Description
*Update 5/18/18: Bought a Vive, I run an HDMI to my TV to mirror video/audio from PC for audience, everything runs silky-smooth! Streaming VR has no issue either.
After finishing my last build (Khan) last August, I was very pleased with the outcome, but I knew I caught the bug. I started planning this build around two months ago, originally thinking I was going to wait for the next generation of GPU's and CPU's to come out and pull the trigger then, and just pick up what pieces I could as I saw them come on sale. Well, I'm an impatient guy and I found someone selling a 1080ti barely used for MSRP, so I jumped on it and started this project.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how everything turned out on this. I wanted something clean, aesthetically pleasing, and powerful. I have also always been a huge fan of Razer, but I hadn't owned any of their products until now. I like the razer themed cases by nzxt (s340 and h440) but really wanted the S340 elite, so I threw the razer stickers that came with my peripherals onto the same places. Only other mod I really did was white carbon fiber vinyl on the SSD.
Not in part list - Glorious XXL Extended mouse pad (white) from Amazon for $32, BenQ 24" 144hz monitor for $250.
I'll leave part reviews where you can read more about what struggles I had and what went right. All prices listed are what I ended up paying exactly after tax and shipping.
Part Reviews
CPU
Beast of a processor. Easily turbos above 4.4. Love it!
CPU Cooler
Awesome cooler, works great, beautiful. It comes with thermal paste pre-applied. Make sure you have a USB2 port open on your mobo, it takes one (and sata power).
Motherboard
I love this motherboard. It looks amazing, it has Hue+ and Grid built into it, it came with 2 LED strips, I can fit the kraken x62 without RAM clearance issues, it has plenty of ports for fans and USB2, etc. Only -1 star for price and because the metal plate cover makes it really hard to screw the board to the case if you don't have a good magnetic screwdriver. I had a screw slip while trying to put it in and took me a good 15 minutes trying to get it out. I ended up using masking tape to keep the screw with my screwdriver, then when I screwed it in tightly I could pull the screwdriver out with the tape.
Memory
Awesome RAM. The software to control the lights is a little sketchy, you have to follow the instructions for installing it to the T to not damage anything (you can look up people bricking their RAM with it). I got really lucky with a sale price (330 for 32gb) but only 2400 mhz. Figured at that point, saving $100 for a few mhz of RAM speed is worth it, as going from 16 to 32 makes a bigger difference than 2400 to 3000.
Storage
Best deal out there. Surprised people don't use this more. 220 with amazon prime? Awesome.
Video Card
Beast of a card. Got it off craigslist for the price, don't regret not waiting for next gen at all, as it will probably only be a few % stronger than this Ti.
Case
In love with this case. Absolutely beautiful. I do wish they gave a tiny bit more room in the front for airflow and for the AIO to have other orientations, or 2 fan spots on top, but overall I'm very happy with it.
Power Supply
Got a great deal on a great power supply. Exactly as much as I needed.
Operating System
Frys had a 1 day sale to get this for 77 + tax. Perfect
Case Fan
Took me a bit to figure out how the in-out connections worked to sync with the other fan and the mobo, but it's amazing. Love the look.
Custom
Look great, work seamlessly with my other NZXT lighting. CAM is still buggy, but with some patience you can get the colors you want. Profiles are a bit weird still
Custom
Glad I picked these over cablemod. They were on amazon prime, in white, shipped flat, with combs, and it came with 2x 6 pin and 2x 8 pin for PCIe, so it should work with any single GPU. They are extremely rigid, so I had to bend them pretty hard to get the 24-pin and 8-pin cpu to plug in and go through the cable management.
Custom
Beautiful, perfect in practically every way. No complaints so far
Custom
I guess it's cool they made an ambidextrous mouse, but it makes it slightly awkward to hold. I would have preferred the deathadder elite, or even basilisk, but being able to coordinate with the mercury chroma was too enticing. Razer, please make your other peripherals in this color scheme!
Custom
Got the job done. There are some slight kinks in it and the black clip ends are poorly designed and don't quite fit, but it's all for aesthetics so I did what I could to hide the bad parts by facing them to the back.
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