57 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

 

I agree it’s a risk with the 2080Ti especially given the price. 

 

its not a risk at all, it's an awesome graphics card. Only the cost is the eyebrow raiser. If you don't mind paying a premium, and you don't mind something better arriving in twelve months (which is likely) then you won'y be disappointed. 

 

Water cooling options for Define S

 

Water cooling compatibility - Radiators

• Front – 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators of all thicknesses
• Top – 420, 360, 280, 240, 140 and 120 mm radiators. (A thickness limitation of 55mm for both radiator + fan applies on 420, 280 and 140 mm radiators)
• Bottom – 120 mm radiator (Use of radiators in the bottom position limits the PSU length to 165 mm)
• Rear – 120 or 140 mm radiator

https://www.fractal-design.com/home/product/cases/define-series/define-s

Edited October 23, 20187 yr by martin-w

49 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@martin-w, thanks for the advice. It is an ATX case so options are limited but I will check on the cooler option. The Gigabyte mobo was the Micro-ATX variant. Don’t think I’ll bother with the Z390 as I don’t need the extras.

I agree it’s a risk with the 2080Ti especially given the price. I wonder if the 2080 would be a sensible compromise as it’s only £150 more than a 1080Ti but does have Ray Tracing capability and in bench tests was as fast as the 1080Ti.

Food for thought.  There are a lot of used 1080ti's on the market right now.  In the states they are going for 500-600 dollars.  1080ti's in SLI would easily out perform a single 2080ti.

Quote

1080ti's in SLI would easily out perform a single 2080ti.

 

But how does SLI perform in the sim? 

Never ran SLI, but I recall it can be troublesome. I would always go for the most powerful single card. 

 

42 minutes ago, lownslo said:

I went with a Z390 motherboard.  Everybody says there is no difference in the power components of the Z370's and Z390s' but... how come the 9000 series CPU's draw more power than the 8000's?  Higher power draw, more heat, better cooling.  Given that there's so much FUD about the new releases I decided to error on the side of caution.  Cost a bit more but is cheap insurance.  Additionally, if I do want to upgrade from the 8086K to a 9000 in the future all I'll need is the CPU... relatively cheap upgrade then.

Greg

I'm unlikely to be swapping CPUs for quite some time and perhaps never with this system. The speed improvements are slowing down compared to years gone by and in any case I suspect LM will continue to push more work onto the GPU than the CPU.

But useful info all the same, thanks.

27 minutes ago, martin-w said:

if it were me, I wouldn't spend all that money on a top-notch system, and then compromise it to a degree with a Micro ATX motherboard. There are some really great Mini ITX and Micro ATX boards around, but they are trying to pack all that's required for a high performing motherboard into a small package, that always comes with compromises.

A friend bought an identical system to mine listed in my sig 5 years ago. The only difference was he went for a full case and I went for a Micro. Our systems were overclocked exactly the same so I doubt the case size compromises performance. The downside is probably the number of available slots for M.2 SSDs and perhaps additional RAM slots. Cooling has been fine even after I added a 1080 (formerly a 780).

I've never felt my existing system was compromised with an Micro-ATX format.

27 minutes ago, mpw8679 said:

Food for thought.  There are a lot of used 1080ti's on the market right now.  In the states they are going for 500-600 dollars.  1080ti's in SLI would easily out perform a single 2080ti.

Given it's going to be built professionally I want all the components to be new. SLI is not an option in a Micro-ATX board of course.

32 minutes ago, martin-w said:

 

But how does SLI perform in the sim? 

Never ran SLI, but I recall it can be troublesome. I would always go for the most powerful single card. 

 

My experience has been very positive.  Keep in mind I like to run a lot of eye candy on a ultra wide monitor.  I was having issues with a single 1080ti keeping up with my settings when using complex aircraft and airports.  With SLI I have a lot more headroom to play with and can run higher settings (DL, clouds, shadows, etc..)

 

 

45 minutes ago, mpw8679 said:

My experience has been very positive.  Keep in mind I like to run a lot of eye candy on a ultra wide monitor.  I was having issues with a single 1080ti keeping up with my settings when using complex aircraft and airports.  With SLI I have a lot more headroom to play with and can run higher settings (DL, clouds, shadows, etc..)

Matt, it's quite frustrating when people obviously have a great system but don't post their specs. The signature block is ideal for that.

For UK readers I've asked Chillblast to put a system together based on the info in my first post but where necessary making changes for extra RAM speed if it will make a decent difference, and cooling.

From early findings it appears they will be more expensive than Scan by a couple of hundred. I might have to haggle.

44 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Matt, it's quite frustrating when people obviously have a great system but don't post their specs. The signature block is ideal for that.

 

I am the worlds worst procrastinator.  But yes I should do that

This looks to be the kit I'll be ordering from Chillblast in the next few days. Change of mobo and it is ATX, not Micro-ATX. I've asked if the memory can be identified. G Skill preferred over Corsair based on recommendations here.

• 1x Bullguard Internet Security - Free 90 Day Licence
• 1x Fractal Design Define S Case - Black
• 1x Intel Core i7-8086K Coffee Lake CPU, 6 Cores / 12 Threads, 4.0 - 5.0GHz
• 1x 32GB DDR4 3000MHz Memory (2 x 16GB Sticks)
• 1x Asus PRIME Z370-A Motherboard
• 1x Corsair Hydro H100x CPU Cooler
• 1x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB GDDR6 Graphics Card
• 1x 500GB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive
• 1x 1TB Samsung 860 EVO Solid State Drive
• 1x Seagate 1TB BarraCuda 7200RPM Hard Disk
• 1x Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
• 1x Corsair RM850x 80 PLUS Gold 850W PSU
• 1x 5 Year Warranty, 2 Years Collect and Return UK only*

I could do with a few more USB ports. Is it best just to go for a PCI card with 4 ports? USB2 is fine and no extra power is required. They're for things like Saitek Throttles.

Edited October 24, 20187 yr by Ray Proudfoot

Was going to mention the Micro ATX board, but you have changed that now.  I would be looking for faster memory to match the rest of the system to be honest.

49 minutes ago, Charlatan said:

Was going to mention the Micro ATX board, but you have changed that now.  I would be looking for faster memory to match the rest of the system to be honest.

I’m not adverse to spending more if it’s justified. You said faster but didn’t say what would be faster. And would faster memory give me more fps or just load scenery a little quicker? Would either bring noticeable improvements?

The system is being built by Chillblast in the U.K. who have multiple awards for quality builds so if they recommend 3200 I’m curious why you think that wouldn’t be fast enough for the rest of the system.

Your going with an 8086k CPU (fastest mainstream chip apart from these new 9x00 chips), a 2080ti.

Putting that RAM in is like buying a Ferrari or Aston Martin and putting a Ford Focus 2.0l engine in it.  Get the fastest you can find within reason.  There is 4266mhz stuff available now.

44 minutes ago, Charlatan said:

Your going with an 8086k CPU (fastest mainstream chip apart from these new 9x00 chips), a 2080ti.

Putting that RAM in is like buying a Ferrari or Aston Martin and putting a Ford Focus 2.0l engine in it.  Get the fastest you can find within reason.  There is 4266mhz stuff available now.

Looking at your spec you have the 8700K which is virtually identical to the 8086K and you have 3200 RAM. Shouldn’t you have faster RAM?

Let’s take a step back on the RAM. Dual channel or quad channel? Any benefit of one over the other?

Then we can look at what speeds are available.