New DS customer looking at high end AV II build

Budget:
Around $10k

Expectations:
Future Proof Gaming at 1440p and later 4k

Usage:
Gaming, some image editing

Saved Ticket #: 938568

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS Aventum II

Exterior Finish: Onyx Black Matte Finish with Red Stand

Processor: Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 4960X 3.6GHz (Six-Core) (Extreme Performance)

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition X79 (Intel X79 Chipset)

System Memory: 32GB DDR3 1866MHz Corsair Vengeance Pro (High-Performance)

Power Supply: 1500W Silverstone (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)

Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)

Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Slim Slot Loading Edition)

Storage Set 1: 2x (750GB Solid State - Samsung 840 EVO)

Storage Set 2: 1x (750GB Solid State - Samsung 840 EVO)

RAID Config: RAID 5: Performance + Drive Failure Protection (Recommended) (Requires 3 HDDs)

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 TITAN Black 6GB (Includes PhysX)

Sound Card: Auzen X-Fi Forte 7.1

HPC Processor: - No Thanks

Extreme Cooling: H20: HydroLux Copper: Digital Storm Copper Pipe Custom Cooling System (Video Cards + CPU + Chipset)

Chassis Fans: Upgrade All Fans to Corsair Airflow Performance Edition (Up to 6 Fans)

Internal Lighting: Digital Storm RGB LED Lighting System (Requires Thermal Management Control Board & Software)

Airflow Control: Digital Storm Thermal Management Control Board & Software (Backordered ETA Early April)

Boost Processor: Stage 2: Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz (Requires Pro/Deluxe/Sabertooth Motherboard)

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

Hi all! First time DS (Potential, though very likely) buyer. I've had a few gaming computers but none as high profile or high price as the proposed one. So... yes, a little scared about it. I've been reading these forums for a couple days now though and that's made me feel a lot more confident about a purchase!

I built my last tower, but I'm not comfortable doing liquid cooling or overclocking. In terms of what I'm looking for, I'm definitely going to be getting an Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q when they hit soon, and will likely upgrade to 4k when it has been out for just a bit longer and has more content.

Looking for general advice, as well as one or two special areas:

Is the sound card a good choice? I use a Razer Tiamat headset so was looking for something with 7.1, and the Creative models seemed to only support 5.1.

Am I on course with the Titan Black cards? I was originally looking at 780 Ti's but it sounds like the extra memory is supposed to make a difference at higher resolutions.

Any other thoughts are appreciated as well! Thanks!

That is one seriously powerful rig you're looking at there!

Originally posted by fstcvc The choice of the Titan Black's over the 780ti's is give or take. With higher resolutions it should help having the extra VRAM but will also help future proof your system as games are starting to use more memory for the amount of graphics information they are pushing to the display...

fstcvc is right - SLI 780 Ti or SLI Titan Black, both are serious overkill for modern gaming at 1440P. Thus, the difference is really about future-proofing.

The 6GB VRAM on the Titan Black is a significant factor in future proofing. Modern games are already beginning to push past 3GB in usage at higher resolutions, and that trend is likely to gather steam at some point in the future. In terms of current technology, you simply can't go past the Titan Black in 4K-readiness. Check out the Titan numbers at the following link, and then add some:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pq321q-4k-gaming,3620.html

On the other hand, it's hard to tell how harsh the demands of 4K gaming will be in the future. On the one hand, there's some evidence that 2xAntialiasing is sufficient at those resolution levels, which will reduce system demand. On the other hand, certain games at 4K / Ultra Settings are already able to bring even dual Titans down to the 30fps mark, and games are only going to get more demanding. There's no question that dual Titan Blacks will run games at 4K, but it's impossible to predict right now whether they'll give you frame rates you want with graphics settings you want.

It might make sense to swap out your cards for new beasts when you switch to 4K gaming, in which case dual 780 Tis should give you all the power you need for quite some time. On the other hand, if you're not too concerned about running Ultra settings after you switch to 4K, those Titan Blacks should serve you well for a very long time.

Thanks all, and thanks for the link Counsel, that was really helpful. I feel I SHOULD wait for more software to support 4k as a standard before I dive into it... though it's hard to resist that temptation. At any rate, I think I'll stick with the titan blacks for now... I'm going all in anyways, might as well be crazy with the cards. As was pointed out, I can always swap them out in a couple years for more powerful ones if needed.

Originally posted by Firebrand1686 Thanks all, and thanks for the link Counsel, that was really helpful. I feel I SHOULD wait for more software to support 4k as a standard before I dive into it... though it's hard to resist that temptation. At any rate, I think I'll stick with the titan blacks for now... I'm going all in anyways, might as well be crazy with the cards. As was pointed out, I can always swap them out in a couple years for more powerful ones if needed.

That would definitely be my concern with 4K right now (aside from price). There are still a number of kinks to work out in terms of display standards, and while Windows has decent support for ultra-high resolutions baked in, a LOT of software does not.

I'd also love to see support for G-SYNC on a 4K display before buying in, since it might handle some of the performance challenges of pushing that many pixels. But I have no idea how long it'll be before we see that particular combination of technologies. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7582/nvidia-gsync-review