Hi guys,
Little back story before I begin. Well, I bought my first graphics card in 2007 (NVidia Geforce 8600GT) when I was 11 to play the highly-anticipated Call of Duty 4 and began my journey of PC Gaming and interest in them ever since! I bought my first EVGA product in 2011 (GTX 550Ti) and got to enjoy that for years before giving it to my younger brother and actually had to deal with the RMA process which was so fast that I've just stayed here due to the customer service I got. Anyways, my first gaming rig (the one I currently have) was completed by a system-builder because at the time I had little to no knowledge of computers at all. I knew what RAM and a GPU was and that's pretty much it...I saw what looked good on the website and built accordingly. Over the years however, it's basically become my own in the sense that everything's been replaced EXCEPT my cooler, mobo, CPU, and RAM (Yes, I understand those are big pieces but I haven't had to yet - although I have replaced RAM numerous times before on older pcs).
Anyways, here's my current specs (you can tl;dr it, it's just a background):
Case: CFI Pharoah (got it because it looked cool and it was big - this was 16/17 year old me)
CPU: AMD fx-9370 @ 4.72Ghz
Cooler: Asetek 570LX
Mobo: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Rev 4
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL (1600mhz @ 10-10-10-30)
GPU: 2x760s (OLD), 1x1080FTW (NEW - current as of June when they shipped pre-orders)
PSU: EVGA 1000PS (NEW)
SSD: Samsung 240GB (boot drive - new)
HDD: A Seagate 1TB
OS: Win 7
Fans: 2 Jetflo 120's, bitfenix Spectre Pro 230mm at the bottom, default fans for the HDD/SDD cooling/intake in the front, and a Spectre Pro 140mm for another exhaust at the rear (all blue).
Keyboard: Razer Blackwidow Chroma
Headset: Turtle Beach Z300
Mouse: EVGA X10 Carbon
Monitor: ASUS PG279Q (NEW)
I've spent countless hours on these forums which was sparked by my purchase/insight into a GTX 1080. I've been following it since pre-announcement on the stream. Since then, I've been hooked and have fallen victim to the vicious cycle of upgrading and this is the year I want to finally build my own from scratch. Benchmarks, forums, articles, and Youtube videos have pretty much consumed my time for the past 4 months on helping me learn a huge amount of the building side, overclocking, maintenance, etc. I'm also a Computer Science major so that helps too. I had a lot more software/troubleshooting experience when I was younger and now the switch has gone to hardware.
I'm very smart with my money and have saved quite enough as well as having a full-time job now to help. I want this build to last me a decent amount of time and want the experience of doing it myself. From what I've gathered/read, this is my prospective build:
Case: EVGA DG-87 (on pre-order from Newegg)
CPU: i7 6900k/6950x (still deciding)
Cooler: Swiftech H320 X2 Prestige (already ordered...was a PITA to find in stock.)
Mobo: EVGA FTW K/Asus Rampage V Edition 10 (still deciding if the price tag is worth it over the EVGA one considering there's lots of success with EVGA + customer service so...)
RAM: G.Skill F4-3200C14Q-32GTZSW (DDR4 - 3200mhz at 14-14-14-34 timings)
PSU: EVGA 1200/1300W (thoughts?)
GPU: GTX 1080 FTW (from current build, possibly going to SLI at a future date)
SSD: one from above but probably going to order the Samsung Evo 850 w/ 250 or 500GB.
HDD: Same HDD as above + a 4TB WD Black
OS: Win 7 Pro (I can buy the OEM version), or Win 10 (which I hated - sparked buying an SSD for Win7 boot)
Fans: I've loved the Jetflo's to be completely honest as I don't even have to go to full speed with the airflow in my case (max is usually 1600rpm under heavy load), but might put the new Corsair RGB fans too.
Keyboard: G.Skill KM780 - with Cherry MX Blues (maybe, unless I want to keep this one)
Headset: Current but will need upgrading as it's quite old.
Mouse: Current.
Monitor: Current.
The only issue I'm really having is deciding between the CPU's (as I'm most likely going to be starting a Youtube channel and Twitch stream) and which Mobo to choose. Everything else is pretty much preference because I have the itch to upgrade and it's just gotten worse and worse haha. When everything's said and done, there will DEFINITELY be pictures up.
I've tried reading as much as I could before posting but I do have a few questions/concerns though, such as: Can I buy a PSU from EVGA that comes WITH individually-sleeved cables or do I have to buy that afterward? Is a RAM cooler really necessary?
Thanks in advance for being patient while reading this and any questions/comments/suggestions/advice that you can give me or pick my brain about. This community seems extremely friendly and I'd be glad to become a part of it and maybe compete with some of you guys (and girls) on some benchmarks when my build is complete or even game. I've been playing the heck out of NMS when I have the chance but before that it was pretty much BF4 and Ark. Thanks guys!
September 2016 Build Specs:OS: Win7 Pro 64-bit
CPU: i7-6950X @ 4.4Ghz - 1.32V
Mobo: EVGA X99 FTW K
RAM: G.Skill TridentZ 3200Mhz C14 Memory (F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ)
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW
CPU Cooler: Swiftech H320 X2 Prestige
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1200P2
Case: EVGA DG-87
Fans: 3x Corsair ML120 Pro Blue, 3x Corsair ML140 Pro Blue
SSD/HDD: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB, Sandisk 240GB, 1TB 7200RPM 3.5" HDD (generic Seagate), WD Black 5TB
Monitor: ASUS PG279Q - 1440p, 144Hz, G-sync
Keyboard: G.Skill RIPJAWS KM780 RGB (Cherry MX blues)
Mouse: EVGA TORQ X10 Carbon