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Velox Build

Post Date: 2015-01-21
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michaeljhuman View Drop Down
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Velox Build
    Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 10:33am

I think I made the final changes to my order. I had time to make the changes as the case is on backorder.

Don't be like me, and spend more time ensuring the build is what you want. It's not like building it on your own, where it's somewhat easy to change your mind :)

My goal is high benchtest scores, and not 4k yet. Still happy with 1080p, though that might change as I should be able to run most games on max settings in 4k with this box. Some games seem like a real challenge even for 980 SLI ( Metro Light, not played, but seen the tests where it can drop below 20fps)

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Velox
Processor: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 850W EVGA SuperNOVA
Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Model: BC-12B1ST)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (512GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Seagate)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (ASUS Strix Edition)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H110 280mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
Chassis Fans: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)

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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 10:39am
A more reasonable build, with the same idea would be to drop to the 5820 CPU, and use dual 970s. For most games that would be perfectly good.

The reason I went with the 980s is for the factory OC. DS's specs claimed the 970s were stock, with no option for a better card. It's possible they could special order the card of your choice, I did not ask like I should have.

I would suggest to people looking at something like this to also move to the EVGA Supernova for the small price difference ( small compared to the total.) The CX 750M might be fine, but it's budget supply.

Crossing my fingers the case shows up in the next few weeks and I get a good PC. I usually build my own

The lighting is bling,and is obviously not needed




Edited by michaeljhuman - 21 Jan 2015 at 11:59am
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 11:48am
Looks good and I agree with the psu.    Not much more for a better unit with better warranty.

Awesome  
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 2:28pm
I wonder why there's so little mention of Velox anywhere. In these forums and on the internetz.

Maybe the case, with it's inverted design, and lack of bling doesn't interest people

I was excited by the presence of many fans and the fact the case WAS inverted, because left side of my case is usually against a desk side
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Posts: 28 		  Quote Yako Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 2:35pm
I originally ordered a pc with the Velox case. However, I changed to a Hailstorm II case after I was notified that the Velox case was backordered.
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 21 Jan 2015 at 2:36pm
Hailstorm was too tall, or I would have considered it
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Posts: 2254 		  Quote FrankW Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 2:06pm
Hi michaeljhuman,

I am a big fan of the Velox because of its cooling and the inverted mother board. This is a really new case for DS and it will take some time for the word to get around. Since it is an in-house case others don't see it on competitors web sites.

You system looks good like it is. I do wonder why so much system memory? If this is a gaming machine you sure don't need 32Gb. The 5920 CPU would save you some bucks. Good choice on the PS.

Frank
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 3:43pm
I was going quad channel, and I was thinking 8 GB modules as that is what my current PC has. So 32 GB was the result. 16 GB seems more than adequate, but I did run into some memory issues in the past so, while that implies a leak or other issue, it does give you some headroom

One would think virtual memory means you would have to work very hard to run out of memory, so I don't know why I was running out.


Edited by michaeljhuman - 22 Jan 2015 at 3:44pm
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Posts: 1674 		  Quote  Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 8:12pm
You'll want to contact DS...not sure if they use 8GB modules for the 32GB config. It may very well be 8 x 4GB DIMMs.

And it is pretty easy to run out of memory with 32GB...just start up a few vitual machines, have a few web browsers with multiple tabs open, etc.

Edited by  - 22 Jan 2015 at 8:12pm
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 9:51pm

4x8 is fine by me

This is the info on the invoice, not too helpful:
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)

You are probably right about VMs, and I may run VMs one day. It would be cool to run a Windows 7 VM, for example. Or Linux for occasional software development work
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 9:53pm
I brought up the config page. Says
Memory Size32GB (8 x 4GB)
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Posts: 1674 		  Quote  Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 10:02pm
The amount of memory the VMs use is something you have to configure when setting up a VM, so you can definitely limit them to 4GB each, or however much you want to allocate depending on what you plan to do with it. But that, is that much memory you will have to dedicate to it.

32GB is probably fine for the time being, unless you are going to be doing some memory intensive applications (DSP, video, other sorts of compute apps).
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Jan 2015 at 10:21pm

I think 32GB is about right. 16 GB was more than enough for Windows 7 and my needs. As time marches on, may as well add more, it's not like the RAM was the major cost here

I figure I am paying a premium over well over 1k just to have DS build it, and dual 980s are perhaps overkill, and it's a pricey CPU.

I admit I find run of the mill PCs boring, so go a bit overboard, heh
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 03 Feb 2015 at 11:31am
Slow day, so I thought I would post latest updates to my build. As the case is on backorder, I keep changing stuff :)

Chassis Model: Velox
Processor: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050
Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Model: BC-12B1ST)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (512GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (1TB Seagate)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (ASUS Strix Edition)
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H110 280mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
Chassis Fans: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-Bit Edition)

I changed to the 1050 after looking at power draw in various benchtests. OCing can really pull a lot of current, so it seems good to have headroom on the supply. I would not want my OC limited by the PSU if possible.

For normal gaming needs, the EVGA Supernova would be my choice.

I sometime thing about RAID, but it's really not worth the hassle, because if one drive goes, both do in RAID 0. RAID 1 seems silly for my game drive, which is what I would do RAID for. RAID 5 seems to be the only good choice, and it's not too pricy, but in the end, a single 1 GB game drive seems fine. I can always grab a beer while it's loading :)

I decided the 5820 was probably a smarter buy, but I will stick with the 5930, maybe 40 lanes will come in handy one day.




Edited by michaeljhuman - 03 Feb 2015 at 11:43am
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 03 Feb 2015 at 11:50am
For comparison, my current system is-
i7-3770K, OC to roughly 4.2 GHz
Asus P8-Z77V mobo
EVGA 780 FTW - SLI
Cooler Master HAF XM ( Great case, IMO)
16 GB RAM
850 Watt Seasonic
250 GB SSD
1 TB WD Black
64 GB SSD ( I put my swap file on this)


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Posts: 1674 		  Quote  Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 03 Feb 2015 at 12:17pm
Originally posted by michaeljhuman

I changed to the 1050 after looking at power draw in various benchtests. OCing can really pull a lot of current, so it seems good to have headroom on the supply. I would not want my OC limited by the PSU if possible.


If you are going to play around with the voltages, yes, power draw can significantly increase with OC-ing.

Originally posted by michaeljhuman

I sometime thing about RAID, but it's really not worth the hassle, because if one drive goes, both do in RAID 0. RAID 1 seems silly for my game drive, which is what I would do RAID for. RAID 5 seems to be the only good choice, and it's not too pricy, but in the end, a single 1 GB game drive seems fine. I can always grab a beer while it's loading :)


It all depends on your workloads. RAID 1 will still give you read performance gains (with a good RAID controller that will read in strips from both disks). You may want to look into changing the drive to a Western Digital, as there are some recent reports on drive reliability where WD came out quite a bit ahead of Seagate. The enterprise drives have additional reliability and aren't that much more expensive, too.

Originally posted by michaeljhuman

I decided the 5820 was probably a smarter buy, but I will stick with the 5930, maybe 40 lanes will come in handy one day.


If you are going to replace the GPUs alone, and not your entire system, later on with some of the High Bandwidth Memory GPUs, they may be saturating the PCI-e links a bit more than they are right now, so that may make it worth it.
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 03 Feb 2015 at 12:55pm

Because I could do a max of 3 HDDs in the Velox, and because I am not too concerned about speed of the HDDs I changed my order to two WD Black HDDs in RAID 1

I figured the price was not much, and if a drive fails, I won't lose data and time. I don't keep anything too valuable on the HDDs, mainly games, but downtime is unpleasant.

I keep changing my mind, lol. I can't visualize any more changes though.

If the Velox had been a more traditional case, I would have gone with RAID 10, and 4 drives. But it's an airflow case, so no drive cages. Actually that makes much perfect sense for a gaming case, so don't take that as knock.

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Posts: 1674 		  Quote  Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 03 Feb 2015 at 1:48pm
Yeah, gaming doesn't need too much storage. I'm happy with strictly a 512GB SSD. If I ever need more space in the future, it'll either be with a NAS or I'll just remove some other stuff that doesn't get used that much.
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 12:04pm

It's possible my PC is now being built. I am posting final config, as I made quite a few changes while waiting.

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Velox
Processor: Intel Core i7 5930K 3.5GHz (Six-Core) (Unlocked CPU)
Motherboard: ASUS X99-DELUXE (Intel X99 Chipset)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX (Extreme-Performance)
Power Supply: 1050W Corsair HX1050
Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Play Blu-Ray and Burn DVDs) (Model: BC-12B1ST)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (512GB Samsung 850 PRO)
Storage Set 2: 2x Storage (2TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: RAID 1: Mirroring: Drive Failure Data Fault Tolerance Protection (Requires 2 HDDs
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB (ASUS Strix Edition)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Corsair H110 280mm Radiator Liquid CPU Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition)
Chassis Fans: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Blue) (Up to 6 Fans)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)
CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz

I changed to the Dominator RAM so I could maybe get CL15. I doubt it makes a difference based on bench tests

I changed HD to dual 2 TB drives in RAID 1. I don't think that will speed up my reads, but will provide some nice redundancy. I might see if I can back up the OS drive to the data array

Cost is quite high, and wait was high but I will be happy if it gets to me undamaged, and properly configured. I will be really happy if I can get 4.4 Ghz clock rates on the CPU, and the GPUs don't throttle down due to heat issues like in my current setup ( GTX 780 FTW in HAF XM case)

As mentioned above, money could be saved in a lot of ways. 5820 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, slower RAM ( as speed is not very important based on tests,) cheaper SSD. Of course one vs 2 HDs, but really two, 2 TB drives is not a huge jump in price from one, 1 TB drive.

Unknown whether the cheaper GTX 980s could be clocked to the same level as the STRIX, and would have worked as well




Edited by michaeljhuman - 27 Feb 2015 at 12:08pm
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Posts: 379 		  Quote Pacesetter Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 2:00pm
" I might see if I can back up the OS drive to the data array "


With 2Tb HDDs you have room to partition them and have a partition on each the size of your SDD and use that for back-up. You would have to partition both drives for the mirroring but that still leaves 1.5Tb of usable storage.



Edited by Pacesetter - 27 Feb 2015 at 2:02pm
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 2:35pm
We got a nice container of Velox cases in, pending orders are being finished as quickly as possible.
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Posts: 297 		  Quote michaeljhuman Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 2:46pm
Pace, do you have to have a separate partition for the backup volume?

I have not used Windows own backup, so don't know what you can and can't do
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Posts: 379 		  Quote Pacesetter Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 3:33pm
A separate partition for back-up is the safe way to go. Doing this prevents having to back up to an external drive and windows recovery is stored on the SDD and doesn't back up everything.

With windows back-up or a 3rd party program you can choose to back up everything or just what is really important to you.

for a system image back up:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/09/17/backup-amp-recovery-of-windows-8-windows8-itpro-tipoftheday.aspx



For Win8.1 you can just use files history:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/what-happened-to-backup-restore

For windows 7 and before windows back up on control panel.

An external drive works but I have had problems with them. When I hook them up for another back up or to restore from back up, windows has had problems with compatibility of files, installed new drivers for the HDD that affected the reads and caused errors, etc.

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Posts: 379 		  Quote Pacesetter Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 3:46pm
here is some reference material.

You can use Windows 8 File History to backup the files. Refer to the link to do so:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows-8/set-drive-file-history



You can also go for System Image backup:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/keithmayer/archive/2013/09/17/backup-amp-recovery-of-windows-8-windows8-itpro-tipoftheday.aspx



Instructions to create a System Image:

a) Go to the Start screen, start by typing Windows PowerShell, right-click the result and select Run as administrator.
b) Connect an external USB drive to save the image backup.

c) While in PowerShell (Admin) type the following command and press Enter:

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:D: -include:C: -allCritical -quiet





To save an image backup to a shared folder in the network use the following command:

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:\\sharedFolder\folderName -user:username -password:userPassword -include:C: -allCritical -quiet




How to restore Windows 8.1 from image backup:
Now the most important instructions are how to actually take this full backup and restore Windows 8.1.
Instructions :
a) Pop the DVD or USB media with the Windows 8.1 installation files. Also connect the storage drive with the backup in it.
b) Restart your computer and make sure your PC can boot from DVD or USB media.

c) When the installation wizard start, click Next, then click the Repair your computer link in the bottom-left corner of the window.

d) Choose the target operating system you want to recover.

e) The Re-image your computer wizard starts, it will scan for a system image backup. ClickNext and choose whether to format and repartition the hard drive (optional).

f) Click Finish to start the recovery process.


Note: Back up target = drive and / or folder on your computer so will necessitate changing it in these instructions.
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Posts: 379 		  Quote Pacesetter Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Feb 2015 at 3:51pm
decent back up software - free or pro versions

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

didn't want to get this lost in the above posts.

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