Improvements to my set up?

[Maglev]

So eh... I am very new to building computers and the pc hardware in general (my EE degree has just started though 🙂 ). I have a few questions.

This is my set up right now,I went all out. I thought that the most value build would be buying somewhat top end components, and committing to a new upgrade way later down the line.

MOBO: ASUS RVE10
CPU: i7-6850K
GPU: GTX 1080 Ti
RAM: 32 GB Trident Z RGB
SSD NVME: Sams 960 Pro
All custom water loop.

I really like it so far, and it ticks all the boxes for now.

First question is in regards to the new x299 system and its new intel chips.
I suppose that the new chips are not compatible with the current X99 platform, correct?
As this is the case, can anyone explain in brief how much of a change the new architecture really?
I am asking this because I thought of buying the 6950X chip if it ever gets a big discount when the X299 and Skylake X are released. It is perhaps to prolong and improve the span of my current mobo. However, I am still quite curious if it is not just better to keep everything as is, and save up for whatever comes out in future.

In regards to the GPU, I am still contemplating on the 1080 TI SLI. It seems like they do add SLI profiles in the last Nvidia driver update; however, from the benchmarks that I saw, it still feels like SLI is a waste of money. What is your experience with it? What is your prognosis regarding the SLI support? Is it just going to remain as pathetic as it still is? I remember Nvidia promising an amazing scaling and support with their Pascal family. Despite that, I am still very curious as I never had SLI before.

My current use of computer is limited to trying to game at ultra settings and Solidworks/Matlab/etc. It will prolly expand further in the near future.

Thanks

[Nate152]

Hi Maglev

That is the start of a nice machine indeed, especially with a custom water loop. SLI is more dependent on the game or game engine, some scale better than others. I don't want to turn you away from x99 but if you're strictly gaming have you thought about a Maximus build? Most games still seem to favor higher clock speeds over more cores and the 7700k runs at 4.5GHz, plus the Maximus boards support higher speed ram. With money saved going with Maximus and i7-7700k you'd all but have your 2nd 1080 Ti.

I have the Maximus IX Code and I delidded my 7700k which reduced temps quite a bit and I'm able to play games at 5.3GHz with the cpu cache at 5.0GHz. With a custom water loop the Maximus IX Formula or Extreme are great choices.

Another thing that will determine if you need a 2nd 1080 TI is your monitor, what monitor do you have ?

I don't want to steer you away from X99 but it's something to consider if you're strictly gaming, here is what you can expect after delidding the i7-7700k. Watchdogs 2 is pretty demanding and I only have one ROG Strix 1070 but I'm going to install a Titan X (pascal) in a week or two. 🙂

[Maglev]

Nate152 wrote:
Hi Maglev

That is the start of a nice machine indeed, especially with a custom water loop. SLI is more dependent on the game or game engine, some scale better than others. I don't want to turn you away from x99 but if you're strictly gaming have you thought about a Maximus build? Most games still seem to favor higher clock speeds over more cores and the 7700k runs at 4.5GHz, plus the Maximus boards support higher speed ram. With money saved going with Maximus and i7-7700k you'd all but have your 2nd 1080 Ti.

I have the Maximus IX Code and I delidded my 7700k which reduced temps quite a bit and I'm able to play games at 5.3GHz with the cpu cache at 5.0GHz. With a custom water loop the Maximus IX Formula or Extreme are great choices.

Another thing that will determine if you need a 2nd 1080 TI is your monitor, what monitor do you have ?

I don't want to steer you away from X99 but it's something to consider if you're strictly gaming, here is what you can expect after delidding the i7-7700k. Watchdogs 2 is pretty demanding and I only have one ROG Strix 1070 but I'm going to install a Titan X (pascal) in a week or two. 🙂

Atm, I have the Viewsonic G2703-GS. Very good monitor with really good refresh rate.
However, I got it as more of a temporary solution to understand what sort of monitor I need. I wanted to get ultra-wide, but I was informed that it has poor support for the system. Moreover, I got spoiled, and I want nothing less than 100 Hz.

I am looking towards the 4k 100 Hz + monitor now, but I am thinking of waiting until there are more brand options and the price is a little lower.

As for the processor, I got it because I was informed that I need a good multi core chip to speed up Solidworks, and whatever progs that I am soon going to use for Physics simulation stuff. Not personally sure about the degree by which it will help me.

[Nate152]

Yeah solidworks is a 3d cad program and X99 would probably suit you better. The ultra wide monitors have a 21:9 aspect ratio and can have black bars on each side rather than full screen. This is only from what I've read though not from experience as I never tried an ultrawide monitor.

The ultrawides have a resolution of 3440 x 1440 which is not 4k, 3840 x 2160 is 4k resolution.

Asus has a 4k monitor with 144Hz refresh rate on the horizon but I don't think it's available quite yet.

PG27UQ, it's a 27" monitor which is a nice size but I like something a little larger, I have the HP ZR30w, 30" 2560 x 1600. There are some 4k monitors in the 30"-32" range but are only 60Hz.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11014/asus-demonstrates-rog-swift-pg27uq-4k-144-hz-hdr-dcip3-and-gsync

[Maglev]

Thing is, it seems like in regards to my GPU question, by the time the 4k high refresh rate monitors will be more common, Volta will be out by then. And the Nvidia subreddit kind of sent me into the reaffirmed state that even buying Titan will be a better purchase than SLI LOL.

In regards to the CPU question, can you explain in simple words of how much of a performance boost it is to get 6950X, if i were to replace the 6850K? I will definitely keep my X99 for a while then, and perhaps get 6950X when it gets a more reasonable price.

One bad thing about RVE10 though, it seems like it is not possible to get M2 and U2 at the same time 😞

[Nate152]

For rendering and things like that the 6950x will win with its 10 cores but for gaming the 7700k is faster in most games with the higher clock speed.

[Korth]

It is a fine build.

ROG R5E10 is basically the last and arguably the best X99 motherboard. The competition has some nice X99 offerings as well, but the R5E10 is a worthy successor to ROG's "flagship" R5E which held its own in the top-tier since X99's beginning. You would not be disappointed with an R5E10 (or with the ton of accessories it comes with).

i7-6950X is basically the best overall Broadwell-E LGA2011-3 processor.
There are a few Haswell-E Core i7(-K) processors and Broadwell-E Core i7(-K) processors with more speed but less cores/etc. There are many Haswell-EP Xeon (E5-16xx-3, E5-26xx-3) processors and Broadwell-EP Xeon (E5-16xx-4, E5-26xx-4) processors with (lots) more cores or (some) more speed, etc.
They all use the same (22nm/14nm) process lithographies, they all have the same 140W TDP upper limit, they're all binned/configured/priced off the same handful of silicon dies - so there's always tradeoffs where more of something means less of something else.

(All of the "non-X" Core i7 parts and Xeon E5 parts can indeed be overclocked on these mobos, in case you're wondering. Check my system specs.)

Processors on Intel's new X299 platforms will use LGA2066 socket, NOT compatible with X99 platform LGA2011-3 socket.
Intel's "leaked" roadmaps scheduled the X299/LGA2066 launch for June/July 2017 - less than two months away! - and rumours abound that they've "rushed" the launch in response to AMD swooping back into the market. Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X Engineering/Media samples have already been distributed, reviewers are already running these parts.

So you can buy X99/LGA2011-3 (which is now a more "mature", stable, proven, and somewhat less costly platform) or you can buy X299/LGA2066 (which will equal or exceed "old" X99 in every capacity, support more new features/compatibility/technologies, cost more, and - as usual - be somewhat buggy throughout most of the first year). And don't forget about AMD's powerful new Ryzen AM4 X370 (and upcoming AM4 X390/X399) "HEDT" counterparts!

The newer (X299/AM4) platforms promise greatest longevity. X99 is still "new" but it's been around since mid-2014 and is already one step closer to EOL "legacy" obsolescence - although it's already massively overkill for many years of hard computing. Make sure you get a robust (even overkill) PSU and CPU cooler if you want to maximize your system's longevity.

The advantages of "HEDT" platforms are multicore megathreading madness, much higher (DDR4) multi-channel memory bandwidths, and greater number of PCIe3 lanes (along with greater motherboard bus bandwidths to transfer tons of data to-and-from processing components). The sort of stuff you'll need to maximize performance on *heavy* lifting and crunching productivity software (CAD, Autodesk, MATLAB, SPICE, SIMUL8, etc). A GTX1080Ti is a beast for FP32/FP16 work, but not so great at FP64 - neither is Titan Xp, sadly - so if you need lots of DPFP-based parallel/render computing tasks which lean heavily on GPU (GPGPU, CUDA, PhysX, etc) then you'll need to get a proper workstation card (I used a Tesla K80 GPU-A for 18 months) and you'll need to pair it with big/fast RAM and storage to minimize data bottlenecks and maximize performance efficiencies.

The advantages of "Performance" and "Mainstream" platforms are (much) lower cost and (some) greater compatibility. A fast 4C/8T 8MB CPU is more than adequate to run today's most demanding game/software titles, and it should continue to remain adequate for many years Same for, say, 16GB to 64GB of fast DDR4. And for the mighty GPU cards (like GTX1080Ti), albeit they'll look much less impressive in just a couple years.
This is basically the "baseline" platform spec targeted by devs so games/software will (increasingly) be code-optimized to run on it (while incidentally also tend to not run any better/faster on HEDT hardware they're not code-optimized for). Intel Z270 and i7-7700K (or AMD X370 and R7-1800X) are already overkill for 99% of real-world computing, and a GTX1080Ti is basically capable of >60fps 4K gaming - at a much lower price than your X99 build.

It always boils down to the same two questions: what do you want/need your computer to do and how much do you plan to pay for it?