New PC Build - Questions/Advice

[Bardalicious]

So I started building a new desktop PC last week.. this is the first time I've built my own in probably 8 years or so since my last purchase was a gaming laptop for portability.

So far my components are:

CM Storm Stryker - White Full Tower Gaming Computer Case with Handle and External 2.5" Drive Dock

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G3, 80+ Gold 1000Watt fully modular PSU

MSI Z270 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM LGA 1151 Intel Z270 MoBo

Intel Core i7-7700K Unlocked Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz CPU

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200MHZ

SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive

I'm using the M.2 NVMe SSD just for windows and important system software like malwarebytes and kaspersky, which leaves me enough room left over for installing any games I need the most performance from. I've got a standard 7200RPM SATA HDD for storage as well from my last desktop but I'll be replacing it with a SATA SSD, or perhaps an M.2 SATA just for tidyness in the case to limit cable usage. And eventually I'll probably add in another set of the same 32gb RAM and look into liquid cooling as well, since the MoBo I bought is very OC-friendly.

Now, I currently have an old graphics card in this tower (gtx 260, yuck), just so that I could get everything set up to ensure that none of my parts came DOA, and to get windows installed, drivers updated etc.

I'm looking for feedback on GPUs now, if anyone has built a new PC recently or upgraded their video card at least. I know I'll be going with NVIDIA for sure. I'm sort of leaning between the GTX 1080ti and of course the good old TITAN X.

Then comes the question of using dual GPUs in SLI or sticking with the one. I haven't found a definitive answer on that one. As I understand it, on most motherboards you've got a limited number of PCIe data channels.. 20 total? 16 for the first PCIe slot for the graphics card to use, then 4 more dedicated to the motherboard which my M.2 NVMe SSD is using. Adding a second GPU drops both cards down to 8 a piece, though I don't know if that makes a huge difference with the increased processing power. Then of course not all games even recognize SLI cards so..

Any advice on what card I should go with, whether to use SLI or not, etc or even critiquing my build would be appreciated. Advice on whether i should go with another M.2 NVMe SSD for storage or an M.2 SATA SSD or a standard SATA SSD would be helpful as well, i dont fully grasp the whole PCIe lanes thing yet, so i dont know if adding a SATA SDD instead of another NVMe would have any advantage or not. Note that this is simply a gaming PC, I'm not using it for deep learning, cryptocurrency mining or the like.

(Yes I know this isn't Toms hardware or overclockers forums but I do know there are other PC enthusiasts here!)

[Hitmonkey]

Just built a similar system, i7-7700k, Samsung 960 evo M.2 system, would do a couple switches~

-switch out the MSI for Asus x270 board, when all the boards launched x270 chip sets(just a few months ago) their overclock & BIO's software were complete shit/board line incompetent and shipped with overclock volt option's that really come close to frying your i7. Wont be buying another MSI

-Drop the 1080ti for a 1070 and 32 GB system memoryj for 16GB. Take that cash and upgrade the EVO for the Samsung evo 500GB M.2 The 1080 vs the 1070 FPS no matter what your playing just isnt worth the extra money (same with 32 GB vs 16 GB) and the performance on the M.2 is so great your going to want a few games on it. FPS games on mine is amazing and the flop/rewrite isnt going to kill the drive anytime soon.

[originalman]

im pooped rn boys i just dont got this one in me

[NorseGod]

hitmonkey hit the nail on the head, also i suggest using pcpartpicker for fiddling and just optimizing and checking out pricing etc, their app is great. just made my younger brother his first real brand new gaming pc and used this case, literally best case for 100.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/F28...se-ca-s340w-w2

[Sage Truthbearer]

To pick your GPU it would help to know what games are you looking to play? What resolution do you game at and what FPS do you want to achieve?

[Bardalicious]

Hitmonkey, would it be bad to add a 2nd M.2 NVMe drive? Will the 2nd slow the first?

[Bardalicious]

As for the motherboard, I'm fairly content with the one I got. I don't doubt what you say about when they first came out, but I've seen nothing but pretty positive reviews on the one I have, other than the msi m.2 heat shields having a negative effect rather than helping.

I could probably still send the Samsung 960 evo back, but I'd prefer not to if adding a 2nd is a reasonable option. I'm blown away by the speed on these things. With msi fast boot enabled, from hitting the power button to Windows login screen takes about 2.5-3 seconds.

Sage, I play a large variety of different games. Mostly single player lately, like RE7, Dark Souls 3 and Witcher 3. But I also mix in some Agnarr EQ Live, the occasional fps, and older stuff like fallout 3/nv and skyrim.

I currently play on 1080 reso, but I'd like to be able to make the jump to 4k. I also keep telling myself that I'd like to check out VR, but until the technology starts reaching more mainstream gaming titles I'll probably hold off.

[Hitmonkey]

Originally Posted by Bardalicious [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As for the motherboard, I'm fairly content with the one I got. I don't doubt what you say about when they first came out, but I've seen nothing but pretty positive reviews on the one I have, other than the msi m.2 heat shields having a negative effect rather than helping.

I could probably still send the Samsung 960 evo back, but I'd prefer not to if adding a 2nd is a reasonable option. I'm blown away by the speed on these things. With msi fast boot enabled, from hitting the power button to Windows login screen takes about 2.5-3 seconds.

Sage, I play a large variety of different games. Mostly single player lately, like RE7, Dark Souls 3 and Witcher 3. But I also mix in some Agnarr EQ Live, the occasional fps, and older stuff like fallout 3/nv and skyrim.

I currently play on 1080 reso, but I'd like to be able to make the jump to 4k. I also keep telling myself that I'd like to check out VR, but until the technology starts reaching more mainstream gaming titles I'll probably hold off.

-adding another M.2 wouldn't be a problem since it runs on PCIe 4 (? i forget if it takes 4 or 2 PCIe channels) and unless your running SLI which is completely obsolete with today's hardware you shouldn't have a problem. Just read your MB manual because with a M.2 in its current slot it knocks down one of your PCIe slots to a lesser speed/off

-4k Don't let the latest 4k hype machine (fucking looking at you AMD) blur what you need for 4k gameplay when it comes to your GPU since it depends on both your CPU and GPU, I highly suggest checking out DigitalFoundry on youtube. Great, no words just a split screen showing mulitple video cards playing the same game on different settings so you can see yourself the effect of cards running 4k. You will be surprised at the results.

"important system software like malwarebytes and kaspersky" - lol you just need a fresh install and Sandboxie. Its free, doesnt allow anything to install/infect/fuckup on your system and doesnt take any PC resources. Great for porn and torrents since I can watch anything I download within the sandbox and it cant escape to my system.

[Burk]

Definitely need a bigger ssd if your not gonna have a hdd for random things. It would suck to have an awesome rig and only 250gb of storage.

[Uuruk]

1080ti should let you run r99 on max graphics