Gaming PC build help please.

[#1]

I’ve been asked to build what was described to me as a gaming rig (no monitor needed), the budget for this is 3K, the case I've been told is to be nothing fancy, but the caveats are it must have an m.2 boot disk, water cooling and nVidia graphics. I can easily build this but that’s not the issue the issue is advice on what to buy in the first place so yours would be appreciated.

[#2]

Here's a very quick build. £3002 at pcspecialist's configurable gaming range.

Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Eight Core Processor i7-6900K (3.3GHz) 20MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X99: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - GTX VR Ready! ()

FREE FOR HONOR or GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!

1^st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON V300 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2^nd Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 1400MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

[#3]

Thanks for that @Chris.

Went to their web site and that’s a neat tool they’ve got but I’d rather build this myself, how much is saved in doing that I don’t know yet, but I can use your ‘parts list’ to get individual prices as a starting point.

[#4]

@Anonymous

A good site for component price comparison is https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ once you've decided on a rough spec. I use it it every time I build a system.

Last time I built a machine, I also compared the price at PCS and think I saved about 10% by doing it myself so not a massive saving.

[#5]

PC part picker is a great site for this, put in the components and it'll show you the pricing across the sites so you can choose yourself.

[#6]

Thanks for the input guys, using the site provided by @SpendLessTime I’ve come up with this list (see image), allowing 1K for the dual video cards. Now I’m going to show my lack of knowledge here as regards this SLI stuff. I’m thinking that if there are two cards running on this machine it would be better than a single Titan X for example. TBH I don’t really know what SLI is or does but having two cards makes sense in my head.

As I'm not a gamer or ever likely to be I'd appreciate your input on this please.

[#7]

I really wouldn't bother with SLI, I'd switch out the 2 GTX 1080 cards for 1 GTX 1080 TI (don't go for Titan X as the new GTX 1080 performs better).

[#8]

I agree with @Chris SLI makes more problems than its worth

as Chris says go for a GTX1080 ti   Great choice of case very similar to mine Excellent cooling and you can adjust anything inside to suit your needs.

You could get a bit of Bling with a Corsair fully modular PSU and get color coordinated Braided cables and some RGB lighting looks cool with a glass case   http://s1361.photobucket.com/user/ronwillsher/media/20170328_163146_zps7i0jo2lr.jpg.html?sort=4&o=1

[#9]

 adding Photo dont work now ??????

[#10]

I would swap the 1TB SSD for a fast 2-4TB traditional spinner & up the size of the m.2 to 256GB.

[#11]

As per the others,

1. I would avoid SLI (just look at the Nvidia/AMD forums and nearly every complaint is about SLI/Crossfire)
2. increase m2 disk size
3. Normal hard disk 2/3TB not a large SSD
4. avoid G.Skill memory (there are the only memory chips in 30 years that have failed on me, my games machine is running Corsair Vengeance modules)

[#12]

+1 Corsair

[#13]

Yes ditch the sli ... 

Im not sure what the Phanteks Enthoo case fans are like but my Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Airflow Edition fans were loud so i replaced them with https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Fans-Cooling/Corsair-9050009-AF140-Quiet-140mm-Airflow-Single/B007RESGGC/... ( for intake only ).

Also i have the i7 7700k it runs sweet... only thing is the chip runs a wee bit hotter than the other models below it but this does not affect performance in any way.

[#14]

Ste i still have the original Phanteks fans in mine

[#15]

It appears the consensus is not to use SLI so I’ll take that advice and stick with the single GTX 1080 TI; upgrade the M.2 to 256MB and change the SSD for a big TB traditional spinner. Thanks to you all for the contributions.