Description
What started off as a bleeding edge build with stars in my eyes turned practical with a z97 build. I decided after a lot of changes to the build (thank you pcpartpicker for the hobby of mentally building for months) to make something that can handle all gaming, can be portable, and has room for upgrades during the next year. I have been a respected DJ in Texas for years and after moving to Colorado I have been working to build a name here. This computer will also be used to produce new tracks for my shows so the Devils Canyon processor is lovely though I didn't quite need an i7 for Ableton. It was a fun build and made me realize why I used to build computers in my teens for people.
Future upgrades include: Full water cooling loop External Asus Xonar Card NZXT Hue+ Two more SSDs in Raid0
Vizio M49-C1 48.5in 4k tv that in using for my monitor. This tv is so beautiful, has miniscule input lag compared to most 4k the, amazing blacks and does a wonderful job when paired with my ExOc 970. This is the best bang for your buck 4k experience in my opinion since I paid $499 for it! Get one!
[Update] Decided to sell my 970 EXOC in favor of a 980 ti. For details or if interested in purchasing, comment below
Part Reviews
CPU
4 cores and 4 threads with plenty of power for my needs. I picked a non overclocking chip for longevity purposes. This thing is blazing fast and has great thermals thanks to the refresh. I moved from a dual core celeron so you can only imagine the power difference
Motherboard
This thing is a thing of beauty. The UEFI bios is very in depth, has all the features I could ever want, and is well thought out with placement of everything. There are more fan headers than most mATX chassis can utilize and it has plenty of sata connections. There are plenty of USB 3.0 headers and the io shield has an exhaust hole for heat to escape. I went with z87 over z97 because the additional changes were minor and I got a killer deal on a new one of these.
Memory
What can I say? It's quality ram with a low cas rating and xmp applied the 1866 clock immediately.
Storage
This thing is lightning quick! Coming from a mechanical drive it's speed is unbelievable. From power on to Windows it takes 7 seconds and for the price this is a fantastic buy. It also looks great with the flaming jaguar on the exterior and feels to be made of high quality materials. I'll never go back to mechanical drives except for maybe a security nas
Video Card
This thing is a monster! I have it overclocked to 1540 boost and it tears apart games even at 1440p I get 60 fps on a lot of games! love this card and looks gorgeous in my rig while keeping cool and whisper quiet as one of the fans stays off until it is under load and even then I hardly hear it. Planning on a second one to sli for 4k.
Case
This was a dream to build in. Solid aluminium panels give a solid touch to the case, with a steel frame underneath. The LED in the front is interchangeable with 4 colors included. Also the case has remove able dust filters and a 200mm fan as well as a 140mm fan are included, one in the front and one at the rear respectively. The side window is tinted and shows off the "business" side of the board. There is room for a full sized air cpu cooler as well as plenty of rads making this a watercooling dream. An included bracket can house a reservoir, multiple SSDs, or a pump. The motherboard tray has multiple tray slots for SSDs as well as a cutout for the CPU retention plate. There are many cutouts for cable management as well as both zip ties and Velcro strips to tidy the psu and sata cables and there is also a convenient PWM fan hub. My only minor complaint is the paint job has orange peel like look to it, but it's nothing to really frown upon.
Power Supply
This was well packaged and is a Semi-Modular PSU rated at an 80+ Gold rating. The cable sleeving is top notch and looks great and came with more power cables than I see myself needing. It's both whisper quiet and efficient with more than enough power for my current needs as well if I wanted to go SLI down the road. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't come with cable combs to help tidy the cables within the case.
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