Seeking Advice: $4k USD Budget Included

[Sirrrus]

Hello, I love eye candy and getting lost...Skyrim, Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Dragon Age: Inquisitoion, etc. any RPG with stunning graphics that make me feel like I’m lost in the world. I will be going for a high end 1440p/144Hz monitor until the 4K/144Hz ones come down in price. I hate hate hate long load times because it takes me out of the experience. *Any constructive criticism and advice is greatly appreciated. I am above average in skill (this is my 4th build, but I love putting them together) but by no means am I a master with the voltages, tech know-how, overclovking, or what the hottest new models of anything are. Educating myself as best I can and I’m still way behind.
Here is my current build:
Mobo: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Black Edition
CPU- i7-4930k @ 3.9GHz
CPU Cooler- Corsair H100i
GPU- 2x EVGA GTX 780 Classified SLI
RAM- 16GB Gskill Ripjaws Z DDR3 @ 2166
Hard Drive: Samsung EVO 1TB SSD
PSU: Seasonic 1250-X Gold (1250W)
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 932
OS: Windows 8.1

I will be keeping the hard drive as backup storage for the new build. Here are my parts and the PC PartPicker *link: *https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Sirrrus/saved/9VHtgs
Mobo: Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme EATX
CPU: *i9-9900k @ 5.0GHz (hopefully...)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2
GPU: EVGA Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti FTW Ultra
RAM: (somewhat unsure here...Where would I be bottlenecking with these parts?) *GSkill Trident Z RBG 32GB (4x8) @ 3600???
PSU: Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium 80+ 1000W
SSD: (Also unsure here...looking for fastest load times at this price point, $500 or less) Samsung EVO 970 M.2-2280 1TB???
Case: Corsair Obsidian 1000D
OS: Windows 10 Pro
*Current build price is *about $4300 USD, I think I can get it down to $4000 USD. I’d rather not go much higher so if you have a recommendation that adds $500+ to the price, I think I’ll have to pass unless I can chop somewhere else. Thank you in advance for your advice and assistance!

[Korth]

i9-9900K has 2 channels (2 iMCs) so 4x8GB and 2x16GB should offer functionally identical performance on a 4 DIMM motherboard. I think startup and training times would be a little faster with 2 DIMMs installed, slightly more stability above the CPU-rated (DDR4-2666) spec. But maybe no real difference with T-Topology across 4 DIMMs, except for slightly higher latencies. Costs on high-speed silicon bins tend to favour more low-capacity DIMMs vs fewer high-capacity DIMMs, although maybe not by very much since they always have to be fully matched DIMM kits.

I assume you understand the Corsair 1000D is a seriously massive huge monster of a case which will be largely wasted overkill unless you plan to stuff it full of cards and drives and big rads and fans galore, lol. (And if you do plan to populate the hardware to full capacities later then you'll eventually have to get a monstrously overkill PSU to run it all so you might as well start enjoying that PSU today, pay more upfront and "save" more overall.)

I'd put more emphasis on the system SSD, personally, speed > capacity (as long as it has at least 256GB for the OS/etc, of course). No real need for multiple x4 M.2/NVMe SSD RAIDs unless you have a specific niche which requires such performances/redundancies, but a single fast M.2 system drive will make the whole system more snappy and responsive on everything you do. Add in a SATA SSD (with a balance of decent speed vs capacity) for installing hefty game libraries and you won't lose any immersion to loading screens. SATA HDDs can always be added later so no reason to worry about them now if you don't require tons of storage capacity just yet. Stuff like video/movies, audio/music, photos, documents, and software archives don't benefit from SSD performances anyhow so best to stuff that stuff onto HDD(s), use the M.2 SSD for system only, use the SATA SSD clear of any junk except for the games/apps you need to keep running fast.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Korth wrote:
maybe no real difference with T-Topology across 4 DIMMs,

Actually I am given to understand that using the 4 slots is the best way to go on T Topology boards 4x8 better than 2x16

OP...looks like you have done your research well...that build looks great to me

[Sirrrus]

Korth wrote:
*I assume you understand the Corsair 1000D is a seriously massive huge monster of a case which will be largely wasted overkill unless you plan to stuff it full of cards and drives and big rads and fans galore, lol. (And if you do plan to populate the hardware to full capacities later then you'll eventually have to get a monstrously overkill PSU to run it all so you might as well start enjoying that PSU today, pay more upfront and "save" more overall.)

I'd put more emphasis on the system SSD, personally, speed > capacity (as long as it has at least 256GB for the OS/etc, of course). No real need for multiple x4 M.2/NVMe SSD RAIDs unless you have a specific niche which requires such performances/redundancies, but a single fast M.2 system drive will make the whole system more snappy and responsive on everything you do. Add in a SATA SSD (with a balance of decent speed vs capacity) for installing hefty game libraries and you won't lose any immersion to loading screens. SATA HDDs can always be added later so no reason to worry about them now if you don't require tons of storage capacity just yet. Stuff like video/movies, audio/music, photos, documents, and software archives don't benefit from SSD performances anyhow so best to stuff that stuff onto HDD(s), use the M.2 SSD for system only, use the SATA SSD clear of any junk except for the games/apps you need to keep running fast.

Duly noted about the case, I’ll look for something smaller. (Just noticed my CoolerMaster is 29lbs and the Corsair is 65lbs SIXTY FIVE LBS!!! BEFORE ANYTHING IS LOADED INTO IT!)
Any recommendations? It doesn’t really matter to me as long as the GPU fits, that model has three fans and I believe it’s something like 12”+ in length. I do really like the glass door on the side that opens and closes, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Regarding the SSD, as this is probably a noob question, why wouldn’t I want the games directly on the M.2/NVMe? Wouldn’t the load times be faster without having to draw from the SATA SSD? Maybe I need to educate myself more on these, my last build SSD’s were brand new and only SATA.  My thought was*M.2/NVMe for games, my old SATA SSD for music, movies, documents, and maybe a 32GB/64GB for the OS. Do I have that right?

Thanks again!*

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Sirrrus wrote:
Do I have that right?

Yep! You do...:)

[Korth]

You might be right, Arne. I've never done any comprehensive comparisons and apparently nobody else online (outside of ASUS) has either, lol. I just have the gut feeling that increased electrical distance (balanced across a compromised "longer" path) can only increase dB signal loss that tiny little bit more = slightly increased overall latency at the high end. Perhaps no difference, perhaps a difference that is indeed real but immeasurably trivial.

OP has done good research. Although I betcha he'll have a mild heart attack when he sees the size of the box on that 1000D, haha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqkFNpngDSE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPmykpEJfA

[Korth]

My advice was just based on a little budget stretching ... I think smallish-and-fastest system M.2 plus largish-and-kinda-fast games SATA would be roughly equivalent performance and more storage capacity vs a middly-sized-and-fastest M.2 for everything, same snappy OS and still no loadscreens but more space for games. Ideally you'd want to populate with biggest-and-bestest-and-fastest drives everywhere but then your costs escalate alarmingly.

There's also other merits in multiple drives - M.2 is serviced by hardwired PCIe3-to-CPU while SATA is serviced by PCH-to-to-CPU - so that more data can be accessed in parallel without deep command queues on a single drive, without bandwidth becoming saturated on one bus, and with the bandwidth spreading the love across CPU threads instead of bottlenecking as often. Plus, migrating your entire games/apps library to another machine is as simple as swapping a drive. (But there's also a tradeoff - PCH-to-CPU can be saturated if you fill it up with tons of bandwidth-eating USB junk or motherboard-serviced hardware.)

You can certainly choose other SSD configs without going far wrong. You already know the size (roughly) of your games/apps, don't forget that Win10 keeps growing and growing in size as it updates itself, and you'll start to notice peak drive performances drop when the system drive is more than half filled. 32GB RAM is enough that you won't have to worry about the OS eating up big swaps (unless you segment the RAM down with RAMdrives and RAMcaches and stuff, or you run hoggy VMs).

There are apparently some UEFI/BIOS settings you need to check over *before* you install your WinOS ... so that your WinOS software and your platform hardware aren't permanently married to each other (a marriage which causes issues whenever it's time to change Windows or move Windows to another platform or change motherboard). Sorry I don't know specific details about this - I don't use WinOS garbage outside of virtual machines - but it's a heads up lol.

[Sirrrus]

One more question: Am I gaining anything with this Mobo and my current setup/planned usage as opposed to a lower priced Maximus VI Hero? Will I gain that much more from the Cache speed on the Extreme?

[JustinThyme]

I’ll just drop my .02 here on drive choice. You want the fastest load time that’s within the low que 4K random arena. I’m not talking about the likes of Samsung with astronomical sequential reads that does well with synthetic bench marks and little else. Fastest drive available within your drive budget would be the intel 905P U2 drive that can be run from U2 or be ordered with an NVME adaptor. Worst performance comparisons they still quadruple the Samsung random 4K speeds. 480GB is running about $500USD ATM. The PCIE of the 905P has double the capacity and more than double the price though.**