The Ultimate RGB Build: The Hardware

So I’ve been using the same PC as my main gaming / video editing rig for what seems like forever. When I built it not much thought really went into it, it was just available parts that I had laying around. The system itself has a Core i7-3970X, ASRock X79 Extreme4-M motherboard, 16GB of DDR3, a GTX 580, which was updated to a GTX 1080 recently, and a few SSDs. All of this was inside the Thermaltake Supressor F31 case, not really much to look at when you walk into the office. To this day that PC still kicks ass and in most cases is more than sufficient, but now that we are doing a lot of 4K video editing I felt it was time for an upgrade. Also we wanted to build something that looked totally badass! That is when the idea for the Ultimate RGB Build was hatched. We’ve said 2017 is the year of RGB so why not build a system with all RGB components? So we’ve compiled a list of awesome components and are ready to get this build started! This is part 1 of the build where we will go over the hardware used and why we selected it. Let us know in the comments what you think of our choices.

The Case

In Win 805 InfinityReviewBuy on Amazon
In Win 805iThe case was one of the main things we were concerned with when it came to this build. This is of course what everyone is going to see first. While there are so many great options out there to show off RGB lighting the In Win 805 Infinity has that amazing infinity mirror at front. It is something incredibly unique and it is not found on any other case on the market currently. That is the main reason we are choosing this case, but it also has two great tempered glass side panels which will allow us to show off all of our hardware.

The Processor

Intel Core i7-7820XReviewBuy on Amazon
Intel Core i7-7820XFor our processor we definitely were going to go high-end desktop (HEDT), we wanted the extra cores for video editing and much more. At the same time we wanted decently high clock speeds for single-threaded applications and games that do not take advantage of all cores. With all of that in mind we landed on the Intel Core i7-7820X, which is an 8-core, 12-thread part that has a base clock of 3.6 GHz boosts up to 4.3 GHz, and with two cores reaching up to 4.5 GHz with the new Turbo Boost 3.0 technology. This should give us what we need for gaming as well as video editing. The only issue we see with this chip is that it only gives us only 28 available PCI-Express lanes compared to 44 on Intel’s Core i9 chips. If we run into any issues with this we will throw an i9 in there instead.

The Motherboard

AORUS X299 Gaming 9ReviewBuy on Amazon
AORUS X299 Gaming 9Motherboard choice was a bit difficult as there are so many amazing X299 motherboards out there currently, all of which have amazing features for gaming as well as workstation tasks. Then we saw the AORUS X299 Gaming 9…it is loaded with RGB LEDs! We are pretty sure it has the most RGB LEDs out of any X299 motherboard currently available! On top of that you have one of the best audio solutions available on a motherboard, three on-board M.2 slots, Killer DoubleShot Pro networking, USB 3.1 and much more! We think this board is going to look amazing in our system!

The Graphics Card

AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme EditionReviewBuy on Amazon
AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme EditionWhen it came to our graphics card we knew we wanted a GTX 1080 Ti. As of right now it is still the best single-GPU graphics card money can buy. Picking which GTX 1080 Ti we wanted was a little tough, but since we were going to be rocking an AORUS motherboard, why not match it up with an AORUS graphics card. So we went for the AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition, which is currently the highest clock AORUS GTX 1080 Ti out there. Did we mention it is packed with RGB LEDs? It has three different sections that light up with RGB lighting, and since we have an AORUS motherboard with RGB LEDs we can sync them both together! The card also has one of the best cooling solutions we’ve seen on a GTX 1080 Ti, which we are definitely going to need in our case.

The Memory

G.Skill Trident Z RGBReviewBuy on Amazon
G.Skill Trident Z RGBMemory for this build was a no-brainer! After looking at all of the available RGB memory out there the obvious choice was G.SKILL’s Trident Z RGB! In my opinion it is the best looking RGB memory out there, and even without the RGB LEDs the modules still look awesome! We went with the F4-3000C15Q-32GTZR kit, which is a 32 GB kit running at DDR4-3000 speeds with timings of 15-16-16-35 at 1.35V. I think that 32GB of DDR4 is a great start to this system, but if we need more we can always upgrade!

The Power Supply

Corsair RM1000xProduct PageBuy on Amazon
Corsair RM1000xWhen it came to the power supply the clear choice was Corsair. They have really made a name for themselves in the power supply market and actually all of our test systems where are powered by Corsair power supplies. When it came to wattage we wanted something that could support us for future upgrades and of course our HEDT system and GTX 1080 Ti. Obviously with our smaller case with tempered glass windows we also needed a modular power supply because there really so no where to hide cables at all! We decided on the Corsair RM1000x, which is a 1000W 80PLUS Gold certified power supply. It features 100% Japanese 105°C capacitors, a Zero RPM Fan Mode, and a very impressive 10-year warranty! So we know this power supply is going to last and be able to handle our system!

Check out our storage choices on the next page!

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