Top Shoppa [Shopping]: Decisive Investments [UPDATE 12]

This topic was updated 12 times.

HO-HO-HO! merry Christmas! and Happy Holidays :D. Welcome to my brand new superb series all about my essential shopping list of computer components, I may potentially buy in the future, in efforts to make my own PC. Top Shoppa (Top Shopper) is where I bring to you, all potential and decisive shopping options, related to my upcoming phenomenon of a PC that i’m constructing.

[FEB/15TH/2018]

Today in this update we will talk about the SAVIOR of the PC :D. We are looking at the things that makes the PC breathe!, the things that stops a certain effect from affecting every single part of the computer in a negative way, and that would be your system’s COOLING! xD. Since cooling your computer is one of the easiest parts of assembling a computer, there isn’t really a whole lot that I would have to explain to you before I actually get to the main focus, like I have had to do with recent components like RAM and storage units.

In the area of cooling there is only 2 MAIN types of cooling solutions. There are “Heat Sinks”, and then there are out-right plain old “Fans”, and we all know what fans are xD. If you are not too familiar however with what a heat sink is, it’s basically a big solid chunk of metal designed to fit on either the motherboard or the CPU of a computer to soak up as much heat from in the system as possible, effectively taking up most of the heat on to itself and away from components, but as with everything, heat sinks have their limits and with all of the heat they store up, all of the hotness still needs to ultimately be taken out of the system somehow, and that’s where basic “fans” come in.

When you install fans in your system, they do 2 main things, one is they help draw all the heat out from things contained within the system, and actually blows it out of the system, and the second thing is that fans also helps bring a fresh new supply of cool air into the system aswell. So depending on how hot your components get, you would want to install both heat sinks and fans, but as a general rule, it is always a good idea to install as many fans as your computer case, or chassis can hold and never install heat sinks only. Fans overall are far more effective at cooling computers than just heat sinks.

I referred to the Heat Sinks and the Fans as two “main” options because there is infact a third option for cooling, and it is known as “water cooling”, where you configure a set of “tubing” that runs throughout the computer and supplies a “liquid” based solution which helps cool computer components (often times the core CPU and GPU Chips), by flowing through key areas of said components that produce the highest levels of heat. So that’s the gist of water cooling, but it is by far a much more sophisticated set up, so it is up to you whether or not you’d like to use this method, but in most cases, it isn’t really an option that necessary, since you can usually get-buy with fan cooling for most scenarios. 

In relation to heat sinks and fans, there are also CPU coolers that are like a mixture of both heat sinks with fans on them, and they tend to be very very effective and keeping CPUs in particular at acceptable temperatures, but even if you have these installed rather than regular old heat sinks, you still need to make sure your computer has adequate case-fans to help bring in fresh cool air, and take out hot compromising air from the system.

Now for some examples:

1- Basic Computer-Case Fans:

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-AFACO-12000-GBA01-F12-Standard-Effecient/dp/B002KTVFTE/

https://www.amazon.com/Cooling-Computer-Bearing-Illuminating-Performance/dp/B06XXY95CP

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CO-9050067-WW-HD120-Performance-controller/dp/B01LA0R2X6

SideNote: You can usually get them in packs containing 2+, 3+, 4+ etc. Which is why I provided more than one link to different “sets/packs/bundles” etc.

2- Heat Sinks (usually Installed On CPUs) + Motherboard Heat Sinks:

(a) https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4UF53D6676&cm_re=HeatSink_LGA2011-3-_-13C-000U-00019-_-Product (CPU Heatsink)

(b) https://www.walmart.com/ip/10-Pcs-40-x-40-x-11mm-High-Quality-Aluminum-Heat-Sink-for-PC-Computer-CPU/728202240 (Motherboard Heat Sink)

(c) https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608068&cm_re=HeatSink_LGA2011-3-_-35-608-068-_-Product (a “Passive” Heatsink)

SideNote: Passive Heatsinks do not have fans attached to them directly to help cool components like Non-passive Heatsinks.

3- Overview of Water Cooled Set-ups: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybjbXaBy0Sg

(a) Basic idea of how to build a PC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2dJvqU2_x4

The main reason why people do a set-up for water-cooled systems, is for keeping systems quiet (because fan based sets-up can be noisy depending on the types of fans used), and prolonging the life-span of the computer components, and also to have a system that will be ideal for “overclocking” CPUs and GPUs. But if you’re not really planning to do much overclocking and don’t really mind some level of “noise”, it is always best and cost effective to stick with Fan/air cooled systems since they are much much easier to maintain and upgrade.

I need to mention that there are plenty of ways to go on to build a liquid/water cooled PC given the sheer array of different types of options out there for making your own PC, so it’s not a 1 size fits all type of thing, and you would have to look for guides and videos like the one I placed in this update, to gather-up enough information about the issue so that you can eventually go on to build one yourself. I have very limited knowledge about this issue (making liquid-cooled computers) since it’s not something I never planned to do xD. My computer will be 100% air cooled, but you might prefer a different method, so if you do, then water cooling is the other option.

When it comes to how much money I can spend on cooling utilities, I would say anywhere in the $10+ USD – $80+ USD range. With that said, that’s it for this update and see you guys in the next one :D.

[FEB/7TH/2018]

Today we are looking at RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory, is a module and kid of memory standard that helps store a computer’s data and information continually while the computer is in use, and just like many of the CPUs and Storage memory out there, computer RAM has also come a long way and there are various forms, some old and some new. I’m not really going to get too deep into this area because basically we’re going to be looking at 2 types of specifications of conventional computer RAM, and from there you should get a good idea of what standard of RAM you need and the prices you may be able to get them at.

Today the most common and modern type of computer RAM used is the SDRAM standard, which stands for “Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory”, with features a High bandwidth architecture known as DDR4, which is the 4th generation of “Double Data Rate” technology, hence the name DDR4. Previously it was DDR3 and now the the latest SDRAM chips have been improved to DDR4 specification, which is currently the fastest consumer level RAM memory on the marker right now, even though that can change soon since it was out since 2014 and it’s 2018, but I wouldn’t really worry about that since DDR4 is pretty much going to be good enough to run most systems and applications for quite some time, even if there is a new RAM memory generation on the horizon.

The ASUS Z10PE-D8 (and the D-16) are pretty much designed for DDR4 SD-RAM, but what you should also keep in mind is that this RAM specification is also available in 2 versions which are: ECC and NON-ECC versions. ECC stands for “Error-Correcting Code” memory, which means unlike NON-ECC memory, this version can detect most common error issues that could arise in system data, and automatically/passively “correct” those errors in the data. But this version of memory is often slower than the non-ecc versions, which means if you are doing things where speed is more of a priority, then it would be best to get the non-ecc version.  If you prefer a system that’s more stable and you’re dealing with situations where you cannot afford errors (say like you use your computer to work and develop things, and make money), then you might want to invest in the ECC version of DDR4 SD-RAM, while acknowledging that there may be a little trade-off in speed and latency, in favor of stability and reliability.

In other words, if you’re mostly playing games and using the web, then you would probably do better with just Non-ECC RAM to take advantage of higher RAM speeds, whereas, if you have a lot of files and documents, projects and stuff on your system, and you don’t want ithe PC to crash much or for files to become corrupt etc, then you would probably be more well off with the ECC version.

Since the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Motherboard is designed around server technology and you probably would be using Xeons, it tends to favor ECC memory, but it’s not required, it’s just recommended, so this leaves a vast range of non-ecc memory brands that can still work with this motherboard very well, and it’s just up to you what you’re prioritizing for the most part. Also the D8 version of the board can have up to 512GBs of DDR4 RDIMM and LR-DIMM system memory (these are just server RAM designations to indicate whether or not you’re using “Registered” DIMMs or Load Reduced DIMM DDR4 SD-RAM). Generally most forms of RAM on the market will be “unregistered” compared to specific server RAM modules, that are specified to be either “RDIMMs” or “Registered DIMMs”, where as, generally most RAM you get on the market also won’t necessarily be LRDIMMs versions of DDR4 RAM memory either unless you really seek out these specific types of RAM out for real server operations. Otherwise, most likely the most common types of conventional DDR4 SD-RAM will be what you see most commonly and readily available in stores, which can work with the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS, and you don’t have to worry too much about the RDIMM and LRDIMM grades.

Another thing is that some of these DDR4 RAM sticks are available in either 4GB single stick capacities, or 8GBs on a single stick, and you can combine a number of these single RAM modules (either the 4GB ones, or the 8GB ones), to get an overall total of installed system memory in your computer. So you can combine 2 4GB modules to get a combined total of 8GB total system memory, or install 2 8GB sticks to get a combined total of 16GBs of system memory, and you can keep installing RAM modules until you reach the desired amount of system memory you want. I think you can also get 16GB, 32GB, 64GB single stick RAM modules as well, but for the most part, most consumer motherboards only allow the 4GB and 8GB modules to be installed within a single slot, so you would probably be buying the 4GB and 8GB sticks more, due to more products supporting these configurations.

The DDR4 ECC Versions of RAM seem to be available in frequencies starting at 2133MHz – 2666MHz. Where as the common DDR4 SDRAM modules that are Non-ECC, can be found at similar frequencies BUT they can go all the way up to a 3200MHz rate of speed, or even higher due to not having the added ECC protocols.

Now when it comes down to how much I will invest in DDR4 SDRAM, I can spend $50+ USD to just under $300 USD on Memory. So that will be it for this update and I look forward to seeing you in the next one :D.

[FEB/1ST/2018]

Alright back with another crazy update because you know, shoppers don’t stop shop xD. And today we take a look at the storage side of things and also the different types of storage, YUP, there are enough interesting kinds of ways to store things now in the area of technology, to the point where I can actually enlighten you on the types of memory out there, so if you didn’t know, you’ll know now because I too am looking to make a solid computer so best believe i’m also looking at these developments very closely xD

You probably know about flash memory (flash drives etc), you also probably know about the Hard Drive method, and now there are Solid Sate Drives, Hybrid Drives (combination of both SSD and Hard Drive methods used to, read, write and store data), M.2 Drives, and Intel just recently released their “Optane” memory chips and they also have SSDs that actually connect to the PCIe slots on the motherboard instead of typical port cables, which is pretty freaking cool.

So lets break these down:

1- Flash Drives: They use Flash memory and are typically found in micro removable formats that can be plugged into USB ports of most systems. There are two common variations, there is the older USB 2.0 interfaces, and there is now a much faster USB 3.0 interface which are now actually quite popular, but they all still use flash memory, so compared to things like traditional Hard Drives and Solid State Drives, they are rather slow in comparison, but are rather stable when it comes to storing things like small files and documents, and now, they come in rather huge capacities. Before, they only came in 2GBs, 4GBs and up to 8GBs, but now you can find many with well over 100GBs – 200GBs of storage or even higher. They are typically small and can be carried around.

2- Hard Drives: Hard Drives are pretty common, and they use a combination of metal-arms and spinning-platters to read and write data magnetically. The magnetic needle/arm flicks back-and-forth extremely fast, and in the process, “writes” information on the “spinning platters” which are magnetic, which by definition is a mechanical process aswell, which is why sometimes they are often referred too as mechanical disk drives. Because of all of this friction, they tend to ware-down over time or breakdown if subject to sudden shifts etc. So unlike a flash drive that’s just one solid block of integrated modules, Magnetic based Hard Drives are actually pretty fragile and sensitive to movements, and can develop defects if not handled carefully especially while it’s in operation. But because they are driven by more raw power and designed in a way that allows them to process and write data to a much higher interface of memory, they generally are alot faster and capable than Flash memory devices, at data reading and writing, but also alot bigger and not as easy to remove and transport and hook up to other devices as you can with USB devices like Flash Drives, unless you find an External Hard Drive which typically have USB connectors, but still remain substantially larger than standard Flash Drives.

3- Solid State Drives: these are like revolutionized flash drives that store data in similar ways but have a series of added advanced electrical “block-input” and “block-output” technologies, that make them far more effective at it than flash drives and even hard drives, since via said method of block utilization and a sophisticated electronic process of block-manipulation, they can store data much faster and more persistently as a result, which means they can access data far faster and there isn’t that much latency compared to other devices that are mechanical and have more aspects at play.

4- Hybrid Drives: The purpose of these drives pretty much comes down to cost-effective storage methods. So they combine some of the old technologies with new technologies so you can still effectively have the huge volume of capacity for storing as Hard Disk Drives are capable of, but combined with somewhat faster ways of processing the data which is where the SSD technology comes into play it. So the SSD will be used in small part to prioritize the storage of important and regularly used data, while the brunt of the heavy storing of files etc, would be handled by the Hard Drive portion since it’s providing a huge portion of the storage capacity. A good example of one of these would be the: Seagate 2TB FireCuda Gaming SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive), the “Toshiba MQ02ABD100H 1TB 5400RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid (SSHD)” and the “Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 2.5 Inch SSHD”

5- M.2 Solid State Drives: These are primarily used or should be used for “expansion” purposes. I’ve seen them used often in unison with other types of drives to enhance the storage and data management of computer systems. They are rarely often used my themselves as a result. Because of their architecture and how they are connected to the PC, plus the types of memory they use, which is also a variation of the memory found on most standard Internal SSDs, they can enable computers to handle data at extremely high speeds, which is why they are excellent tools. Good examples of one of these are the: “SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500GB”, “WD Black 256GB M.2” and the “Corsair Force MP500 M.2 2280 240GB” M.2 Solid State Drives.

6- Optane Memory: The Intel Optane Memory technology, is like SSDs but they are more optimized to deliver lightning responsive thrust of performance, under certain specific circumstances. They are specialized to help physically aid certain kinds of programs in frequent use, and truly accelerate applications in ways that other memory formats do not assist in the same specific manner. So by having this technology in your system, because of the way it stores memory, you will notice that when it comes to certain things, like switching between programs, booting up games, the system booting, files opening, editing content (which is something that really sucks the resources of a system), ESPECIALLY if you’re doing some of these things at the same time and often/frequently, you will notice that it really significantly helps in these terms, and helps you do the things you do regularly on your system, more responsively and much smoother. You can’t manually select what programs this type of memory module should optimize (hopefully in the future something changes here), but how you use your computer would determine just how this technology kicks in to be advantageous to you in certain aspects. That’s the idea behind Optane memory in a nutshell, and what is interesting is that they are available in M.2 configuration AND there is also another variety that can be plugged into the PCIe slot of a motherboard instead, like a video card. One example of this is the “Intel Optane SSD 900P”.

Now that you have the rundown, I should say that the Intel Optane storage units are mostly to be used with their “Core-I#” series chip-sets and aren’t necessarily going to be compatible with most “Xeon” based machines, so keep that I mind, but with the vast majority of technologies listed here, most of them will be beyond compatible with the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS Motherboards.

Another note; the research on my end of some of these issues was kind of last-second concerning the different types of memory options. I’m not really all that knowledgeable yet about the different types of memory and how they work, I had some idea, but I still decided to look into things a little to give you a sense of what they are like, so that you have some clue as to how they work and their specifics purposes.

Price wise, i’m looking to spend as little as $18+ USD to as much as $300+ USD on storage components :D. Remember i’m working on a budget, so I wouldn’t always be able to get the best of the best from each category of computer component. Most of the time, I will have to prioritize and just do what makes sense, so for me i’m often more interested in looking at what works reasonably well (using research to help me get a sense of if a product is good, reliable, durable or not) and can be obtained for a reasonable price within the budget i’m working with. So that’s it’s for now, and I hope this is insightful and of help to you :D.

[JAN/25th/2018]

Ok so today because i’m not feeling 100% (i’m recuperating from the flu), i’m going to make today’s update a really short “special” :D. I’d just like to say that there are advantages and disadvantages to using Xeons or i7. With the Xeons it is highly highly recommended that you pay very close attention to building enough cooling facets into your computer because since these CPUS tend to have more cores that can run at relatively high clocks, overtime heat can become an issue with these kinds of systems, also you may run into situations where some programs may not be able to recognize either a 2 CPU config, or a certain amount of CPU-cores, so it’s not like you’ll be seeing a substantial increase in performance, or any performance gain at all, across all applications and programs etc, if you use xeons. However with how these system tend to be designed, you should not have much issue in being able to optimize the machine to work within certain boundaries and parameters.

With the i7s, if they are used in some way with a motherboard like the one I have, you may not necessarily be able to combine their raw stats and have them work together as one unit, as xeons do, BUT, you can still program their individual cores and threads to independently manage specific operations depending on the situation. So deepening on your circumstances and what you’re trying to archive, who knows, maybe you could even have an Xeon + i7 kind of “innovation” going on :D. 

I brought all of that to you today, all for the special price of = priceless xD. Yup, this is definitely the most inexpensive session of all the sessions so far lol

[JAN/18th/2018]

Time for another gran update to this topic, about this CRAZY stuff I got going on — yes it’s stuff that i got going on, and also crazy stuff i’m CRAZY enough to do myself :D. Today I bring to you more information about the motherboard that i bought a while back, and the CPUs it can use. The ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS was a very wise investment, and when taking a closer look at it’s functionality and features and flexibility, it’s quite obvious that it’s an exceptional product…

Now lets take a look at what this update really comes down too, which is the CPUs. As if the ability to stack this thing with Xeons, some of the most dynamic and powerful CPUs on the market, wasn’t enough, I am also delighted to inform you that there are also specific Core-i7 units that can be installed and used with the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard as well.

The i7 CPUs in question are certainly going to be the ones that install into the LGA 2011-V3 socket, and being that they are i7 chips, they allow much greater ability to overclock if you’re into that kind of thing, though with the range of XEON CPUs available on the market as we speak, that are just about as equally as capable with a board like this, you probably won’t even need to [overclock] depending on your configuration.

Compatible CORE-I7 CPU list:
Intel Core i7-6850K Broadwell-E 6-Core 3.6 GHz [$564.08]
Intel Core i7-6900K Broadwell-E 8-Core 3.2 GHz [$1,020.89]
Intel Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E 10-Core 3.0 GHz [$1,750.71]
Intel Core i7-6800K Broadwell-E 6-Core 3.4 GHz [$449.64]
Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5 GHz [$585.77]
Intel Core i7-5820K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.3 GHz [$462.30]
Intel Core i7-5960X Haswell-E 8-Core 3.0 GHz [$1,122.11]

*All CPU prices listed here are NEWEGG prices as of this update.

If you’re heavily into gaming like I am, all of the chips listed here are powerhouses, and you can’t go wrong with either one. All you need to do is match them with a decent Video Card and you’ll be able to pretty much play any game out there. In terms of the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS, i’m not sure exactly if all of them are going to work with it or atleast not off the shelf right away, but if there are any i7 CPUs that could, it would be especially these ones listed here.

Price rage from roughly: $400+ USD – $1000+ USD. (Comparative analysis of pricing between Chip-sets and Chip-Families listed in this topic, will follow in future updates, just like what I plan to do with the GPUs)  

[JAN/12th/2018]

Just making a shot update to give a slight correction of some things said in the last update about the E5-1600v3 series and the E5-2600v3 series Xeons. I did some research to find out exactly what was the purpose of the E5-1600v3 series since I was already quit familiar with the E5-2600v3 processors, and what I found out was that the E5-1600v3 Xeons are actually meant to be a weaker, lighter alternative version of the E5-2600v3 processors for computers with single-socket motherboards. So the E5-1600v3 CPUs are more optimized for systems that are using single socket motherboards that are managing lighter workloads, where as the E5-2600v3 processors are optimized for dual processors/dual socket “workstations” and for heavier workloads and demanding tasks.

That was the reason I made this update, so that I can clear up those minor differences and give you a better idea of what these two versions of thee processors are for, and why they exist within the same product family. They exist not because one was made to replace the other “old ones” (As I previous thought), but rather to be utilized for specific situations to provide the appropriate solutions in terms of demand and scaling.

So one set (the E5-1600v3) are a lighter, much weaker version used for much less demanding situations, and the other set (the E5-2600v3) are a bit more powerful and made for slightly heavier operations. Another reason for this update, is to inform you that I also made some edits to my previous update to make and state these facts.

[JAN/10th/2018]

Ok so today i’m going to name some specific processors that are compatible with the LGA 2011-V3 CPU Socket of the motherboard I own (ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS). I mentioned previously that there appears to be some older processors in this line of CPU product families, and also some newer versions which are indicated with a “V4” instead of a V3 in their names, while the older ones in question seem to be from the “E5-1600v3” series rather than the “E5-2600v3” series.

Apparently what I thought were the “older ones” were actually not older at all just slightly “weaker” alternatives of the E5-2600v3 series, mainly designed for single-socket motherboards, and the E5-1600v3 Xeons are only only made with a maximum of 8-cores and a minimum of 4-cores, where as, the E5-2600v3 series can be mostly used in a dual-processor configuration with up to 18-cores on a single CPU (the newer “V4” editions, go all the way up to 22-cores on a single CPU). 

I’m not getting the V4s for reasons outlined in my last update, but that doesn’t mean that you may not find them suitable for whatever you may be trying to achieve with you systems, so I will still list some here, but for obvious reason, I will not be listing all of the CPUs available for the socket since there are so many! xD. I will also state that i prefer using the E5-2600v3 chips and staying within that series as much as possible without going into the V4 editions or the E5-1600v3 series, since the E5-2600v3 series processors are standard for the ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard.

E5-1620 v4, 3.5 GHz, Quad-core, Hyper-Threading
E5-1630 v3, 3.7 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core               E5-1630 v4, 3.7 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core               E5-1650 v4, 3.6 GHz, 6-core, Hyper-Threading         
E5-1660 v4, 3.2 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading             
E5-1680 v3, 3.2 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading     
E5-1680 v4, 3.4 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading

E5-2603 v3, 1.6 GHz, 6-core, Hyper-Threading
E5-2603 v4, 1.7 GHz, 6-core
E5-2609 v3, 1.9 GHz, 6-core
E5-2609 v4, 1.7 GHz, 8-core        
E5-2620 v3, 2.4 GHz, 6-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2620 v4, 2.1 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading         
E5-2623 v3, 3 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core
E5-2623 v4, 2.6 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core        
E5-2630 v3, 2.4 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2630 v4, 2.2 GHz, 10-core, Hyper-Threading             
E5-2630L v3, 1.8 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2630L v4, 1.8 GHz, 10-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2637 v3, 3.5 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core    
E5-2637 v4, 3.5 GHz, Hyper-Threading, Quad-core             
E5-2640 v3, 2.6 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading
E5-2640 v4, 2.4 GHz, 10-core, Hyper-Threading         
E5-2643 v3, 3.4 GHz, 6-core, Hyper-Threading        
E5-2643 v4, 3.4 GHz, 6-core, Hyper-Threading         

E5-2650 v3, 2.3 GHz, 10-core, Hyper-Threading
E5-2650 v4, 2.2 GHz, 12-core, Hyper-Threading         
E5-2650L v3, 1.8 GHz, 12-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2650L v4, 1.7 GHz, 14-core, Hyper-Threading                 
E5-2658 v3, 2.20 GHz, 12-core, Hyper-Threading               
E5-2660 v3, 2.6 GHz, 10-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2660 v4, 2 GHz, 14-core, Hyper-Threading             
E5-2667 v3, 3.2 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2667 v4, 3.2 GHz, 8-core, Hyper-Threading         
E5-2670 v3, 2.3 GHz, 12-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2680 v3, 2.5 GHz, 12-core, Hyper-Threading    
E5-2680 v4, 2.4 GHz, 14-core, Hyper-Threading 

There is also some other details, such as with some of these processors you can only use 1 CPU instead of 2 CPUs on this board and things like that (an issue mainly with the E5-1600v3 chips), so you should be aware of that if you’re intending to use some of these XEONS. I also said I wouldn’t be getting any CPU that’s under 6 cores, so despite what you see listed here, if it’s not 6 cores or more, you can be sure that you will not see it in my computer. However this is based on what the objective of the system i’m building is, and the decisions i’ve made concerning CPU core count, clock speeds etc, may not apply to you.  

For a good list of processors that can be used with the ASUS Z10PE-D8, you can look them up on this website out: http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/Z10PE-D8_WS.html. It has a very good source of information.

[JAN/4th/2018]

In today’s update, i’m talking about the CPUs now and will say that I plan to spend $300 – $600 on the CPUs for my system (that’s just a rough estimate — it could be a little more or a little less depending on what things I take into consideration when it comes time to making an actual purchase). The motherboard that I have which is the (ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS) is incredible and very flexible, because the socket it uses is compatible with even older generations of Intel Core Socket LGA2011-V3 CPUs/Processors with bios updates.

The new generation V4 editions of the older V3 models can even be used as well on this board, but i’m not touching the V4 versions since although they seem to be very good, their prices are much higher in comparison, and plus since the motherboard was originally designed with the 2011-V3 socket in mind, I figure you’d have a much better time working with the original V3 models over the other types.

[DEC/28th/2017]

Just a short update to let you all know that there has been some major and significant developments concerning what I had recently obtained (and discovered) while trying to find the best components and deals for the computer i’m building. It’s stuff so good that it even surprised me and i’m usually the one bringing the super surprises to you LOL. Speaking of which, I haven’t done an unbox since earlier this year, but like I said in one of my last updates, that doesn’t mean that I am not doing things in real life or that I don’t have anything new to show off, because I do and I’m just waiting until I think it’s the right time to show everything off, since it will not only show you what cool things I have, but also it can be informative to you aswell.

What i’m getting and what I have gotten is something I had not even contemplated before or even knew existed, and you could imagine that it blew my mind when i actually found out this really cool stuff was out there :D. It’s a crazy turn of exceptional events that I have found myself in yet-again, and I could not be more pleased with what’s developing, and after I have gotten things to a certain stage, I will be revealing what these fantastic developments are. I will also like to make it explicitly clear that 2018 looks like the year my computer will be officially built (even though not fully built since it is actually going to be a special type of computer built in stages) and in operation, meaning that sometime next year and beyond, I will be getting back to making videos and releasing content, not to mention also that I will be resuming projects I have pending.

So things are just getting started and you will be seeing alot more surprise unboxings and shopping tips and details coming up!.

Due to a number of fantastic developments, there has been a delay in unboxings but I had always had a start and a dead-line in mind and overall things are actually very well on track, so i just need to sort through some things, and make some decisions, then you will see the exciting revelations I have in store. 

[DEC/21st/2017]

In today’s update, i’m going to say that i’m looking at a range of options to help arrange my new PC, and in terms of graphics cards, you will be eye-opened at the range of Baffling Buys i’m eyeing :D.

I must point out firstly, that the budget i’m operating on, always remains the same, but depending on the configuration I have in mind for the system, at any given time,  that will direct exactly how the money will be spent. I don’t want you to get the illusion that i have a ton of money.

What I am actually doing is adjusting a certain sum of money out of the overall quota of the budget I have, to go toward particular items as I see fit, while remaining within the overall budget. Essentially the budget doesn’t change, it’s just how much or how little I chose to wage on spending on something, that CAN change.

To give an example, if I have $1000, I can choose to spend $300 out of that $1000 on an SSD, OR I could change my mind and instead decide later, well i’m going to now spend $800 on an SSD. As you can see, I just changed the amount I am willing to spend on something, while the overall budget still remains $1000 — all that would mean is if I choose to spend $800 on an SSD in stead of the initial $600 on an SSD, it would just leave me with less money to spend on other things, but at the end of thr day, it would still remain that I had $1000 of budget.

In regards to what specific GPUs are on the shopping list

On the AMD side: AMD R9 270X (Last Generation) – RX VEGA (New Generation)

On The Nvidia side: Nvidia GTX 970 (Last Generation) – GTX 1080Ti (New Generation)

In budget terms, I can chose to spend up to $600+ on a GPU. And as you may be able to tell, I am looking at cards as far back as the last generation, to the new generation of cards — so it’s a HUGE pool of assets i’m looking to put big bucks on :D.

[DEC/14th/2017]

Working on this project is funny, because there had been a couple of times I threw out the idea of Xeons being in a PC to play games and not even knowing what Xeons were really used for, and i’m actually making a PC with Xeons, that can actually play games perfectly fine. Welcome to the year 2017 — anything goes xD. But then again anything would have gone with me anyways cause I just do crazy f-ing stuff and try new things. But I think you get the point I’m sort of building my “dream build” and that technology is such now that many things are practically possible LOL. 

In this update i’m just going to be stating that my computer is going to be developed with parts coming from both the Retail Market and also the The Underground Market, since I realized from early that getting certain key configurations would require me to sometimes get things in unconventional ways — that’s why the Underground Market here is listed. In the retail corner, we have places like Walmart, BestBuy, Newegg, Amazon and a massive set of others (that I recently discovered), and then in the underground corner, there is places like Ebay, Craigslist etc where there is an underground element to them, which means, it’s the people who typically produce the content, giving way to all kinds of things to show up.

I am fully aware however that not everyone who use these platforms are honest, and there are some shitheads. So if you’re using sites like Ebay and Craigslist you have to becareful, heck, even the retailers try shady shit sometimes too xD. So that’s to tell you, if crap can happen at that level, no place is safe lmao. So you always have to be operating with your Thinking-Cap when in these situations lmao. Now, I don’t think i’ll be really using Craigslist, but Ebay on the other hand is another story :D

[DEC/11th/2017]

Now I haven’t done any Surprise Unboxings recently since the last one I did earlier this year, and I can tell you that will change pretty soon, and to don’t think that because I haven’t done an unbox online, that it means i haven’t gotten any stuff in real life because I have do have something I can’t wait to show off and i’m still getting more stuff on-top of that, so look out for that for that xD.

One other exciting thing I would like to say, is that I have just secured another monetary contract/agreement that will help me even more incredibly with the ability to get the critical essentials I need to build this destroyer! of a PC lmao. So that’s the bit of exciting news I wanted to share in this first update. The deal is a massive boost to the budget, and it’s significantly pleasing that I was able to have it worked out. With that said, stay tuned to this blog for more updates in the coming hours/days/weeks/months :D.