New build (split RollerCoaster)

[RollerCoaster47 758]

I feel somewhat confident putting my new build together once I get everything bought but I'm still pretty out of the loop on the software side of things. Not sure what programs I need to download for benchmarking, temp monitoring, performance boosting, etc. Here's what I've purchased so far, more or less waiting for the right deal on a motherboard and GPU then I'm pretty much ready:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M7PJ8Y

[Folterknecht 2,238]

3 hours ago, RollerCoaster47 said:

I feel somewhat confident putting my new build together once I get everything bought but I'm still pretty out of the loop on the software side of things. Not sure what programs I need to download for benchmarking, temp monitoring, performance boosting, etc. Here's what I've purchased so far, more or less waiting for the right deal on a motherboard and GPU then I'm pretty much ready:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M7PJ8Y

I ve split your post from the other topic and made two changes to your part list

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/F0lterknecht/saved/BCQHNG

 

1) The Kraken X62 is overpriced and the real issue here isn't the performance of the AIO anyway. The problem is with the stock Intel TIM under the IHS and the big gap between DIE and IHS creating the thermal bottleneck. Here is a video that explains the problem of a thermal bottleneck:

 

 

The solution to that problem is liquid metal and delidding.

2) While both SSDs you selected are good products combining them makes little sense for the avg user/gamer. If you are hvy into video/photo editing or something similar a scrap disk makes sense otherwise it's better to just buy a bigger SSD. You won't notice a difference as avg user between a regular SSD and a NVMe SSD. That's why I swapped these two SSDs for a 1TB drive -> more flash storage for roughly the same price.

[zbran 51]

4 hours ago, RollerCoaster47 said:

I feel somewhat confident putting my new build together once I get everything bought but I'm still pretty out of the loop on the software side of things. Not sure what programs I need to download for benchmarking, temp monitoring, performance boosting, etc. Here's what I've purchased so far, more or less waiting for the right deal on a motherboard and GPU then I'm pretty much ready:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/M7PJ8Y

For temp monitoring I just use Cortemp for the CPU and GPUz for the graphics card. If I'm overclocking I use CPUz to keep an eye on the actual voltage draw as Cortemp doesn't display the actual voltage correctly. With regards to benchmarks, I'm not sure as I don't really use them much.

[RollerCoaster47 758]

Well that's fine but as you can see I've already bought them:

I'm well aware I won't get full use out of the NVMe SSD and won't really notice a difference but I went with it just for bragging rights plus I've always wanted one. As for the AIO, I've bought an NZXT case, NZXT fans, and an NZXT accessory so I want an NZXT AIO, just like my OCD compels me to buy the same brand GPU as motherboard (likely an Asus ROG Strix of each). I've got the money to do what I want with this build and I'm satisfied with what I've bought so far. I highly doubt I'll be doing any heavy overclocking of the CPU so I'm not worried if I'm not getting full use out of the AIO. In no way to I plan to delid the CPU or do anything higher end like that just to eek out 10-15% more performance. I'll build the system, see how it does, and go from there if changes need to be made.

I appreciate the feedback though, I'll definitely come back for advice on software stuff and with any issues I run into.

[Folterknecht 2,238]

lucky you ;-) usually people are on some kind of a budget, that's why performance or vale/$ is one of the first things to look at for me.

 

monitoring: GPU-Z, CPUz, HW-Info64 and Afterburner if you want to mess around with the GPU

benchmarking/testing: Memtest86+ (USB version), Prime95 for stability and heat testing, Cinebench, things like Heaven bench or 3Dmark to determine if the GPU works properly (produces bench scores in line with similar GPUs)

[Fulcrous 2,070]

Nothing beats HW-Info for temp monitoring. CPU/GPU-Z for CPU/GPU voltage monitoring when OCing.
Afterburner is arguably the best for manual GPU OCing; however, I found that Nvidia's GPU 3.0 boost does that fine enough already.
 

Prime 95 v26.6 is the way to go for the CPU when testing stability and heat testing for non-AVX.
Heaven is good for the GPU; however, my personal experience is that it typically fails real-world applications when manually OCing GPU.

[Bavor 266]

On 3/30/2018 at 12:50 AM, RollerCoaster47 said:

more or less waiting for the right deal on a motherboard and GPU then I'm pretty much ready:

EVGA keeps putting up bundles of Z370 motherboards and GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 ti GPUs on their bundles page every week or two.  They sold out of the Z370 bundles a few days ago.  They may have new ones up there soon, possibly later this week.  Right now the only thing left is the Z270 bundles.

https://www.evga.com/products/featured-bundles.aspx

[RollerCoaster47 758]

On 4/1/2018 at 6:16 PM, Bavor said:

EVGA keeps putting up bundles of Z370 motherboards and GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 ti GPUs on their bundles page every week or two.  They sold out of the Z370 bundles a few days ago.  They may have new ones up there soon, possibly later this week.  Right now the only thing left is the Z270 bundles.

https://www.evga.com/products/featured-bundles.aspx

How are EVGA motherboards? Can't say I've heard of anyone using them or reviews on them.

[Sipher351 241]

On 3/30/2018 at 11:11 PM, Fulcrous said:

Prime 95 v26.6 is the way to go for the CPU when testing stability and heat testing for non-AVX.

Any particular reason to use 26.6 over 29.4? Just curious. I have both, I went out and got the latest version in the hopes that 26.6 was bugged or something before I finally realized my RAM was kaput.

[Fulcrous 2,070]

2 hours ago, Sipher351 said:

Any particular reason to use 26.6 over 29.4? Just curious. I have both, I went out and got the latest version in the hopes that 26.6 was bugged or something before I finally realized my RAM was kaput.

From the boys at TomsHardware and virtually anywhere else.

Quote

Prime95 versions later than 26.6 is AVX code which adversely affects all processors that have AVX instruction sets. This includes 2nd through 7th 8th Generation i7's, i5's and i3's. Pentiums and Celerons are not affected, as they do not have AVX instruction sets.

You can change the textlog to have it run non-AVX but it's simpler to download 26.6

[RollerCoaster47 758]

This is insurance in case I can't get the Asus ROG STRIX 1080 or 1080 Ti that I want:

[Bavor 266]

On 4/2/2018 at 11:35 PM, RollerCoaster47 said:

How are EVGA motherboards? Can't say I've heard of anyone using them or reviews on them.

I've only heard good things about them.  Most of them seem overbuilt, but they are marketed toward overclockers and enthusiast.  Gamers Nexus reviewed a few of their boards aimed at overclockers and said the components are beyond what anyone would need for air or liquid cooling.  Also, most EVGA boards support Intel engineering sample CPUs without BIOS hacks.  THey were popular among the people who would buy ES Xeon CPUs off of eBay.

The main disadvantage to them is their are priced a little higher compared to a MSI or ASUS board with the same features.