It’s been many years since I started Invision Community, previously called Invision Game Community, but recently we knocked the ‘Game’ from the title as we wanted to branch out and cover movies, technology, and entertainment as well. Well It’s now 2017, some time has passed since I started the idea of Invision back when I was in University 2011, 2 years of designing and reimaging and four years then of total domination of our website as we grow and create more and more content thanks to the help and support from many PR, Publishers and Developers around the globe, without them we simply would not be where we are now, so thanks all.
As we have grown we have also started to show off our site and the gaming industry to local Schools and Universities around wales, well local for now, where we take our products to show off to the kids what is possible and we thought, the best thing we could show off is a PC fully built with the support of PR teams (Public Relations) so end of 2016 I asked, and in 2017 I received, so now thanks to the companies that supported we are able to build and showcase Invision first High-end Gaming Rig.
So first of all thanks to the following companies
Cooler Master
Crucial
ADATA
Overclockers
MSI
PNY
Biostar
What did we get to build well this is the spec
MSI Z170A Gaming M3 Motherboard
Crucial 3000mHz 32GB Ballistic Tactical DDR4 Ram
Cooler Master Seidon 120 V2 Cooler
Cooler Master Pro 5 NVIDIA Edition Case
Cooler Master V850 PSU
Intel Core i5 7600, Kaby Lake, Quad Core, 4 Thread, 3.5GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo, 6MB Cache, CPU
2x 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache HDD
1x 128GB ADATA SSD – Boot Drive
1x 275GB Crucial SSD – 2nd Boot Drive
1x 750GB Crucial SSD – Open world Game drive
PNY Nividia GTX 1070 OC GPU
TP Link TL-WDN4800 N450 PCI-E Network Card
2X CoolerMaster SickleFlow 120mm Silent Green LED PC Case Cooling Fans
And BIOSTAR
But this build was no cup of tea; I went through a number of Motherboards to get the one that actually works and the first motherboard was not even anyone’s fault but the damn delivery people. Biostar hooked us up with a Z270GT4 find out more information about this board here, the board arrived damaged, huge hole in the side of the box, like it, was thrown around and when I opened the motherboard box and looked inside I noticed the CPU protective cover was dislodged and worse of all the damn pins were bent and somewhere even broken. During the first build I decided to use the board and risk it, created a video as well, seemed to work ok, but after the build it would not recognise anything above 8GB of Ram, would not overclock to 1.35v and differently would not clock to 3000Mhz, then there was the issue with the PNY GPU, it would not recognise it.
So that was a fail, and we had to move past the Biostar motherboard and try some new boards, this is where we had, even more, issues, 3 boards which were socket 1151 which is the socket that is used for our processor, but none of the boards were suitable for the 7th Generation CPU, aka Intel Kady Lake processors.
Finally, after some time, we found a board from MSI the Z170A Gaming M3, the best thing is, this motherboard was updated with MSI’s latest Bios, so it was compatible with Intel’s 7th Gen processors. But the question for me was will this system finally work? Or will it end in another disaster? Time to build and find out.
Motherboard first the MSI Z170A Gaming M3 with latest Bios update, runs off socket 1151 and support up to an i7 CPU. Supports up to 3600(OC) DDR 4 Memory, with a max memory of 64GB based on 4 DIMM slots. 2x PCI-Ex16, 2x PCI-Ex1 and a PCI-E Gen 3 and 3 STD PCI. Comes with 2 SATA Express ports and 4 SATA3 ports and 1 2280 M.2 SSD Slot, enough slots for loads of storage. Has support for USB 3.0 front and has 4 USB Gen 1 and 2 USB Gen 2 3.1 Ports on the back, and the old school USB 2.0 x 2. Forgot to mention that the motherboard’s form factor is ATX.
MSI Z170A Gaming M3 Motherboard
The first thing I did was attached the CPU to the Pin set, easy to do, slots in and can only be slotted in one way, easy job, pull a lever up, with the placeholder for the CPU, slot in CPU, push back down, clip in place, how hard is that. Next thing to do was attach the motherboard to the case, using motherboard feet and screws, another simple job, but it was not going to be that easy to finish this part of the build as I had the water cooler from Cooler Master to attach.
The Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver.2 a Factory filled Liquid Cooler, sealed and pressure tested, which will require no maintenance for years, the questions is how many year? Comes with an optimized water block, which offers the best water flow and system performance. A 120mm Radiator for heat dissipation and a 120mm Silencio Fan for strong air pressure and low noise, which is very true.
Attaching this was no walk in the park; I had to assemble the Mounting bracket first, then push the mounting bracket through the back of the motherboard through four holes around the CPU, see below for the picture of the Seidon Mountain System.
Tool –free Universal Mounting System
Once I had the mounting bracket through, it was time to thermal paste the CPU, for this I used Artic MX-4 Thermal compound, I have always used this compound and trust it more than anything else on the market currently, so it was a no brainer what I was going to use.
After pasting a small amount on the CPU it was time to mount the Cooler to the case
Cooler Master Seidon 120V Ver.2
I had already attached the fan to the radiator and was now ready to attach the radiator the back of the case with four screws, but for some reason the screws did not attach the radiator firmly, the cooler was able to move up and down, I was not able to tighten the screws anymore, not sure if this was an oversight from Cooler Master or a general design choice.
Now to attach the block to the CPU, this was tricky, one side I had the mounting bracket which was being held in place by four holes, and can easily be pushed out and on the CPU side, I had another bracket that needed to go over the mounting bracket and be screwed down, if there was any force on the mounting bracket, it would simply pop out of the motherboard. So I slowly aligned up the Cooling block bracket the mounting bracket, making sure the mounting bracket screws went through the holes made available on the cooling bracket, then it was a simple case of attaching the cooler block bolts to the end of the mounting bracket screw end, one at a time first just so the block was secure, then tighten them up, one at a time, equal amount of tightening per screw, not to tighten up one side more than another, this is highly recommended.
Cooler Master V850 PSU
That was the tricky part done, the rest would be simply to a degree, next to install would be the Cooler Master V850 PSU a fully modular cable design with a single 1000w _12V output that delivers up to 70A. Has a 135mm FDB fan for low noise and long lifespan and six PCI-E 6+2 pin connectors for those high-end GPU’s enthusiasts.
The cables you get are 1x M/B 20+4 pin, 2x CPU 4+4 pin, 6x PCI-e 6+2 pin, 9x SATA, 4x Peripheral and 1 floppy.
PSU Cables
This was easy to install, all I had to do was remove the PSU bracket from the back of the case, and slide the PSU inside, then screw the PSU to the bracket then finally reattach the bracket to the case, and you are done, simple job.
By now you are probably wondering what case am I using? Well it’s the Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 NVidia Edition and its looks like this;
Nice case right? Well, you can read my full review of this here, where I scored it a 10/10 because it is a fine bit of kit and well worth every penny. So to show you what I mean by PSU bracket, see this image below
Now the PSU is in place I decided to slot in the Memory, a whole 32GB of Crucial Ballistics Tactical Memory 4x 8GB 1.35V 3000Mhz
Specs: DDR4 PC4-24000 • 15-16-16 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR4-3000 • 1.35V • 1024Meg x 64
Ballistix Tactical DDR4 Memory
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS
Speeds start at 2666 MT/s
Faster speeds and timings than Ballistix Sport DDR4
Dual and four channel memory architecture maximizes data rates
Gun metal gray heat spreader with black PCB
Certified Intel®XMP 2.0 profiles for easy setup
Optimized for the latest Intel platforms
Crucial Ballistics Tactical Memory
Now for the geeks out there, the performance test with Passmark for the Memory
Memory all sorted time to move on the drives, so Boot Drivers, first we have from ADATA the SU800 128GB SSD
ADATA SU800 SSD
Specs are as follows
Capacity
128GB – 1TB
Form Factor
2.5″
NAND Flash
3D TLC
Controller
SMI
Dimensions (L x W x H)
100.45 x 69.85 x 7mm
Weight
47.5g
Interface
SATA 6Gb/s
Sequential R/W performance (max)
Up to 560/520MB/s
*Actual performance may vary due to available SSD capacity, system hardware and software components, and other factors
Operating temperature
0°C-70°C
Storage temperature
-40°C-85°C
Shock resistance
1500G/0.5ms
MTBF
2,000,000 hours
And now for the Speed tests done with Crystal Disk Mark 5
The Second boot drive is from Crucial and it’s an MX300 275GB
Crucial MX300
Product Specifications
Brand
Crucial
Form Factor
2.5-inch internal SSD
Total Capacity
275GB
Warranty
Limited 3-year
Specs
275GB 2.5-inch internal SSD • SATA 6.0Gb/s • 530 MB/s Read, 500 MB/s Write
Series
MX300
Product Line
Client SSD
Interface
SATA 6.0Gb/s
Device Type
Internal Solid State Drive
Unit Height
7.0mm
Form Factor
2.5-inch (7mm)
And now for its speed test using Crystal Disk Mark 5
Well those are the two SSD Boot drives thanks to ADATA & Crucial for their Help sorting us out with those drives, we are now able to duel boot Windows 7 and Windows 10, so we should have no issues running any games or software from now on.
The system also has 2x 3TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB’s with 64MB cache HDD’s for mass storage, basically all the games, I shall be increasing that soon to 4 x 3TB HDD’s which will then give me 12TB of storage.
Intel Core i5-7600K 3.80GHz (Kady Lake)
Let’s go back a little, back to the CPU, I have got an Intel Core i5-7600K 3.80GHz (Kady Lake) Socket 1151 CPU and the specs look like this
Specification:
Lithography Process: 14 nm
Cores: 4
Threads: 4
Frequency: 3.80 GHz (Turbo Mode GHz)
Integrated Iris (HD 630) Graphics with 350MHz base clock and up to 1150MHz max GPU clock
Cache: 6MB shared L3
Memory Controller: Dual channel DDR4 2133/2400/2666/3000/3200/3600/4000/4200/4400/4600/5000+ MHz
Socket: LGA1151
Let’s do a Passmark score this CPU and see what it says
I guess that’s it’s? No, wait it’s now time to discuss the heart of the beast GeForce GTX 1070 XLR8 Gaming OC
PNY GTX 1070 8GB OC
Three fans, horsepower of an STD 1080 it’s the belly of the beast and it’s powerful and it’s only $399.99
Just take a look at what you get
Key Features
Factory Overclocked
PNY Silent XLR8 Triple Cooler
Simultaneous Multi-Projection
VR Ready
NVIDIA Ansel Support
NVIDIA SLI®w/ HB Bridge Support
NVIDIA G-SYNC™
NVIDIA GameStream™
NVIDIA GPU Boost™0
Microsoft®DirectX® 12 Support
Vulkan API Support
Open GL 4.5 Support
PCI Express 3.0
Max Digital Resolution – 7680×4320 @ 60Hz1
3x DisplayPort 1.4
HDMI 2.0b
DL-DVI
Specifications
PNY Part Number
VCGGTX10708XGPB-OC
UPC Code
751492597270
Card Dimensions
12” × 5.03” × 1.49” Dual-Slot
Box Dimensions
15.5” × 7.7” × 3.8”
Weight
3 lbs.
NVIDIA CUDA Cores
1920
Core Speed
1607 MHz
Boost Speed
1797 MHz
Memory Clock
8 Gbps
Memory Size
8GB GDDR5
Memory Interface
256-bit
Memory Bandwidth
256 GB/s
TDP
150 W
SLI
SLI HB Bridge Supported
Multi-Screen
Yes
Resolution
7680 × 4320 @ 60Hz (Digital)1
Power Input
One 8-Pin
Bus Type
PCI-Express 3.0 x16
I have even benchmarked this baby and by golly did it do well, I used Unigine Heaven benchmark 4.0 and check out it’s rating, Impressive? I think so, I will be doing a full review of this card and linking it to this article in time, but for now, it’s just the guts of what I did.
I have thrown everything at this game from Resident Evil 7 to Dishonored 2, Forza Horizon 3 and Gears of War 4, run everything on Ultra and the system was easily pulling over 60FPS. User DSR I was also able to run games at 4K, 60 FPS was possible with some games, but not all. For the price you are paying for this card, you are getting a powerful beast, which will give you endless hours of fun.
So what does the final build look like, well for that I’ll let the images say it all for me, and massive thanks to Cooler Master, Crucial, ADATA, MSI, Overclockers, and PNY.
Oh yeah, final Passmark Score for the system overall.
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