Planning. Opinions welcome.

[AlienALX]

Right, seems my egg hatched and I am about to come into some money. Stupidly I can't keep any of it, or I will end up homeless (stupid long story about a dumb govt here) so I have decided to build a new gaming rig. Note, gaming only nothing else.

At first my choices may seem odd, but I will explain that in a bit.

If any of this is junk or can be improved on tell me please. I'm a little bit out of the loop.

For the case I chose this. This isn't flexible as you will see why.

I'm going to call it Mike Tyson, so black out everywhere. No RGB unless it comes with the parts and in which case it will all be set to white or off. I've got two tarty rigs I don't want another. OK, so this is why I chose that case.

As I said, the rest may not make sense but it will by the time you're done reading.

Board.

CPU will be a 3950x.

RAM (32gb 3600)

Like I said, I am deliberately avoiding RGB.

Two of these. In the SODIMM thing on the board.

This

This.

For which I have this.

Fans.

Push pull all the way through. I will be using two rads. 360 top, 240 bottom. It will all be Bitspower. Everything, all from their new range. Probably going to stick to black soft tubing as I love it.

OK, now this is why I have chosen DTX.

If you floor mount a rad and two sets of fans it eats the board. So this will have everything all stashed on the tiny board, with the rest of the space used for water cooling.

Hopefully I can order that soon. Tomorrow or day after. I will order the water stuff on Friday.

As I said, looking for reasons as to what you would change and why.

 

[RobM]

all looks very nice to me, although I would wait out for big navi personally.
Love the case and look your going for and that viper ram is very good though you should be able to get 4400 for not a lot more, I got mine for £70 and clocked down to 36 with tighter timings.
How can you hatch and egg and not be allowed to keep it?

 

[AlienALX]

It's a very long story. 7 years old.

Basically my ex wife and I were denied a benefit. Every time we had to contact them they said we could get it, but each time they said "Oh no, sorry you can't". Well it turns out they were lying to us.

So now basically they owe us both thousands in back payments (well, I assume she's heard from them too). Every time the law changes on penalising the mentally ill they have to go back over cases. Turns out they were lying to us, married couples can get it.

Now here is where it gets kinda stupid, right. Basically where I live now is sheltered housing. Which comes with it safety and security. However, if I have more than a certain amount in savings the govt stops my rent and I lose my secure housing.

So the stupidity is I can not save it, as it would put me over my "allowed savings before losing benefits" and then it's like a house of cards. Lose one? lose them all.

People say I am lucky that one day I will inherit half of my mother's house. TBH? I am absolutely dreading it. I can't just go out and blow £150k, because they make you show them all of your bank statements to prove you didn't waste it, and then when they see fit they make you sell whatever you bought.

I read a story once about a lady who got some inheritance, and she went out and bought a new car. They stopped all of her money and told her to sell it.

I can attest to it, because when I married my ex she had 20k or so from the sale of her house. We spent it down to what we had to, then they wanted proof of every single f*****g thing we had purchased. Thankfully a sofa, chairs, a bed and etc all qualified or else they'd have stopped our rent and we'd have been out on the street.

Things are improving, but not as they need to.

So yeah, basically I have no other option than to dispose of this cash. At least with a PC I can basically tell the truth - I isolate and it's my only gateway into the world.

I've paid it forward. Titan XP goes in the mail for my pal tomorrow who's had some crap luck due to this malware going around, and I have donated my recent project (the Alienware X51) to a guy I know who puts on LAN nights for people recovering from cancer.

I'm a firm believer in karma. A huge, big believer in karma.

 

[AlienALX]

Oh and dude, that's 32gb ram. I just looked and you can't even get 16gb modules at higher speed. Unless I can't find it?

I decided to get some 4133 16gb. It was on sale, and £40 cheaper than the 4000.

 

[hmmblah]

As long as you do a build log I'm fine with your choices . What are the timings on that ram and what cpu block are you going with?

 

[AlienALX]

OK money came in. Was a little more than I expected, and tbh after the headaches I've had with water cooling lately I bottled it.

So I chopped and changed a few things. I can always add to it later storage and etc wise. This is what I got. I'll do the build here, given I doubt it will even require much modding. I'm so tired of problems and leaks.

I went for the 3950x.

For RAM I changed things. Instead of getting 32gb of 3600 I got 16gb of 4133 :O it was quite cheap too tbh. £30 cheaper than I paid for my Dominator RGB 3200 kit/s.

One 256gb for Windees and a 1tb for games (for now, I can hide SATA drives easy in this rig)

I also changed the board. I just couldn't justify it really. I hope I don't live to regret this, but reviews are very positive.

I changed the case also. I had my heart set on this one when I was dreaming last week and tbh I'm happy I got it.

Still utterly determined to avoid RGB I got this, saving a small fortune in the process.

9 of these (maybe too many but hey, better than not enough)

PSU I got this.

Cables. Graphite. Again, super low key.

And finally the cherry on the cake.

There's another reason why I chose this route. I want a VR headset for HL Alyx, and spending that much or even more on water cooling would have stopped me getting that. I also don't want this to take months to do either.

Hmmblah. I decided against water cooling. I had three big issues when upgrading my Alienware and tbh I am just so sick of it all. If I spent this sort of money and had issues it would kill me.

I've got four other rigs to play with (well, two that are up and running) so tbh this needs to just work. Yeah, the Kingpin probably wasn't the best idea ever, but I don't know if I will ever get the chance to do this again (last time was 2013 and like now it was sheer luck really) so yeah, call me stupid etc.

It also leaves me scope for upgrades. And space. TBH? I could kill for a Caselabs but they are gone, and this is about the next best thing. You can SLI two GPUs in it vertically lmao.

Edit, it's this RAM

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...4133mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-099-tg.html

The 4000 that I had in my cart (pretty much the same 8 pack) was £160. Then I spotted that on sale £40 cheaper. I'm bloody glad I looked now !

 

[Tolemac]

Looking good Alien . We had the same thing in January with the DWP. Thousands went into our bank account from them, So I rang for clarification and it was all what they owed us since 2015 when they changed us to ESA. Any idea which VR headset are you are liking the look of?. I have the Rift S and already pre-ordered Half Life Alyx.

 

[AlienALX]

Getting the rift s also mate. Not dumping loads and loads tbh. it's going to be for one game for now.

 

[AlienALX]

Changed the board out. It's junk. Trust me to pick THE one that is junk and has vrm temps of 105c with the stock 12 core.

Changed to the Asus TUF which was the best in class for VRM temps.

 

[AlienALX]

Got the rest.

Didn't fancy £45 on another full set so just got what I needed. Will look nice. Got this too for the sound card.

 

[grec]

What GPU is this?

That case looks amazing btw

 

[AlienALX]

2080ti kingpin.

It's the only card out of the box that beats a Titan RTX.

It was stupid money but I'd saved that and more by not water cooling. I also saved £200 by swapping the board.

I'm amazed not to have seen any one use the case. It's dual chamber. The mobo goes in the right side upside down and the GPUs go in the left vertically. It comes with two ribbons so I'm going to put my Xonar STX in that side with it.

Part of the £200 saving on the board meant crap onboard sound.

 

[RobM]

Your meant to be getting rid of it, not finding cheap deals lol

 

[AlienALX]

Your meant to be getting rid of it, not finding cheap deals lol

haha none of it was cheap. Well, a bargain. It was what it was. Just didn't see the point of spending £360 on a mobo. I don't need lanes, or stupid storage, or any of that. I have all that already.

Just need to get the Der8auer socket shifter once it's released. Double digit temp drops definitely interest me.

 

[Eddie long]

Looking interesting , I do like the case , look myself at that one b4 I got the Helios , only thing I would check is if your power supply will cope if you overclock , I know my galax 2080ti recomends as a minimum 750 at stock out of the box setting , not sure on KP but I have looked at mine and I can't find a minimum recommended size

 

[AlienALX]

It uses around 380w or so on the AIO. The CPU is quite good as it goes, so it should be fine. It's quite simple. Two sticks of RAM, two NVME SSDs, no hard drives and no pumps and stuff.

Nvidia always over shoot the power specs, just in case you are using something like a 750w bronze or "not really a 750w". Unless I fold on it I can't see it ever pulling max power just gaming. It's usually one or the other. Like, heavy CPU use or GPU use but never both fully maxed out.

I'm going to try this covid folding on my other rig with the 1550w psu. It's all under water too, so should be perfectly safe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg6pz7YTxyA

For perspective. I still think he's a pillock for even trying that tbh but hey, results don't lie.

 

[Avet]

Looking awesome. If it is a gaming only rig I would sincerely recommend you to go with 9900K, or new 10900K if it is out by the time you build it. 2080 Ti Kingpin is a glorious card but it will give you less performance than a bog-standard blower 2080 Ti on 9700K because 3950X just can't cope with it. If it is any other card or build I am happy to recommend AMD CPUs, but with kingpin AMD CPU is pointless.

 

[AlienALX]

Looking awesome. If it is a gaming only rig I would sincerely recommend you to go with 9900K, or new 10900K if it is out by the time you build it. 2080 Ti Kingpin is a glorious card but it will give you less performance than a bog-standard blower 2080 Ti on 9700K because 3950X just can't cope with it. If it is any other card or build I am happy to recommend AMD CPUs, but with kingpin AMD CPU is pointless.

So you think there's a difference at 4k?

I strongly doubt that.

Never heard the 3950x called pointless before lol.

Also. The 9900k is at best 10% faster at 1080p.

I can't see the 10 core Intel being any faster as it's only 2 more cores and I'd hate to overspend on what will be a dead socket within a year.

 

[Bartacus]

Yeah I kinda LOLed, there's nothing the 3950x can't cope with. That CPU is beast. You went crazy spending, this is entertaining to watch, LOL!

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah I kinda LOLed, there's nothing the 3950x can't cope with. That CPU is beast. You went crazy spending, this is entertaining to watch, LOL!

You can't use air GPUs in the case. That's probably why there's none around. I like that though.

1350 or so buys you a 120 AIO hybrid. £1500 buys you a 240 AIO hybrid. TBH the vrm and screen and copper made it worth it.

If this thing can survive LN2 and has full unlocked voltage and last longer due to the sheer overkill s**t I'm in.

Bottom line? It's faster than a Titan and £500 less. Top warranty too.

You know I just watched that kid from actually hardcore overclocking and unless you want top end Lan he says get the board I got. Even for LN2 the 12 phase VRM is bullet proof.

I'm very happy. So yeah, the kingpin might "only" be 10% faster than a regular 2080ti but it's still faster. I bet it'll last longer too. Ample cooling and overbuilt to almost insane levels. It's a work of art.