Show us your PC and/or Gaming setup

[MBAF]

so in the process of putting a list of parts together for a new build as follows

 

I7 7740 - this is raising questions in my head though

Gigabyte AORUS Ultra MB

Gigabyte 1080TI AORUS watferforce WBs x 2 - will save on getting my own cooling gear for these

512gb NVMe Pro

4tb+ hdd

Ram will be 64gb in either G.skill or corsair vengance 3600mhz or above but yet to be decided

as for case and water cooling setup im undecided on. Cooling will be custom obviously with 2 rads, reservoir and will likely go remote pump rather than a all in one for cosmetic reasons

 

as for the CPU im not sure if I should go for a 6 core or bigger to get more out of the GPUs compared to the 4 core. Given the 7740 is barely 1% (though cheaper) over the 7700 it seems likely that the money should be spent but going to a 6core is useless so this leaves the 8 core 7820x which for overall performance may be the go. I do video editing as well as graphic design but will be running 4k+ for gaming

 

thoughts? opinions? doubtful points?

[Rab]

Is the 7740 basically the 7700 that runs on the z299 motherboards? (with none of the bonuses)?

 

You'd be paying more for the board to use none of its improvements over the z270 boards?

 

Last I looked there was also not much love for the vram on the boards if you want run anything other than stock.

 

I'd go full hog with the 7820 with the z299 and its 4 channel ram rather than the 7740, 2 channel ram and limited PCI-Express lanes - especially if running NVME and 2 GPU's

[MBAF]

yeah that's exactly what I was thinking overall....8 core seems like a viable option giving benchmarks over all it shows something similar to this on single GPU.

 

3% better gaming

1% better desktop ability

37% better workstation ability (which is handy for exactly what I need when not gaming)

 

the only issue I see is price as its almost double for CPU

[Rab]

Isn't there a 6 core as well - that makes use of the 299 chipset?

[MBAF]

yeah 7800x is 6 core and cheap to though benchmarks dont look to promising, but benefits of an over all build may out way the outright speed. apparently they get real hot on overclock but have been stable with voltage at ~4.5ghz but would be plenty for 4k gaming and vr anyway

[Rab]

Haven't been paying much attention lately - would the AMD threadripper ones be any good?

 

Last I heard they were to be the next big thing, but haven't really looked since they were released.

[MBAF]

doesnt appear to be in the ball park and from what I can see

[Rab]

Good to see

 

Personally,  I'd go a z299 board with a CPU that takes advantage of the chipset.

 

Am running 2 gpu cards x16 pcie, (instead of x16,x8 or x8, x8)  2 nvme drives and some other sata drives on my z170 board and it's playing mix and match as to which SATA ports work and which ones don't (due to PCIE lane limitations) - normal z170, z270 (or z299 boards with the 7740) have even less pcie lanes to play with than I do (it's an odd board with an extra PCIE controller or something).

 

If you're going 2 GPUs , the nvme and want to do some content stuff (more HDD's or SSD's) then you may wish you had the legroom.

 

I'd probably also get aircooled GPU's and chuck waterblocks on them rather than the OEM watercooled solutions if going 2 cards. A single, decent radiator is easier to fit and cool than the 2
"smaller",  chunky, ulgy ones that come with the cards (I think they'd be AIO's rather than something you can alter??) and can be part of the rest of your cooling setup - especially if going water for the rest of the setup.

 

EKWB have a great config on their webpage where you put in your setup and it puts together a parts list. (buy/order in stages to avoid the $1k Aus trigger on orders before duty/gst etc if you purchase from them - I think PCCasegear?? stock a lot of the items)

 

There are a few cases out there now that work with the Gigabyte AORUS RGB and others that work with whatever MSI's or ASUS's version is (cant remember which) - I usually stick with Gigabyte (even if not the smart choice - other brands have let me down real bad at different stages through the years - GB haven't yet)

[MBAF]

there are 2 versions of the watercooled TI. waterforce and waterforce WB. WB just has the waterblocks attached so you can custom water loop

 

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/39675/gigabyte-aorus-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-waterforce-wb-xtreme-edition

 

 

[Rab]

Ah - perfect. Looks like it's designed so the EKWB "bridge" between the 2 cards would fit perfectly.