Custom built system

kbrickley

kbrickley

Supreme [H]ardness
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May 13, 2012
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I am discussing with a local computer shop to build a custom gaming system for me (I don't really have the time or patience or expertise to build my own). I was looking at some of the boutique online suppliers but I wanted to spend my money locally if possible to support local business. Here is the system they are proposing:

Case: Corsair Graphite 760T Black
BD ROM: Blue ray reader
CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro H1
SSD: 2xSamsung SM951 M.2
Hard drive: 2x4TB black (RAID 0)
MB: EVGA Z170 classified
RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2400
CPU: i7 6700K
PS: EVGA 1300W power supply
GPU: 1xEVGA GTX980Ti Hybrid

Thoughts or suggestions. I am not going to buy until December (waiting for my bonus to make a large purchase like this). I am looking at a gaming system primarily and would like to make the jump to 4K as part of this upgrade. I ran my last system into the ground (an E8400 based system I am currently using). I want this system to last me 5-7 years as well (with incremental upgrades where needed). Given the proposed water cooling solutions for both GPU and CPU I would be looking at some level of overclocking as well.
 
Looks like an incredible system, there really isn't anything to to complain about aside from the cost / performance ratio likely being very high.
 
Power supply is complete overkill and a bit of a waste with a single GPU. Something that's rated for half as much would be plenty. You'll also want the new Samsung 950 Pro instead of the SM951.
 
I agree. To save money get a 750W platinum PSU, should be fine, unless you want to go SLI and then even an 850W PSU would be fine too.

Ditto on the 950 pro likely cheaper than the SM951. Actually, in desktop usage, you're unlikely to see that much in the way of tangible performance benefits from the 950 pro vs. say a desktop grade SSD as desktop queue depths are generally below 4 and while the 950 pro / SM951 do well here their costs in my opinion don't justify their marginal gains at these queue depths.

You could look into a Micron MX100/200 drive at 1TB or so 2 or three of those would give you one giant large pool of space in raid-0 and overall be faster and more responsive than your hybrid setup, this is assuming you're using the spindles for games and other storage and the m.2 drives for the boot and applications which I think is overkill and a money waste.

Solid GPU.

post pics of your build when you get her all up and running.
 
Go with the 950 Pro instead of the SM.
I'd put the 4 TB drives in Raid 1 unless you have a backup server.
You'd have enough with a 650W PSU, even with heavy OC's.
What price are they asking?
 
You are missing a high dpi gaming mouse for precision head shots! Yes, it does matter. :D
 
Raid 0 for your mechanical drives is an unnecessary risk. It's ok for a boot drive or a system that gets regularly backed up, but I wouldn't run it on my bulk storage drives.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far:

I would like to go SLI down the road so I don't mind the bigger Power Supply and I doubt that will drive the system cost like the other components ... I want to make the transition to 4K gaming with this system so I think SLI will be a necessity eventually

I will check into the options on both the SSD and mechanical drives ... I requested an SSD RAID 0 so I might see if they can go with 3 SSDs (1 for OS/boot and 2 for RAID) with just one large mechanical ... my current system has a 300 GB mechanical boot and two 600 GB mechanical drives in RAID 0 so I think that would still allow plenty of space

I have a high DPI mouse with my current system so I will continue to use that and grab a new one down the road

Price is obviously not cheap and is in line with the other boutique solutions I was looking at in the $3500 range ... I could save some money by downgrading case, GPU, and drives and going for traditional air cooling rather than the hybrid water cooling but I think that would compromise the future performance of the PC (I have had my last system since 2008 so I would hope to keep this system running with incremental upgrades for at least 5-7 years as well)

I will get back with them to discuss options on the storage based on your feedback and look at the other PS options ... because of the cost I am waiting until my December bonus to buy so I still have some time to tweak the configuration with them
 
3500 seems a huge mark up for that system.

The cpu is about 350
Ram like 200 max?
Gpu 650
Case 150
Psu 150
Looking like they're charging a lot for labor
 
gigatexal said:
3500 seems a huge mark up for that system.

The cpu is about 350
Ram like 200 max?
Gpu 650
Case 150
Psu 150
Looking like they're charging a lot for labor
Click to expand...

with MB, drives, liquid cooler for CPU, and hybrid liquid cooled version of GPU there is probably more cost in the system ... right now the costs seem in line with other boutique providers and with similar or better components ... but I do have the option of dropping the 980Ti to air cooled (and the CPU) for cost savings ... I could also reduce the SSDs but so far the cost is in line with what I was willing to pay and I wanted to minimize the amount of dicking around I needed to do with the system to get it up and running ... also, I wanted to have a nice fast system for Fallout 4 this year and Doom next year
 
ZeqOBpf6 said:
No way I'm buying 4TB drives when a 6TB variant exists but that's just me.
Click to expand...

I don't really need that much space so I would prefer an additional SSD and maybe one large mechanical ... I am going to looking at alternatives this week ... this was their initial build recommendation so there are certainly options to change (which is why I asked for suggestions)
 
OP you could honestly build this system yourself for much less. Each component comes with a warranty when bought at retail. That said there's some utility to getting it built professionally as should something fail you just take it in and have it serviced. For me though that's not worth the added cost.
 
gigatexal said:
OP you could honestly build this system yourself for much less. Each component comes with a warranty when bought at retail. That said there's some utility to getting it built professionally as should something fail you just take it in and have it serviced. For me though that's not worth the added cost.
Click to expand...

I priced out the entire list of components in the build and without doing extreme bargain hunting it is probably 500-700 lower than the quote but not much more than that ... the biggest opportunity on price might be in the drives where I currently have 4 of them (2 SSD and 2 mech) ... I need to look at the configuration there ... since I am comfortable adding a mechanical drive on my own I could always drop it down to 3 SSDs (1 boot and 2 RAID 0) ... that might not be cheaper depending on the size and drive type but it could be a better overall fit ... I could then add the mechanical on my own later
 
It's your money and your computer. 500 to 700 for me is a big chunk of change. But a 2 or 3k computer is a lot of coin and if you think it best to have it made for you than so be it. It's still an amazing box
 
That's... expensive IMO. My recommendation would be to look into www.cyberwarecomputers.com. They warrant all their computers for 5 years which is longer than the manufacturer warranties. When I shot them a call they really worked with me to give me exactly what I wanted at a really fair price (I think it was $100 more than it would have costed to build it myself).
 
Years ago, I bought an Alienware P4 Northwood because I wanted support. I didn't want to build it, and to do my own troubleshooting whenever this is a problem. I paid over $2K for it. It was supposed to have onsite support. When the harddrive died within the warranty period, instead of sending someone onsite to replace it, they asked me to ship the hard drive back to them. I ended up doing all the repair/recovery work myself... :mad:

And that was the end of my not DIY experiment.
 
nomas said:
Years ago, I bought an Alienware P4 Northwood because I wanted support. I didn't want to build it, and to do my own troubleshooting whenever this is a problem. I paid over $2K for it. It was supposed to have onsite support. When the harddrive died within the warranty period, instead of sending someone onsite to replace it, they asked me to ship the hard drive back to them. I ended up doing all the repair/recovery work myself... :mad:

And that was the end of my not DIY experiment.
Click to expand...

Lol I lost my entire thought after reading this.
 
If you're spending that kind of money, I'd get a X99 motherboard/CPU.

Either way, I wouldn't get another eVGA board for my own build. I've had much better luck with Asus/Gigabyte lately.
 
Well I had to delay the purchase due to my employer stiffing me on my year end bonus but finally ordered the system today with some minor substitutions:

Case: Corsair Graphite 760T Black
BD ROM: Blue ray reader
CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro H100
SSD: Samsung 950 Pro M.2 512 GB (boot)
SSD: 1TB Samsung 850 pro
MB: EVGA Z170 classified
RAM: 2x8GB Corsair Dominator 3200
CPU: i7 6700K
PS: EVGA 1300W power supply
GPU: 1xEVGA GTX980Ti Hybrid
I will try and move the mechanical drives from my old system over to the new one and add more SSDs down the road

I also decided to upgrade a few of my older components as well, so other goodies to add to my rig are:

U3415W Dell 34" Ultrawide monitor (3440 x 1440)
Razer Blackwidow Chroma mechanical keyboard
Logitech G502 Proteus gaming mouse
Keeping my existing Logitech Z-5500 speakers though

Can't wait to take this bad boy for a spin in a few weeks
 
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Are you going to actually be taking over the power advantages from the i7?
And people are right on the money with everything else.
PSU overkill
SSD overkill

Its a solid build overall
 
tylertoast said:
Are you going to actually be taking over the power advantages from the i7?
And people are right on the money with everything else.
PSU overkill
SSD overkill

Its a solid build overall
Click to expand...

I might have gone a little overboard on budget and a couple of components but this is my first new computer since 2008 (replacing my ailing XPS 630i E8400 sytem)... this is also my first custom built system ... I think with the components I chose this system should be good for at least 6 years with just incremental upgrades to drives, RAM, and Videocards ... down the road I would like to add a second or third 980Ti card (that was just too much budget to start)

I am looking forward to trying my hand at overclocking ... and these are my first water based coolers ... along with the new ultrawide monitor (also a new tech for me) ... I am looking forward to some enjoyable gaming this winter once the system is finished being built
 
One thing I did notice was that the evga series wasn't stated. I'm assuming g2, which is a good series if it is.
 
Finally picked up the system over the weekend ... shop did a great job on it and the components are working great so far ... massive change from my old E8400 system ... Windows 10 used to take minutes to get completely up where I could do anything ... now my Desktop is completely launched in seconds ... Love it ... Still waiting on my new 34" Ultra Wide monitor but everything is working ... starting to work on doing some overclocking this week ... see some pics below:







 
very nice and clean props to them and your new setup!
 
Nice to see the folks you bought it from took a little time with wire management and aesthetics.

Curious, did they overclock the CPU? Seeing as you have a K variant I would certainly hope they did... even if it is a mild one.

*edit* just noticed you will be the one doing the overclocking. Exactly how does your tinkering with it affect the warranty period?

If you don't mind me asking, did they break down how much of the bill they charged you in labor? I've always built my own and am curious exactly what "pro's" charge to do something like this.

Do they provide any support? Warranty period? Do they register all the components for you?

If its like most retail style places I'd imagine they are probably making around 15% on the components.
 
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