Started this build to aid in Unreal Engine 4 work, and generally speed things up for gaming and productivity, coming from my old 2600k + GTX 970 rig. I wanted the latest and greatest tech (within reason) for production and gaming on the side. Spent months researching the primary parts for this and pondering when I should pull the trigger. Here it is...

Things to note during the build.

1: The 6-pin CPU power cable was a REAL pain to get attached to the motherboard once everything was installed into the case and I went to do cable management. Highly recommend getting it in place before securing your main components.

2: The special fan controller included in this case was a waste for me, as with the Kraken X52 this motherboard doesn't have enough connections to support using both at the same time.

3: When using the Kraken X52 in this case in conjunction with a AIO cooler on the GPU and then attempting the installation of the 2080 Ti's radiator+fan in the rear exhaust position, it will seem like it's not going to fit. Install the radiator, then the fan and it will JUST barely fit.

4: The dust filter on the top exhaust fan isn't fun getting to it with all of the hardware installed. It's only 4 screws and taking off the side panel, but it's NOT a quick and easy solution like you would want. It also gets dusty quick being on the TOP of the case.

5: The main M.2 slot on the front of the motherboard is accessed fairly easily with all other components installed. I did have to remove the USB 2.0 cable the Kraken uses, as it was in the way. While the second M.2 is on the other side of the motherboard, and well... I'm gonna wait awhile before I install another 970 Evo Plus 1TB in there.

6: The NZXT H200 case only supports 2 slot graphics cards, while I did try a 2.5 slot (large fan/shroud) it did fit, but with air cooling, two things happened. One: is obvious, it was starved for air and thus unacceptably hot. Two: was the fans on the MSI Ventus 2080 Ti I had in here would scrape on the red reservoir bracket and make horrible noises. This wasn't due to bad initial clearance, but GPU sag over time.

Initially when I built this, I used my old GTX 970 for a little while. The primary parts were all bought from Micro Center locally and the video card was off Newegg. This specific GPU was one of the very few 2080 Ti's that can fit in this case, and stay nice and cool and quiet. The older 2.5" SSDs were a carry-over from my previous 2600k and GTX 970 rig and may get replaced someday with larger capacity faster solutions..

The memory being DDR4-3000 and not higher was due to price differences at time of purchase and availability locally.