New Build - Retiring my old Aurora

[ColdDog]

So... my 2011 alienware pc is finally out of date. She will make a good addition to the lab as it still has plenty of horse power, memory and storage. That said, I looked at the benchmarks on it and the cpu is still plenty powerful... holds its own against a new 7700k. After further inspection I realized that it did not have M.2 support for the ssd and the video card was running at pcie 1.1 speeds. So, I had a 1080 running pretty slow. I can't complain, my aurora has been a great PC for nearly 7 years, but as we know, times change and so does the technology.

I am sure you are asking... what's CD new build right? So I went back and forth between the processors - i7, i9, Razon, Razon Ripper etc. I thought, I could probably put a new motherboard in the aurora but then, after some research, it said it could only take a micro atx. I bounced around that idea for about a week then I thought, what the hell, ill go buy another aurora. I ran the numbers, even with my 17% employee discount it came to 2700 bucks (I know that sounds like a lot, but when you have a computer that runs for nearly 8 years without a problem - its a pretty good deal). I went round and round with configurations on the new aurora but I just could not pull the trigger on it. Because I had a hard time upgrading my old aurora I decided to just build one. That way I would not have old computer crap laying all around the house.

So... here's the build.

Rosewill ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case Galaxy-02 Black
- Cheap case - it has all the important stuff

G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16Q-32GTZR
- Memory is one of those things - you pay for what you get. I chose 8gb x 4 for speed. I wanted 64gb but could not justify the price

ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero (Wi-Fi AC) LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 Z370 ATX Motherboard with onboard 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit LAN and USB 3.1 for 8th Generatio
- This one came up on the Amazon recommended for you banner... It appeared to be good enough for what I want to do. It had the pcie 3.0 slots and the M.2

Intel Core i7-8700K Desktop Processor 6 Cores up to 4.7GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W BX80684i78700K
- I am not a heavy over clocker geek type... so I went with the 8700k as opposed to the x or i9. The price really jumps when you get those cpus.

Intel Optane SSD 900P Series (280GB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint)
- I'm a SC chump but I think the SSD is going to be important for anything moving forward. There are cheaper ssds out there but this one blew away the competition with the configuration I am looking to implement. I'll run SC on this.
- I'll get a cheap 2 TB 7200 drive for storage.

Noctua D-Type Premium CPU Cooler, NF-A15 PWM Fans, Retail Cooling NH-D15S
- I didnt want the water crap... call me old school.

EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G3, 80 Plus Gold 850W, Fully Modular, Eco Mode with New HDB Fan, 10 Year Warranty, Includes Power ON Self Tester, Compact 150mm Size
- This power supply is on the more expensive side, but I use my pcs for more than gaming. I use them for Virtual Machines, testing, and development purposes... so, this pc will probably be running most of the time.

Enjoy

Let me know your thoughts.

CD

 

[Sraika]

... call me old school.

You're old school. :stuck_out_tongue:

 

[Cool-Hand-Luke]

What are you using for a video card?
Or are you going to use the 1080 out of the other machine?

 

[ColdDog]

Or are you going to use the 1080 out of the other machine?

Yep... I still have a lot of miles to put on it.

 

[Cool-Hand-Luke]

Ryzen 2 benchmarks and reviews coming out on the 19th.
Probably just a little better then the 1st Gen.
I've always kind of been an Intel man though.. not that they have always been good to me.

 

[Talonsbane]

I'm hoping that your Intel Optane 900p SSD came with the code to get the Saber Raven for yourself.

 

[ColdDog]

Yeah. there is always something new coming, as someone who has had the same gaming PC for over 7 years, I think this build will at least get me through the next 3 years... and since I do not have to worry about OEM I can just upgrade when I want - which is a nice option. Pound for pound I think my memory was the most expensive component for this project.

 

[ColdDog]

I'm hoping that your Intel Optane 900p SSD came with the code to get the Saber Raven for yourself.

I think it will... but who knows (I'm not holding my breath). I bought it for the speed among other things.

 

[Vavrik]

I like it. And you chose the I7-8700K for the same reason I did.

Intel Optane SSD 900P Series (280GB, 2.5in PCIe x4, 3D XPoint)
- I'm a SC chump but I think the SSD is going to be important for anything moving forward. There are cheaper ssds out there but this one blew away the competition with the configuration I am looking to implement. I'll run SC on this.
- I'll get a cheap 2 TB 7200 drive for storage.

I think you're right, the SSD is going to be important for a lot more things than just SC. In the software development world, we've all but totally stopped thinking about disks and "how long do you figure all those seeks are going to take". You'll find you want more SSD, but I figure it can be upgraded later.

 

[Bruce]

@ColdDog - please instead of "cheap 2TB 7200 RPM" and optane take less cheap 1TB m2 nvme ssd ( 960 evo for instance ) and use it for everything ( 280GB optane is too small, potenitally it is even too small for star citizen )

 

[SullyQuindarius]

I'm still working on one myself. So far it's gonna be:

Intel i7-8700k w/ Kraken X62 cooler
MSI GeForce GTX 1080
G.SKILL Trident Z RGB 16GB
Samsung 960 EVO 1TB
Asus Z-370E motherboard

And one of those sexy Alienware 34" monitors.

 

[Vavrik]

Since you're doing software development and running VM hypervisors, here's something I have, just to back up my work automagically, but it also synchronizes any number of disks autonomously.

This solution is incredibly cheap: Like including software and external disk, you could do it for under 100 bucks, depending on the size of disk.
You need a Raspberry PI, and an external HD. Mine is 6 TB. The OS is Linux but it's kind of plug and play. It also has GIT and OwnCloud. Both are open source, and available for free.

Once this software is configured you just need something like SourceTree or whatever GIT or SVN client you like, and a copy of OwnCloud client on any systems you need to backup, or do content management on. I use it to synchronize two 1TB hard disks in two systems I use for work (a Desktop and a Laptop), and it also gives me enough storage that anyone in the house (there are 5 of us, 2 are college students) can have 1 Tb of secure network storage using OwnCloud.

The GIT repository takes care of all the local source code repositories, and manages the private BitBucket repository for each client project.

The middle kid (Girl... college student) had her laptop stolen just before exams in December. We had her back up and running inside of an hour of her returning from BestBuy with a new laptop.

 

[Cool-Hand-Luke]

Does the 8700k benefit from a delid like the 7700k? We delid my childrens 7700k for a solid 15C decrease in temp. One click Asus 5.0 overclock and stable as a rock. Super easy to do if you have the right tools.

 

[ColdDog]

@ColdDog - please instead of "cheap 2TB 7200 RPM" and optane take less cheap 1TB m2 nvme ssd ( 960 evo for instance ) and use it for everything ( 280GB optane is too small, potenitally it is even too small for star citizen )

I took your advice on the evo... ill use it for my OS and all the other misc stuff.

 

[Vavrik]

Does the 8700k benefit from a delid like the 7700k? We delid my childrens 7700k for a solid 15C decrease in temp. One click Asus 5.0 overclock and stable as a rock. Super easy to do if you have the right tools.

So, I have few friends who are overclockers, no direct experience myself. Three of them talked to me about delidding the 8700K when I asked. All 3 were successful. They disagreed somewhat on the benefit, but the most experienced guy runs his CPU at 5.1 GHz. He also claims he has 3 titan xp's in the rig. I have no reason to disbelieve him, he's always been on the up and up.

 

[Sirus7264]

I took your advice on the evo... ill use it for my OS and all the other misc stuff.

Yeah that 960 evo is pretty beast mode nvme is the way to go make sure you buy a board that can use it i think the maximus does work. I like your Chipset also but the I9 series has more PCIE lanes (your 8700k only has 16 which means you will have to run in 8x/8x vice 16x/16x) at the moment that doesnt mean much but in the near future your going to need more bandwidth in your channel.(if you plan to upgrade again soon then go ahead and go with the 8700k) also if you plan to run in 4k with 2 gpus in SLI then you may also want to think about going with more lanes.

In my oppion atm you probably shouldnt do your upgrade yet wait until we get closer to novemberish time as there is alot of new tech comming out this year and SC is no where near ready to come out yet. I'm still rocking out my alienware until we get closer to game time. The current tech is still to new and has alot of problems. If you want an upgrade go for something simple for now for like 1kish using your current components with minor upgrades.

 

[ColdDog]

If you want an upgrade go for something simple for now for like 1kish using your current components with minor upgrades.

yep, that was my goal. My config is up top... that's what I ordered from amazon. Only change is the evo. I've used the same gaming PC for a long time. I'm not too worried about new tech... as long as ddr4 works I can always swap stuff (board and cpu) now that I dont have the dependencies or restrictions of the Dell/Alienware OEM form factor.

 

[Cool-Hand-Luke]

Just found this. I'll have to give it a go.

View: https://youtu.be/JnO6bjKaea4?t=1s

 

[ColdDog]

Hey folks... need your help here. I started putting together the PC today and ran into my first problem. First, the motherboard does not have a U.2 adapter... is why I bought the pcie model 900p. I opened the 900p box and it had a darn U.2 cable. I have 2 M.2 ports I can use... so I thought I'd try to find a M.2 cable ( https://click.intel.com/u-2-to-m-2-ssd-cable-replacement-u-2-to-m-2-cable-for-pcie-nvme-supporting-intel-solid-state-drives.html ) but its out of stock. So I thought I might be able to find an adapter... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY9HRDB/ref=psdc_1292116011_rv_t3_B0773SRDVP ... my only concern is performance. The next adapter I could get is this one... I think it might work better https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-M2-U2-131-SFF-8643-connector-PCIe-NVMe/dp/B01D2PXUQA/ref=pd_sim_147_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01D2PXUQA&pd_rd_r=19XVDD89RVP3EEVT8JJ2&pd_rd_w=yLrE6&pd_rd_wg=f285W&psc=1&refRID=19XVDD89RVP3EEVT8JJ2

Thoughts.

 

[Talonsbane]

@ColdDog to the best of my knowledge, you can use a U.2 adapter to M.2 slot with little to no slow down in performance as long as that particular M.2 slot is rated as PCI-E Gen 3x4 as most newer model motherboards tend to have.