Dream Machine

Revision as of 17:44, 28 January 2016

Where wads of cash can make geeks drool :)

Dream Machines are just that, when the time comes that you want that awesome rig and performance out weighs budget constraints. Most users will be happy enough with a variant of our Gaming Machines, but when you just have to have it here is a guide to get you started.

Oh and if your going to make this journey, may I suggest you create a Worklog of your build progress. After all whats the point in having a Dream Machine if your not going to show it off.

There's no real recommended Dream system it is very much a individuals choice but take into consideration a Dream Machine is about a High End system that means all areas from your CPU to your Audio and Video, not forgetting your Storage setup to. Don't think you can just slap product together either, it's kinda a given that your system will be well balanced, pushing your overclocks and heaps of cable management, inside and out its got to be beautiful.

Lets quickly go through some build basics, then you can see a build example below

Cooling:

Air or Water, the more extreme examples DICE, Phase, LN2 are best left to the more seasoned Overclocker and are more suited to benchmarking runs than typical 24/7 home usage. Air cooling can put out some wonderful performance but the heatsinks can tend to get a little large and awkward to accommodate. The tendency is larger the better with copper heatpipes and high fin density then there is the compromise of performance Vs noise when it comes to choice of fans. Water cooling again comes down to how much of your system you wish to cool with water CPU, GPU, NB etc so you know the size of radiator and if your going to do more than one loop. Best to get an idea of your cooling needs first before you choose your Case, so that you know it will fit. Don't forget the air cooling of the case itself you need to make sure you don't have heat building up inside, dust filters are a great thing for keeping your case clean (remember to clean them to).

Cases:

Very personal choice here, main thing to consider is is there enough room for all your parts and is there sufficient airflow cooling after that ease of cable management and filter cleaning. Main choices here are the high quality aluminum cases but some of your better steel cases are still quite worthy entries.

Brands: CoolerMaster (CM Storm), Corsair, Lian Li (Lancool), Silverstone

PSU:

DO NOT USE CHEAP POWER SUPPLIES The core of stability - High Power, Clean, Solid Rails, Modular, Sleeved, check you will have enough power connectors molex/sata/pci-e and cable length.

Brands: Antec, Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic.

CPU:

AMD or Intel - Grab from the high powered ranges and aim for the most Overclocker friendly versions and revisions "Black, Unlocked, Extreme, Opteron and Xeon also options"

Motherboard:

High=end chipsets, all the latest fruit, additional cooling systems, loads of overclocking potential, plenty of room for expansion cards.

Brands: Asus, Gigabyte, EVGA

RAM:

Lots of High Speed and Low Latency - The absolute best changes often so checking in on the Memory Forums and places like i4memory is a good idea. Your after a good PCB and very importantly the IC's of choice. A lot of the high end RAM modules also come with quite large heatspreaders which can conflict with oversized air cooled heatsinks so do check your clearances before purchasing. Most of your well known companies make a performance range of RAM.

Brands: Corsair, G.Skill, Kingston, OCZ

Video Card:

Benchmarking Kings, Latest DirectX and features Multi GPU Cards and Multi Card systems. ATI Vs Nvidia price points and models change often. Typical though a couple of there highest end cards are the way to go, Crossfire or SLi (you can really ramp it up if you want, 3 or 4 cards at a time)

Sound Card:

Onboard has come along way but still its classed as acceptable. Can't stop there now can we, check out the PC Audio Forums and you'll see.

Brands: Asus, Auzen, Creative

HDD:

Multi HDD storage systems are the way to go. Best to get the fastest drive you can for your OS and most used programs and leave the rest of your data on a secondary drive. We have plenty of options on how to arrange this these days SSD "Solid State Drives" are the ideal choice for your OS drive just choose your controller and capacity carefully (Barefoot and Sandforce). At the moment they are still kinda of pricey for all your data storage so options such as 10k SATA drives and Performance SATA ranges be it SATA3/6 are our choice no Green Eco stuff here.

This also brings up another dilemma, "RAID" this can bring you great benefits in terms of performance and security. One should do there due research and understand this before jumping in. Onboard options may handle the basic stuff ok but more involved solutions will be better suited by additional expansion cards.

Brands: SSD: Corsair, G.Skill, Intel, OCZ
Brands: SATA: Samsung, Western Digital

==Example System: Dream Machine== updated 28/01/2016

Part	Model	Price	Case
CPU	Core i7-6950X 10 Core	ETA 2Q 2016 ~$2k
Motherboard	ASUS Rampage V Extreme USB 3.1	$829
RAM	G.SKILL Ripjaws F4-3000C15Q-32GRK	$292
Graphics Card 1	EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hydro Copper	$1137
Graphics Card 2	EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Hydro Copper	$1137
Sound Card	HDMI to Denon AV Reciver
SSD 1	Samsung 950 Pro Series 512GB M.2 SSD	$489
SSD 2	Samsung 850 EVO Series 2TB	$949
PSU	EVGA 220-T2-1000-X1 1000W TITANIUM	$398
Case	Silverstone TJ11	$669
Water Cooling	Swiftech H20-220 Apex Ultima XT
CPU Block	XSPC RayStorm Pro	$95
Pump	EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 PWM Serial with 2 Pumps	$249
Reservoir	Whatever you like
Radiator	Black Ice Silent Rev2 MP 560mm 3 Row	$249
Fans	NB-eLoop 140mm PWM x4
Monitor	Acer Predator X34 Curved 34in G-Sync IPS 9	$1899
VR Headset	HTC VIVE Pre-order 29 February
Total Cost	-	I hate to think		More Build Info CD/DVD Duplicator, Workstation, HTPC, Folding PC, Gaming Machine New System Recommendations, Upgrade Kit OCAU Guide to Building A PC, New System Parts Recommendations