It all started when I got my hands on the ASUS Rampage III Formula. It's an old, stupidly expensive motherboard but I love it! Long live Intel X58!

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Formula

• I used this board because it's one of the best X58 for overclocking Intel Xeons and I love the ASUS ROG branding.

CPU: Intel Xeon W3690 @ 4.6 GHz

• This is equivalent to the i7 990x but way cheaper. The W3690/80 has an unlocked multiplier unlike its X5690/80/75/60/50 counterpart.

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 24 GB @ 2000 MHz

• X58 supports triple-channel memory and I wanted to populate all 6 DIMMS slots.

Primary Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB

• X58 is one of the first platform to have SATA III 6 Gb/s, but early SATA III controllers are slow.

Secondary Storage: HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB

• I'm not a fan of Seagate hard drives. This drive was cheap, fast (7200 RPM) and so far reliable.

GPU: Dual EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified in SLI

• At the time of the build, GTX 980 Ti had the best performance per dollar. I went to two of them because it looks cool and I always wanted to try SLI. I would not recommend it because so few support games SLI these days and getting it to work properly is a PITA. Also, they run very hot and suck a lot of power. My upgrade in the future would most likely be a GTX 1080Ti or RTX 2070.

PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2

• This is overkill and it barely fits in my case. The only reason I am using this is because I got it for cheap, only $80!

Case: Fractal Design Define R6

• This was my favorite case that came out during 2017/2018. At first, I was hesitant about spent $100+ on a case, but it was worth it. I love the openness of the interior and the flexibility for either air/water cooling. The best part is the temper glass side panel. It's beautiful and very easy to take on and off. What I don't like is the ModuVents. It is very difficult to separate the metal top cover from the plastic fan grills. Without the metal cover, the plastic fan grills look very cheap and tacky. I had trouble deciding between the black version or the gunmetal version because they look almost identical from the pictures online. I went with black because I'm basic. I have yet to see the gunmetal version in person and sometimes I wonder if I would have like that color better. Hard to know for sure eh?

Cooling: EVGA CLC 280 RGB

• I didn't have the money for a custom loop so an AIO was the next best thing. It's a decent cooler for the money.

Custom Cables: CableMod ModMesh

• This is the pièce de résistance for my build. It was expensive but the quality and look is on point. Good job, CableMod! But in all honesty, I would get just cable extension next time because it archives the same overall look for a fraction of the price.