My latest custom build.

[V0RT3X]

In reverse order:

I haven't built a machine for a long time, but it's interesting to see that going from 3.6 -> 4.0 requires water cooling

It doesn't, air is perfectly fine for this.

It is debatable that more cores don't help in audio.

Indeed, multiplecore usage can be leveraged rather well past 6 and 8 real cores by various DAWs and some plugins. Its also clear that the OP doesn't want the system just for audio.

Quite so, all DAW's I'm aware of can load balance and benefit from using certainly 16 if not 24 cores or more.

Anyhow, on to the spec.

System Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 900D
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... 7RD39A9758

Motherboard: ASUS X99 Deluxe II LGA2011-V3
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product
Note: Seems like a pretty good all around motherboard for LGA2011-V3 systems.

CPU: Intel Core i7-6850k (3.6GHz 6-core Broadwell-E)
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... 1490667188
Note: I want to overclock this to 4.0ghz!

Only need this chip if your 100% your going to SLI at somepoint. If you're not sure, the 6800K makes more sense / overclocks as far. (I run the 6 cores at 4.2GHz, YMMV)

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3333
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

The CPU is rated to 2400MHz, it gets erratic and is prone to dropping memory randomly once you go over 2600MHz. If your lucky it'll happen one in a thousand boots, if your unlukcy it'll happen often enough to make the machine unusable. I don't recommend going above spec for audio work, although video can benefit. I'd stay 2600MHz with this.

O/S : Windows 10 Pro (Or Is it better to go with Windows 7?)

W10 at this point, W7 drivers are fast heading out of development.

CPU Watercooler: Corsair Hydro H115i
https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.a ... 1490667188
Note: Going along with this to help OC my CPU to 4.0ghz

Waters good for getting the last 10% past what air can achieve. You can get 4.2GHz on those chips with ease on air cooling, so water cooling is just overkill. You can generally do it for less cost and with less noise using a reasonable air cooler.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 8X13526392

Now if you said you wanted to hit 4.5GHz, I'd say go with water, although I wouldn't advise trying to hit that sort of overclock on a studio system.

Wow thanks for all the tips! I'll have to revisit my build and update it with DDR4-2400 memory and an air cooling system. I do want to get a SLI configuration at some point so I think I will keep the 6850k, because when I can I want to buy an extra GTX1080Ti card. I did not know air cooling was sufficient for overclocking to 4.0 ghz, so it's good to know! I'm not trying to break records, I just want my system to run at a stable 4.0ghz for work. My primary use for this system is to handle editing of 4K RAW footage, with sound and music stuff secondary.

Cheers again for the good info

[V0RT3X]

Sorry Vortex, I hope this stuff is sorta pertinent to your build

No problem here, I could benefit from all kinds of good info shared here too.

[Kaine]

My primary use for this system is to handle editing of 4K RAW footage, with sound and music stuff secondary.

In which case you may fall into the camp that benefits from the faster memory clock as 4K work is were we see noticeable gains with it. 2600MHz is going to be pretty much trouble free and if you really want to try something faster we've seen that the 3200MHz is the most stable of the faster memory types thanks to share some of the same clock dividers as the slower kits. It's just the memory between and above those two points that get a bit scatty.

[Astralv]

You know- there are video cards for professional video production. You don't need gaming card if you don't play games. The pro-video cards have special tools to tune the color spectrum to make it as natural as possible, and much more. It is irritating to have gaming card- they constantly add some extra software to the drivers. I can not afford Pro-Video card, so I use gaming card, but if you have money to spend, get the real thing. There is an article on www.tomshardware.com on how to pick graphic card. They have examples of pro video cards.

I use 3000Mhz memory, it is stable so far.

[V0RT3X]

You know- there are video cards for professional video production. You don't need gaming card if you don't play games. The pro-video cards have special tools to tune the color spectrum to make it as natural as possible, and much more. It is irritating to have gaming card- they constantly add some extra software to the drivers. I can not afford Pro-Video card, so I use gaming card, but if you have money to spend, get the real thing. There is an article on http://www.tomshardware.com on how to pick graphic card. They have examples of pro video cards.

I use 3000Mhz memory, it is stable so far.

Ok I finally decided to go ahead and just go all out.

I swapped the CPU for the i7-6950x

and the Video card for a FirePro W8100

Total price for everything is $7,339.98 (Canadian, so it's less in USD)

I'm going to have to sell a few things to make up the extra bit there.

Btw Is it a good idea to go ahead with the water cooling setup to Overclock the 6950x to 4.0ghz? Or is still ok to just stick to the Be Quiet Shadow Rock 2?

I've heard that AMD is going to release a bigger CPU soon that will compete with xeons, do you think it's worth waiting?

[Astralv]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel- ... 33988.html

So you going to miss Optain technology? Bad move. It already started. Only 32 GB now but will have huge capacities in less than a year.

[Astralv]

Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz Max Turbo 4.5. Overclocks on $29 Evo Air Cooler.

[V0RT3X]

Ok well I went over my budget, and figured I'm going to wait until June until I can afford that proposed build... I imagine lots of things will change by then and I'll be able to get a pretty good system for cheaper.

Playing catch up with computer technology is hard...

My main goal is to build a system that will last at least 4 years of solid use before I need to upgrade again.

@Astralv I"ll take a look at this technology you're talking about and see how it could help out in Video editing. Again I'm still quite new to all of the new technology that is available.

[Astralv]

Also there was something about Macs using NVidia and not AMD graphics, because of CUDA. Not sure what it was about.

The Optain is nonvolatile memory (stays on when power off), fast speed (faster than SSD) and larger storage (cant wait).

By June, may be there will be Skylake Extreme available. Also you may consider Xeon processor.

[Kaine]

The potential for Optane going forward is huge, but at this point its late, under performing and overpriced. The's a real danger one of the other two competing techs is going to curb stomp it if intel doesn't get it's shit together soon.

[Astralv]

New Egg has this cool Be Quiet combo today. https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBun ... -_-3446133

One thing to realize about air coolers is that I don't know where memory located on 99 motherboards, but on 270 motherboards, the memory is very close to the processor and BeQuiet cooler looks large and low, which may cause issues with memory placement. The Evo cooler fan can go up and down.