Computer hardware service

xD I thought as much.
The 5960X has 8 real cores and it's hyperthreaded, as opposed to the Intel i7-4790k which is 4 real cores and hyperthreaded.
So the 5960X essentially has 16 hyperthreaded cores, and the 4790k has 8 hyperthreaded cores, as you can probably tell, the 5960x is a bit of a beast.
Yeah I was assuming this was a relatively non-mindful build in terms of price That's why it's important to specify budgets, so I assume you're looking more towards an i7-4790k?

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dJRtqs
I can answer anything you might question

 

First off, what's he using it for? That will greatly determine a lot of things for me.
Keyboards I would recommend anything from Ducky, they're built like fortresses and I absolutely love them.
Mouse is dependent upon what he's doing imo, I use the Logitech G600 since I need the extra buttons.

Also, Logitech speaker sets are good as well imo, I have an old Z2300 for the last 4 or 5 years and I still love it.

 

i5's don't have hyperthreading, only i7's will have that feature.
i5's have a maximum of 4 cores which isn't great when you consider Direct X 12 is on the way.

 

Thing is, that build wouldn't last him 5 years imo, let alone 10.
Also, for "future-proofing" I would highly recommend that he waits until there are some custom coolers for Titan X's and buy two of those instead of a GTX 980 for a multitude of reasons.
1) Titan X has 12GB per card, which with the development of DirectX12 can mean stackable VRAM in SLI configurations which is fantastic for high resolution textures.
2) The Titan X is a literal monster for 4k, and two 980s don't really make the cut when you're pushing a 4k panel at max details.

To make that more affordable, I would drop the Rampage mobo and change the Dominator RAM for something less premium because it won't change a thing in terms of longevity or performance.
I would also recommend he looks at 4k IPS panels as opposed to the ones he has picked already, as you likely know I'm a very strong advocate for IPS panels simply because their visual quality is astounding when compared to other panel types.

This is going to be long winded but it's how it is;
If he intends to buy the LGA 2011-3 socket then he should get the 5960X, the 5930k is essentially like buying a crippled piece of hardware on a very high end and very specific socket. The 5930k is still good, but there's no point paying a bunch more for DDR4 if you're settling for the lowest CPU the board can take.

 

Just looked on pccasegear and damn there's a very nice kit of RAM for a cheap price;
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_538_913&products_id=28015
Anything else in that price range is substantially worse in aesthetics and performance.

 

I was under the assumption it was 2133MHz as the video shows, but it actually isn't, though it's still the best due to price.
It's actually 1600MHz, it doesn't necessarily matter unless you're doing video production, so 1600MHz is fine for your system (I run 1600MHz too).

 

Depending on whether or not they produce that RAM anymore might result in you being sent better RAM than what had just died.
If you run two different frequencies of RAM, then the system will operate at the slowest frequency for every stick of RAM, though running multiple (different) sticks of RAM can cause issues.

Looks great to me, a strong CPU with plentiful amounts of RAM plus an SSD.
Has everything I'd look for when considering your requirements, should be snappy as well.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you expected this, but I personally hate it.
One issue (rather nitpicky) is the keyboard lackout, the up/down arrow keys are divided which pretty much ruins it for anyone like me with thick fingers. Not only that, but due to the thin design of the laptop itself, they will not have much (if any) travel distance which will feel awful.

That however, is nothing compared to my last issue with it.
Apple as always has seemingly introduced what is damn near a proprietary connector in order to reduce the number of interfaces on the side of the laptop, to ultimately allow for a thinner design, however by making it proprietary you will have to purchase their branded cables and everything in order to get the desired effect.
It also means you will need to carry their adapters around, which are useless for anything else unless it's a MacBook, if you felt then necessity to output to HDMI/VGA etc.
On the plus side, the port they're using is actually USB-C which is a new standard that has an incredibly high bandwidth as well as ~100watt power output to power things such as monitors etc.

The onboard WiFi appears to be decent, I would hazard a guess at ~130MBit/s to 150MBit/s depending on your router's protocols.
RAM/Storage is all good, albeit lacking a little for RAM choices imo, 8GB won't suit everyone.
CPU should be quite capable, though the low-power advertising will suggest that it is heavily underclocked in order to reduce power consumption.
Display (as expected) is fantastic, IPS panel with 226 PPI will look absolutely gorgeous, albeit an odd resolution (2304x1440 16:10 aspect ratio).