My week + my possible digital storm build

Just had a disasterous experience with a competitor call them CP, just this last Tuesday the pc I ordered showed up on what was supposed to be a happy day Wrong. Pc would boot into windows and then randomly turn off after 1-5 min. I discovered 3 big problems. The radiator fan on my new radeon r9 295x2 8gb was not working, the motherboard I bought didn't have support for the processor I picked the AMD 9590, and the power supply I picked only 850 watts, The 295x2 needs 100 amps +12v but this supply was only giving 70. I even sent them an email right after I placed the order and before it was being built asking if the 850 was enough for this beast of a card and they said yes it should be fine. Granted I should have looked into all components more closely but I thought they would not let me match up the wrong components. They claim to have 72 hour testing but I don't see how they could have missed all this stuff wrong during that testing so I believe that's a lie. Anyway I'm hoping for a better experience here, the forums are lively, CP forum was dead.

Heres the setup I have tentatively picked. I want high end gaming performance but I want it as quiet as possible too, I have very good hearing and a lot of fan or waterblock noise bothers me. Very plain and pretty much solid case, I see a lot that look much cooler and im tempted to get one with a lot of lighting and tubes but I find bright lights when I'm trying to play in a dark room bothering my eyes so I thought this pc. Open to your opinions, suggestions,comments. Thx

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Corsair Obsidian 550D
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 2133MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested) <br><strong></strong>
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050 <br><strong></strong>
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray & DVD Writer/Reader (Burn + Play Blu-Ray & DVDs) (12x BD-R)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (500GB Samsung 840 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (2TB 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 970 4GB (Includes PhysX)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex 120mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (High-Performance Edition)
H20 Tube Color:- Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds Only)
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Boost Graphics Card(s): Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Boost Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Boost OS: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks <br><strong></strong>
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Portable Gaming: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Edited by falzone - 31 Oct 2014 at 12:41am

Originally posted by falzone ... I discovered 3 big problems. The radiator fan on my new radeon r9 295x2 8gb was not working, the motherboard I bought didn't have support for the processor I picked the AMD 9590, and the power supply I picked only 850 watts, The 295x2 needs 100 amps +12v but this supply was only giving 70. I even sent them an email right after I placed the order and before it was being built asking if the 850 was enough for this beast of a card and they said yes it should be fine. ,,,

The build looks good. I agree tweaking the OS is not needed. Windows 8.1 alone runs very well and DS from the systems I purchased was always bloat free.

Edited by blackcatfoe - 31 Oct 2014 at 12:38am

Originally posted by blackcatfoe Instead of having the cards OC by DC you could consider spending a little more for Superclocked ACX Cooler. These will provide more performance gains then just OC'ing a reference card. It co.sts about $60+ versus $49 for the OC but in the end you can OC the ACX cooler cards to surpass an OC on a reference card. This depends really on what game titles you will be playing and if the demand is needed.

While the GTX 970 does run a lot cooler than the old GTX 780s and 770s, I'm not 100% sure it's a good idea to put two ACX-cooled cards in a 550D chassis. Unlike the standard GTX 970 design, the ACX design dumps most of its heat into the chassis. The 550D has pretty good airflow, but you might end up having to open up the vents, which kind of defeats the purpose of going with a low-noise chassis.

Of course, that might be me being overcautious - it's possible that Digital Storm or one of the other forum members have tested out SLI ACX 970s in the 550D chassis and found that the thermals work out just fine.