Please give me advice on my parts list and give suggestions if necessary

My planned parts list is as follows:

GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N GAMING, 11G-P4-6798-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Technology - 9 Thermal Sensors & RGB LED G/P/M

CPU - Intel Core i7-8700K Processor

MB - ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors

RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit, Red

SSD - Samsung 960 EVO Series - 500GB NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E500BW)

HD - Seagate 4TB BarraCuda SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (ST4000DM004)

PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3, 220-G3-0750-X1, 80+ GOLD, 750W Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode with New HDB Fan, Includes FREE Power On Self Tester, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply

CASE - Corsair Crystal 570X RGB CC-9011111-WW Red Steel / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

COOLING - Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO RGB 360mm Radiator Triple 120mm ML Series PWM Fans Advanced RGB Lighting Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060031-WW

MONITOR - Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz 27" WQHD (2560x1440) NVIDIA G-SYNC IPS Monitor, (Display Port & HDMI Port, 144Hz)

Please note that as you can see above, I am not on a strict budget, however I would like this PC to last at least the next few years.

To refresh, any advice on this list would be deeply appreciated. On top of that, would this build be able to run AAA games with a solid frame rate at 2K? Thanks in advance to all replies.

 

[ArchitSahu]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from aidan.villasenor : "Need Advice on GPU Choice and Compatibility Between Other Components"

I have a lot to say, so prepare for a mouthful. I'm considering building a gaming PC, and since it's my first time I would like advice on my build. To give a little bit of background on my plan, I would like to build a monster PC. That being said, I still do not want to waste money if it's not necessary. I plan on doing comfortable gaming with a 2K, 1ms, 144-240Hz monitor. Along with that monitor, I wish to have a second monitor if possible, however it does not need to meet the extreme requirements which the first does. Please give me advice on my parts list and give suggestions if necessary

My planned parts list is as follows:

GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti K|NGP|N GAMING, 11G-P4-6798-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Technology - 9 Thermal Sensors & RGB LED G/P/M

CPU - Intel Core i7-8700K Processor

MB - ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors

RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Memory Kit, Red

SSD - Samsung 960 EVO Series - 500GB NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E500BW)

HD - Seagate 4TB BarraCuda SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (ST4000DM004)

PSU - EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3, 220-G3-0750-X1, 80+ GOLD, 750W Fully Modular, EVGA ECO Mode with New HDB Fan, Includes FREE Power On Self Tester, Compact 150mm Size, Power Supply

CASE - Corsair Crystal 570X RGB CC-9011111-WW Red Steel / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

COOLING - Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO RGB 360mm Radiator Triple 120mm ML Series PWM Fans Advanced RGB Lighting Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060031-WW

MONITOR - Acer Predator XB271HU bmiprz 27" WQHD (2560x1440) NVIDIA G-SYNC IPS Monitor, (Display Port & HDMI Port, 144Hz)

Please note that as you can see above, I am not on a strict budget, however I would like this PC to last at least the next few years.

To refresh, any advice on this list would be deeply appreciated. On top of that, would this build be able to run AAA games with a solid frame rate at 2K? Thanks in advance to all replies.

32gb of ram isnt necessary, 16 is sufficient for gaming.
I have that monitor, very happy with it.

You should be good with that build.

32 gigs should last for quite a bit. 750W might be overkill but it should be good.

Consider:
1) There is a new GPU release around the corner so consider waiting for that.
2) If you are doing CPU intensive tasks, take Ryzen or so. More cores.

 

[james_es]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

 

[james_es]

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

 

[aidan.villasenor]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

Thank you for your advice. I have taken it into consideration and am especially impressed with your case recommendation. I just have a few questions based off of your response.

The case looks great, however the only place for a 360mm radiator, which I am planning for, is in the bottom of the case. This is not a problem as long as I can still complete the reservoir - pump - radiator - CPU cycle, right?

My second question regards graphics cards. I'm well aware of the upcoming Nvidia Volta, if you had to guess the price of it on release what would say, especially with regards to crypto mining?

Thirdly, I just wanted to confirm that I do not need to buy a waterblocked GPU, correct? Simply buying a regular EVGA 1080 Ti comes with sufficient cooling, right?

Finally, would the 1080 Ti be able to run dual monitors? Like I mentioned earlier, the second monitor won't need to be high end like the first, I'm just curious about the FPS results I would see. For example, if I were to run PUBG on 2K would the 1080 Ti be able to handle an open discord window on a second monitor so I can manage my voice chat?

As I said before, I really appreciate your responses and continue to appreciate your answers.

 

[Karadjgne]

I run dual monitors on a gtx660ti. Video demands are extremely small compared to graphics demands in games that rely on fps, even windows or YouTube barely scratches a decent integrated gpu. So dual monitors on that gpu won't be an issue unless you plan on running the game split-screen, which looks terrible anyway as the split is dead center.

99% of all games are running between 3Gb and @12Gb of system ram total, so 16Gb is a strong recommendation, 32Gb of ram is really only useful to those running production software like Autocad etc. For gaming, more than 16Gb is wasted space.

4Gb is huge. I've got several massive content games, from skyrim se (heavily modded) to Starwars to guild wars 2 and others and that's not to mention several thousand photos and videos my wife has stored, and barely use up ½ of a 120Gb ssd and a 1Tb hdd. Would be far better to invest in an additional 120- 250Gb 850evo for a temp/scratch drive and a 2Tb for mass storage. If that 4Gb goes down, you loose everything, if a small drive goes down, you still have everything else and mass storage doesn't see much use, so lasts longer than a single large drive.

Case? This is a primo build. It's the kind of build that demands much patience, much planning and plenty of care and attention to detail. It's not a ½ hour, throw it together and play kinda thing, so a pita case is no worries. This should warrant a 24+ manhour build, plenty of time to tweak anything,no matter how much of a pita others might believe it to be. But at the end of the day, you have to look at it, I don't, neither does anyone else, so get the case that fits your needs, wants and aesthetics.

 

[james_es]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

Thank you for your advice. I have taken it into consideration and am especially impressed with your case recommendation. I just have a few questions based off of your response.

The case looks great, however the only place for a 360mm radiator, which I am planning for, is in the bottom of the case. This is not a problem as long as I can still complete the reservoir - pump - radiator - CPU cycle, right?

My second question regards graphics cards. I'm well aware of the upcoming Nvidia Volta, if you had to guess the price of it on release what would say, especially with regards to crypto mining?

Thirdly, I just wanted to confirm that I do not need to buy a waterblocked GPU, correct? Simply buying a regular EVGA 1080 Ti comes with sufficient cooling, right?

Finally, would the 1080 Ti be able to run dual monitors? Like I mentioned earlier, the second monitor won't need to be high end like the first, I'm just curious about the FPS results I would see. For example, if I were to run PUBG on 2K would the 1080 Ti be able to handle an open discord window on a second monitor so I can manage my voice chat?

As I said before, I really appreciate your responses and continue to appreciate your answers.

Everything is fine with the cooling and should be easy to manage with the water cooling seeing as it is an inverse case.
My estimated price for the Nvidia Volta would be around $2000 AUD seeing as crypto mining is still relevant. You shouldn't need a water blocked GPU however if you are planning a pretty big overclock I would recommend doing so as you don't want that GPU running over 80 degrees Celsius. The 1080ti will easily run a dual monitor setup no problem.

Sorry for the elate reply, at school at the moment

 

[james_es]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

Thank you for your advice. I have taken it into consideration and am especially impressed with your case recommendation. I just have a few questions based off of your response.

The case looks great, however the only place for a 360mm radiator, which I am planning for, is in the bottom of the case. This is not a problem as long as I can still complete the reservoir - pump - radiator - CPU cycle, right?

My second question regards graphics cards. I'm well aware of the upcoming Nvidia Volta, if you had to guess the price of it on release what would say, especially with regards to crypto mining?

Thirdly, I just wanted to confirm that I do not need to buy a waterblocked GPU, correct? Simply buying a regular EVGA 1080 Ti comes with sufficient cooling, right?

Finally, would the 1080 Ti be able to run dual monitors? Like I mentioned earlier, the second monitor won't need to be high end like the first, I'm just curious about the FPS results I would see. For example, if I were to run PUBG on 2K would the 1080 Ti be able to handle an open discord window on a second monitor so I can manage my voice chat?

As I said before, I really appreciate your responses and continue to appreciate your answers.

Everything is fine with the cooling and should be easy to manage with the water cooling seeing as it is an inverse case.
My estimated price for the Nvidia Volta would be around $2000 AUD seeing as crypto mining is still relevant. You shouldn't need a water blocked GPU however if you are planning a pretty big overclock I would recommend doing so as you don't want that GPU running over 80 degrees Celsius. The 1080ti will easily run a dual monitor setup no problem.

Sorry for the elate reply, at school at the moment

 

[aidan.villasenor]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

Thank you for your advice. I have taken it into consideration and am especially impressed with your case recommendation. I just have a few questions based off of your response.

The case looks great, however the only place for a 360mm radiator, which I am planning for, is in the bottom of the case. This is not a problem as long as I can still complete the reservoir - pump - radiator - CPU cycle, right?

My second question regards graphics cards. I'm well aware of the upcoming Nvidia Volta, if you had to guess the price of it on release what would say, especially with regards to crypto mining?

Thirdly, I just wanted to confirm that I do not need to buy a waterblocked GPU, correct? Simply buying a regular EVGA 1080 Ti comes with sufficient cooling, right?

Finally, would the 1080 Ti be able to run dual monitors? Like I mentioned earlier, the second monitor won't need to be high end like the first, I'm just curious about the FPS results I would see. For example, if I were to run PUBG on 2K would the 1080 Ti be able to handle an open discord window on a second monitor so I can manage my voice chat?

As I said before, I really appreciate your responses and continue to appreciate your answers.

Everything is fine with the cooling and should be easy to manage with the water cooling seeing as it is an inverse case.
My estimated price for the Nvidia Volta would be around $2000 AUD seeing as crypto mining is still relevant. You shouldn't need a water blocked GPU however if you are planning a pretty big overclock I would recommend doing so as you don't want that GPU running over 80 degrees Celsius. The 1080ti will easily run a dual monitor setup no problem.

Sorry for the elate reply, at school at the moment

Okay, thanks for the answers. I think most of my problems are solved, except I have one more question regarding monitors. You said that a 1080Ti will easily run dual monitors, but what about a 3 monitor setup. If I go through with 3 monitors, I for sure will not be spanning a game across all three because it looks bad IMO, I just would prefer to have a 3 monitor setup for conveniance purposes.

I would have a 1440p monitor in the center for games, with two 1080p monitors next to it. One example of a reason I would like this is because I do extensive web programming, and it would be so much better if I could have one monitor open with HTML/CSS, another with JavaScript/PHP, and finally a third with a web browser open so I don't have to constantly click back and forth.

In short, would a 1080Ti be able to run this 1440p, 2x 1080p setup?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Karadjgne]

Not a problem. For the resolutions, can be an issue if you try to span the 3 monitors with 1 wallpaper.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/different-resolutions-for-multiple-monitors-in-windows-10/amp/

https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-set-a-different-wallpaper-for-multiple-monitors-in-windows-10/amp/

 

[james_es]

Hi, just to let you know you are going to need a power supply unit (PSU) if you haven't already chosen one I would recommend the corsair HX - 1000i. Also, the case you are buying I have heard that it is very difficult to build with. For a case the Corsair Carbide 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case is a very good case for a future upgrades and storage options. Also for the M.2 drive I would recommend that you upgrade to a 1tb M.2 drive as that 500gb will disappear very quickly, although running games on hard drives is decent as well. Your ram is great, you will see great rendering speeds in games (how fast the structures in game runs, 3200mhz is great for this). Your CPU and MB work great together to overclock along with your motherboard and with that cooling system all of this is possible (if you plan on overclocking, which looking at your build I believe you do, as this is your first gaming PC please consult to a friend that knows about overclocking or a professional (if you do the wrong think you could fry your system). The strix 1080ti is the best card on the market as of now (except for the 12gb titan) so you could invest in that for an extra price. Also, are you building this PC by yourself? If budget isn't a problem then you could pay someone to build it for you as I did. Adding a few additional fans throughout the case would also be great for air flow as well. THis build will last you a lot longer than 3 years and you will run 2k at smooth frame rates withought a problem on this system. I believe that through this system you could run 4k pretty smoothly, unless your playing witcher 3 xD.

Feel free to ask me some questions if you would like to

(didnt realise you listed that Power Supply, that's also a good power supply. If you go with the case I listed then also go with the power supply or a lesser watt power supply.

Thank you for your advice. I have taken it into consideration and am especially impressed with your case recommendation. I just have a few questions based off of your response.

The case looks great, however the only place for a 360mm radiator, which I am planning for, is in the bottom of the case. This is not a problem as long as I can still complete the reservoir - pump - radiator - CPU cycle, right?

My second question regards graphics cards. I'm well aware of the upcoming Nvidia Volta, if you had to guess the price of it on release what would say, especially with regards to crypto mining?

Thirdly, I just wanted to confirm that I do not need to buy a waterblocked GPU, correct? Simply buying a regular EVGA 1080 Ti comes with sufficient cooling, right?

Finally, would the 1080 Ti be able to run dual monitors? Like I mentioned earlier, the second monitor won't need to be high end like the first, I'm just curious about the FPS results I would see. For example, if I were to run PUBG on 2K would the 1080 Ti be able to handle an open discord window on a second monitor so I can manage my voice chat?

As I said before, I really appreciate your responses and continue to appreciate your answers.

Everything is fine with the cooling and should be easy to manage with the water cooling seeing as it is an inverse case.
My estimated price for the Nvidia Volta would be around $2000 AUD seeing as crypto mining is still relevant. You shouldn't need a water blocked GPU however if you are planning a pretty big overclock I would recommend doing so as you don't want that GPU running over 80 degrees Celsius. The 1080ti will easily run a dual monitor setup no problem.

Sorry for the elate reply, at school at the moment

Okay, thanks for the answers. I think most of my problems are solved, except I have one more question regarding monitors. You said that a 1080Ti will easily run dual monitors, but what about a 3 monitor setup. If I go through with 3 monitors, I for sure will not be spanning a game across all three because it looks bad IMO, I just would prefer to have a 3 monitor setup for conveniance purposes.

I would have a 1440p monitor in the center for games, with two 1080p monitors next to it. One example of a reason I would like this is because I do extensive web programming, and it would be so much better if I could have one monitor open with HTML/CSS, another with JavaScript/PHP, and finally a third with a web browser open so I don't have to constantly click back and forth.

In short, would a 1080Ti be able to run this 1440p, 2x 1080p setup?

Thanks in advance.

Not a Problem with the resolutions, the 1080ti is one of the best GPU's out there at the moment and with that beast of a CPU you will easily run applications on all monitors simultaneously. As Karadjgne said, the resolutions could be an issue if you tried to span the whole desktop across three monitors, (which you said you weren't) so no issues in this build. Just for interest, will you be building this system by yourself?

 

[santijamesf]

I wrote a lot, so if you want to get to my advice, read the bottom. My first computer I built uses a Gigabyte GTX Geforce 1060 G1 6G, 2 Corsair Vengeance 2400 MHz C13 (or one of the others, like a C14 or 15, or something) 4 gig kit, MSI B150 gaming M3 motherboard, a 111 Gb SSD, a 1 TB HD, Eve 600 Watt PSU, Intel I5 6500 3.2 GHzs, and it works perfectly and can play any game comfortably without having you sell a kidney. Of course, you I want at least 16 gigs of ram, but so far, I have not needed it. Honestly, a computer with the best parts available for a decent price, like the GTX 1080 TI for you first computer build is almost overkill. Not trying to sound rude or jealous, and I think that build would be great, but if you want to save money, especially because all the prices are jacked up from the crypto mining craze, go for a mid tier computer, as they can run any thing, and can be around $700-1000, Mine was $800 without the OS system, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and tool kit. Once everything added up, it totaled to over $1100. Also, computers don't last a lifetime, and can literally only last 2-3 years with peak performance, and 6 at most. By the 5th year it could be a slug. Your build will be a monster build, and if that is what you want, I would recommend to invest and PC building kits and anti static mats so to prevent shorting any of those components. Also, if you want you PC to be 1000 times more powerful, RBG, boom, totally improves performance, just like how racing stripes give 50 horse power to a car each. Lol, jokes aside, watch plenty of tutorials, and try to stay grounded. Also, I know of a build that uses two GTX 980s, and it is much better than my single 1060, so you may want to look into dual GPUs that could be better than a single 1080 Ti. Also, if you want to help prevent bottle necking for your ram, spread our the ram, so if you want 16 gigs of ram, use 4 4 gigs rather than a single 16 gig stick, or if you want 32, use 4 8 gig sticks. It can be better than two or single sticks. Also, with a CPU like a I7, if you want to make it cool, but you do not trust radiators or liquid cooling, use two fans in the front, one on the rear top, and one in the back, then use a decent cooler, like some of the cooler master ones. If you don't want to spend too much on a CPU cooler, go for the Cooler Master RR-212TR-16PR-R1 Hyper 212 LED Turbo- Red Top Cover is equipped with dual 120mm PWM Fans Red LEDs CPU Cooler, as it looks pretty awesome and is decent. if you want something more expensive, maybe this could be good, MasterAir Maker 8 High-end CPU Air Cooler. Featuring 3D Vapor Chamber Technology and Customizable Cover Designs. If you don't care about the oldish brownish look, go for the noctua coolers, are they are very good.

 

[Karadjgne]

That's 1 opinion. I prefer to think my 6yr old i7-3770K is doing just fine with whatever I throw at it, sure doesn't seem like a slug at all. Even my 3½ yr old gtx970 is still chugging away quite happily.

Best to use 2x8Gb sticks for 16Gb of ram. 4x4Gb puts undue stress on the MC, and thereby the cpu. If 1 of the sticks in a 2x8 goes bad, it's easily replaced, however quad channel ram uses different instructions to dual channel ram, so if 1 stick goes down, it's all dead.

Hyper212 on an i7-8700k is a joke, I don't care if it has fancy red leds. You are talking a 100w TDP cpu that's capable of over 150w at peak usage (at stock values) on a 140w cooler. Add some OC and you are looking at over 200w when that hyperthreading kicks in on a 140w cooler. Let's just say thermal throttling and probable shutdowns are a common factor of budget coolers on i7 cpus in general.

Oh, forgot to throw in. The 980 and 1060 are equitable performance, win some / loose some. Once you add sli that can change, but not necessarily so. Sli only works for DX11 and prior games that it has support for, doesn't work at all in DX12 (native windows 10) since sli is synchronous gpus (work in tandem) whereas DX12 is mgpu (multiple gpus). There is a difference. Unfortunately, nobody is writing game code to take advantage of mgpu, it'd triple the size of the files, which hurts Steam and other online sources. So, and thats assuming the is decent support in DX11 titles, yes you'll get better performance. In games without much support, you'll not really notice much difference, and in some games the support is so bad that you get better fps with just 1 card.

Currently SLI/CF is not a worthwhile investment for a pc all around use. Only sees benefits in fewer games, older games and specific games.

And I'm sorry, but Evga does not make a good 600w psu, they are mediocre at best and I'd not put one with a $1000+ build.

 

[santijamesf]

Very true. I agree with everything Karadjgne said, you defiantly need good cooling. If you have the extra money, invest in water cooling or good radiators. One thing no one has talked about I think is Internet connection. Will you be using Ethernet? (Ethernet is barely better than wifi, just more stable, and maybe the slightest bit faster) Or will you be using wifi? If you use wifi, invest in a gaming router if you want your wifi to keep up with this monster PC, and get a very good wifi card as well. I would recommend a wifi card that comes with a base (preferably a magnetic base so it sticks too your case) that allows you to attach the attenas ontop of your case via the base being attached to the wificard with some cables. I use to use Ethernet in till my family moved to a outdated house without Ethernet, so I bought this ASUS wifi card from Fries for about 60-80 bucks and it came with a magnetic base that allows me to position the antennas to the best area for the best connection. It has worked great, so Wificards are worth it if you have no ethernet. If you decided on ethernet, use a decent quality cable, as it may improve the speed and stability by a small amount. I may be somewhat new tho Tom'shardware, but i know my stuff from personnel experience. Also, for anyone who has a game that says your ram is not enough, don't continue playing, it can cause a memory leak. Learned that the hardware when I played the un-optimized version of Gold Rush, which recommended 16 Gb and I had 8. Oh boy, did it leak my memory. Luckily, my ram still lives and I did not have to replace it, as it was when the crypto craze hit off, and the ram I had bought not that long before worths like 50 bucks more.

 

[aidan.villasenor]

That's 1 opinion. I prefer to think my 6yr old i7-3770K is doing just fine with whatever I throw at it, sure doesn't seem like a slug at all. Even my 3½ yr old gtx970 is still chugging away quite happily.

Best to use 2x8Gb sticks for 16Gb of ram. 4x4Gb puts undue stress on the MC, and thereby the cpu. If 1 of the sticks in a 2x8 goes bad, it's easily replaced, however quad channel ram uses different instructions to dual channel ram, so if 1 stick goes down, it's all dead.

Hyper212 on an i7-8700k is a joke, I don't care if it has fancy red leds. You are talking a 100w TDP cpu that's capable of over 150w at peak usage (at stock values) on a 140w cooler. Add some OC and you are looking at over 200w when that hyperthreading kicks in on a 140w cooler. Let's just say thermal throttling and probable shutdowns are a common factor of budget coolers on i7 cpus in general.

Oh, forgot to throw in. The 980 and 1060 are equitable performance, win some / loose some. Once you add sli that can change, but not necessarily so. Sli only works for DX11 and prior games that it has support for, doesn't work at all in DX12 (native windows 10) since sli is synchronous gpus (work in tandem) whereas DX12 is mgpu (multiple gpus). There is a difference. Unfortunately, nobody is writing game code to take advantage of mgpu, it'd triple the size of the files, which hurts Steam and other online sources. So, and thats assuming the is decent support in DX11 titles, yes you'll get better performance. In games without much support, you'll not really notice much difference, and in some games the support is so bad that you get better fps with just 1 card.

Currently SLI/CF is not a worthwhile investment for a pc all around use. Only sees benefits in fewer games, older games and specific games.

And I'm sorry, but Evga does not make a good 600w psu, they are mediocre at best and I'd not put one with a $1000+ build.

Okay, so I'm gonna try to reply to everyone at once here.

james_es,

I will for sure be building a machine like this with the assistance of others. As this is my first build, I think it could qualify as foolish to put together a primo build like this by myself. I have a few friends who have said they'd be willing to help me, all who have put together multiple PC's in the past. You may be wondering if I'm considering hiring a middle man to put it together for me, and the answer is no. Part of this whole process to me is building the system myself, and since it is my first time I want to have the experience of assembling it. Also, thank you for so clearly answering my question regarding monitors.

santijamesf,

I appreciate your advice. As for the specs, I'm going to leave that discussion between you and Karadjgne as it does not directly apply to my build. And for your comment regarding overkill, I mostly agree. for about $1000 - $1500, you can run pretty much any AAA game at a decent frame rate. However, the reason I'm opting for the "overkill" specs is because I don't want decent frame rates at 1080p. What I'm looking for is a solid system; something that can run games at 1440p on ultra settings, otherwise I wouldn't be opting for a build which will total to a very, very, ugly number along with a dent in my wallet. Another thing is the test of time. By buying the best of the best now, I more easily future proof my system so I don't have to make another dent in my bank account any time soon. As for your question regarding Ethernet, I will definitely be using it over Wifi.

Karadjgne,

I especially appreciate your continued support and solutions. You mentioned something about a fault in the EVGA PSU, and I actually looked into that on my own. A few friends of mine commented on their power supplies. The topic came up after discussing PSU's. The general vipe I got was that EVGA makes solid GPU's, has great customer support, but falls short in power. I looked for a new one, and this is what I decided on:

Corsair HXi Series, HX750i, 750 Watt (750W), Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Platinum Certified

Since this is a primo build, I thought it would be better to switch to a different brand and up the quality to Platinum. If you have anything to say about this PSU, feel free to mention it, positive or negative. Also, if you have had a great experience with a certain PSU, feel free to mention it as well.

As for everybody, this is my revised build:

GPU - EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 DT GAMING, 11G-P4-6694-KR, 11GB GDDR5X, iCX Technology - 9 Thermal Sensors & RGB LED G/P/M - $850

CPU - Intel Core i7-8700K Processor- $330
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-BX80684I78700K-Core-i7-8700K-Processor/dp/B07598VZR8/ref=pd_sbs_147_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07598VZR8&pd_rd_r=6JMWTR8V3Y6P2NRWNMP5&pd_rd_w=1lEy9&pd_rd_wg=bRtdD&psc=1&refRID=6JMWTR8V3Y6P2NRWNMP5

MB - ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors
- $190 - https://www.amazon.com/LGA1151-Motherboard-802-11ac-Generation-Processors/dp/B075RHWCC4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1519361113&sr=1-1&keywords=ASUS+ROG+STRIX+Z370-E

RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 DRAM 3200MHz C16 Desktop Memory Kit – White (CMK16GX4M2B3200C16W)
- $220 - https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-2x16GB-3200MHz-Memory-CMK32GX4M2B3200C16/dp/B01EI5ZRQY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1519413016&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=CORSAIR%2BVengeance%2BLPX%2B32GB%2B(2%2Bx%2B16GB)%2B288-Pin%2BDDR4%2BSDRAM%2BDDR4%2B3200%2B(PC4%2B25600)%2BDesktop%2BMemory%2BModel%2BCMK32GX4M2B3200C16W&th=1

M.2 SSD - Samsung 960 EVO Series - 500GB NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E500BW) - $200 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M20VBU7/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=tecdea0f-20&linkId=3c22e7f8812aa1bf479fe842abdcd86a&th=1

HDD - Seagate 4TB BarraCuda SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive (ST4000DM004)
- $100 - https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST4000DM004/dp/B071WLPRHN/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1519412928&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Seagate%2BBarraCuda%2BST4000DM004%2B4TB%2B256MB%2BCache%2BSATA%2B6.0Gb%2Fs%2B3.5%22%2BHard%2BDrives&th=1

POWER - Corsair HXi Series, HX750i, 750 Watt (750W), Fully Modular Power Supply, 80+ Platinum Certified - $170 - https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-HX1000i-Modular-Platinum-Certified/dp/B00M2UINC8?th=1

CASE - Corsair Carbide Clear 600C Inverse ATX Full Tower Case
- $150 -https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-Clear-Inverse-Tower/dp/B016IAM7D8

COOLING - Corsair Hydro Series H150i PRO RGB 360mm Radiator Triple 120mm ML Series PWM Fans Advanced RGB Lighting Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060031-WW) - $170 - https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Radiator-Advanced-Lighting-CW-9060032-WW/dp/B077FZPCRH?th=1

MAIN MONITOR - Acer Predator XB271HU Abmiprz 27-inch WQHD (2560x1440) NVIDIA G-SYNC Monitor (Display Port & HDMI Port, 144Hz)
- $700 - https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-XB271HU-Abmiprz-2560x1440/dp/B01N11QIYW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=amazongs-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&linkId=1fe87a0842932cce88392a56603563a2

SIDE MONITORS (x2) - ASUS VG278Q 27” Full HD 1080p 144Hz 1ms DP HDMI DVI Eye Care Gaming Monitor with FreeSync/Adaptive Sync - $290 -
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236821

Before I mentioned that I am not on a strict budget, which I am not, however I would like final recommendations if possible. Excluding the monitors, this build comes in at about $2500. Including them, it moves up to ~ $3500. Now, I'm not extremely restricted, however that doesn't mean I want to waste money. If anyone sees anything unnecessary, please tell me. In other words, if you see opportunities to cheapen this system without extreme drops in quality please let me know. Like I said, I expect these numbers to be big, and I am also open to any advice.

 

[Karadjgne]

Clarification: Evga doesn't make psus, they have an OEM such as SuperFlower make them and throw an Evga paint job on the outside. As such, like almost all 3rd party vendors, you can get a full range of quality. The SuperNova Evga B2, G2, G3, GS series are excellent quality, whereas the G1, B1, SuperNova NEX, (500W, 600B etc) are somewhat bottom of the barrel in quality and outputs. Corsair is no different, their CX, CS, VS series are really bad for gaming rigs, HX, AX, RM series are excellent for gaming rigs. I own a Evga G2 550, but I'd be just as happy with a Seasonic Focus+ or Corsair RMx.

So yes, the Evga 600w was a dead giveaway as the better versions are all x50, as in 550 or 650 etc.