Advice between these two units

Hello all, I have narrowed my choices down between two makes. Can you please take a look at them and see any pros or cons between them. Thanks!

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Velox
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K 4.0 GHz (Codename Devils Canyon) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO (Intel Z97 Chipset) (The Ultimate Power Platform)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (256GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 3: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (2x Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)
H20 Tube Color: Red Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-Bit Edition)

With this one I'm getting a full liquid cooled unit and saving a ton on shipping. Cost around 4800$.

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS Aventum II
Exterior Finish: Pure White Matte Finish with Black Stand
Trim Accents: - Not Available
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K 4.0 GHz (Codename Devils Canyon) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO (Intel Z97 Chipset) (The Ultimate Power Platform)
System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Corsair Vengeance Pro (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Slim Slot Loading Edition)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (256GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Level 1: Digital Storm Exotic Custom Cooling System (CPU Only)
H20 Tube Color: Blue Tubing with High-Performance Fluid (UV Lighting Reactive)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Digital Storm RGB LED Lighting System (Requires Thermal Management Control Board & Software)
Airflow Control: Digital Storm Thermal Management Control Board & Software
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (64-Bit Edition)

This guy only getting the CPU cooling, but gives airflow control. Costing around 4600$ but with a pesky 400 shipping charge.

Thoughts!?

Hi JakeF12,

Those are two killer systems for your two 27" monitors. You have said that you are unsure about water cooling. Here are a couple of things to think about and save some money.

1. Drop the water cooling in the Velox and go full air. The Velox is a great design for air cooling.

2. Drop the Extreme Cooling in the Velox and use a H20: Stage 2: Corsair H110 280mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler on the CPU only. This will give you liquid cooling but no maintenance on the CPU. The GPUs would be air cooled. The Stage 2 coolers are a sealed unit and you never have to add or change the liquid.

You have also said you wanted the Aventum case in an earlier post. You could go with your heart and get the case you really wanted.

You are the only one who can decide what is the best system for you. The Extreme cooling is cool looking in either case and gives a slight performance edge over air. But with your two monitors any of these systems will rock.

I do have questions about your two 1920x1080 monitors. Do you have any plans to buy new monitors in the future? Would you stay with the 1920x1080 resolution?

Frank

I have not looked into upgrading the mointors as of yet. But thats not to say I wouldn't down the road. So if there is something that you would look into changing to allow me to use a 4k screen at some point in time please let me know! Thanks for the help guys, I plan on doing a ton of reading today and pulling the trigger on one of these two, i love the case on the aventum but if i can save a pretty penny i might use that for a new monitor

Looks like a dynamite rig to me.    The sli 980's will play great on your monitor setup.

As far as 4K, the sli 980 will give very good gaming on high with most games.  If you wanted max gaming graphics, a tri-sli, 3x 980 setup would be needed  for some games.  But, then you're talking about starting at Velox lvl 3 with its X99 mobo that can handle the extra card and a larger psu in the 1000watt range.  2X sli is a very good balance of money and performance. 

Good luck.

Hi JakeF12,

I think you have a real winner with your last build. I suggested the Stage 2 CPU cooling as I could feel your discomfort with the full blown water cooling.

I asked about your monitors because I agree with bprat22 that you should consider the X99 platform with more than two GPUs with the Z97. Your Z97 MB will support 3 GPUs but you will be PCIe lane restricted. Most people prefer not to operate a GPU with 4 lanes. Even though PCIe with 4 lanes 3.0 seem to work good with most present games. That could change in the future.

Frank

Edited by FrankW - 28 Nov 2014 at 8:52am

Hey Frank...Unfortunately, that 3rd Pcix16 slot is x4 at 2.0.  Anything at 3.0 is still not too bad, but once we drop to x4 2.0, then the performance hits a snag, especially if those channels go through the chipset first and not directly to the cpu, like on some boards.  Not sure with this board. 

Originally posted by bprat22 Jake...start with level 3.    It'll show there.

If I do that I lose the CPU selection. You are getting a little over my head when it comes the pci slots etc. I'm really glad you are willing to help me out! Thanks

Sorry about that, Jake.   The Pcie lanes like x4, x8, x16 is the number of channels the cpu use to talk to the graphics card.  X8 and X16 is great.  Below that with the older 2.0 the info starts to slow down and performance can take a hit.  Basically, if you go with X99 like Frank said, it's not an issue.  Plenty to go around.

The 4970k cpu will not fit in the X99 mobo.  You need to select the 5820k or 5930k cpu.  The 5820k for a lot less $$ is all you need for a max of 3x sli.




Edited by bprat22 - 28 Nov 2014 at 9:24am

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Velox
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99 RAMPAGE V (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Model: BC-12B1ST)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (256GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Seagate)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H110 280mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-Bit Edition)

I have no issue spending a little bit more to make it last longer. I use to buy new every few years but always went cheaper with AMD and ATI, so at this point id rather spend the $$ with Intel and not worry about it for a while

The last slot on the Maximus VII Hero board has PCI-e lanes coming from the chipset, not from the processor. You cannot SLI through this, but you can CrossFire through it (although it is not ideal, only people doing compute operations like Bitcoin mining should use it as such). You can, however, put another NVIDIA card (it can be dissimilar, too, unlike cards in SLI) in the slot and it will function as a PhysX co-processor, off-loading the physics calculations from the GPUs in SLI and allow them to focus their workload on scene rendering.

Hi JakeF12,

You are welcome for the help. You ended up with a really nice build for future expansion. I wish I had that system. I really like that Velox case.

DS has software and drivers that they try to keep updated but drivers and Windows can change daily. It is pretty hard to keep up with all the changes. You should expect to do some updates when you get your system. I would want to do them even if DS was perfect just to know I am starting with the latest software/drivers.

Frank

Edited by FrankW - 02 Dec 2014 at 6:19am