Most of the build is a simple Cerberus X build, albeit with some super high end parts. Some of these parts were either deals or picked up used, which would explain some of the lower prices.

The CPU of choice was the 3960X. Normally I would've gone for a 3950X instead, but after seeing it available and barely used, I had to jump on the deal. Motherboard was a fairly straightforward choice as it gives lots of USB ports as well as good connectivity. Chipset fans are annoying, but that's something that I have to live with.

The cooler is an interesting choice. Currently, there is only one air cooler that fits in the Cerberus X natively, the NH-U9S TR4-SP3/ Now this is nowhere near enough to handle a 3960X, so I had to start looking around. After lots of looking around, some eyeballing in terms of measurement, and some napkin math, I figured out that the Arctic Freezer 50 TR would actually be very close to fitting with all the plastic removed. I picked one up used from Amazon Warehouse (primarily for the heatsink itself, the fans are no use to me) and found that the heatsink was 3mm too tall. With some ahem concussive therapy, I was able to reduce the height of the heatpipes by around 2mm. Since I have a DIY tempered glass side panel for the Cerberus X, that adds about a millimeter of clearance. Still, it was too close for comfort for me, so I added 1mm plastic washers to the base of the ball joint fasteners to give an extra millimeter of clearance. The panel still holds on extremely tightly to the case, and I managed to beat the odds and fit the cooler in the case. For fan clip mounting, I bent some of the fins on the side enough that I could fasten two 120mm fans to the heatsink. The sides look a bit brutalized (as does the rest of the heatsink), but it fits and works.

Memory choice was less based on aesthetics and more based on if the heatspreaders on the memory stick were easily removable to allow the cpu fan to clear. The Team Group Dark Pro sticks have a heatspreader that is fairly easily removed without having to pry too much. The fact that it was 3200 c14 B-die was just a bonus .

The graphics card choice was mostly what I had on hand, which was a 1080 Ti SC2. I had previously installed a Morpheus II on it, which allowed for me to install two 120mm fans on the heatsink. This was rather important, not only for cooling the gpu die effectively, but also for being large enough to hang over the heatsink and be able to push air up the case in what would've otherwise been a dead zone in terms of airflow. I might upgrade once the drought of graphics cards passes, but for now the 1080 Ti is enough for my needs.

The power supply was the main factor that caused the hold-up on the build. Silverstone's SX1000 1000w SFX-L power supply was one of the things that I needed in order for this build to be successful, because I needed an SFX or SFX-L power supply and wasn't exactly comfortable with using a 750w SFX power supply for such a high power draw build. The power supply is brand spanking new and I wasn't sure if I was going to encounter issues; however, I am happy to report that I haven't experienced any. The power supply fan is very quiet, only ramping up to audible levels with heavy load. It doesn't spin down to 0 rpm at idle, but I cannot personally notice it from the noise from the rest of the system. Some other people here are reporting that their units are fairly loud, so I guess either I'm not too sensitive to fan noise or I lucked out and got a quiet unit. Of course these are most likely first production units, so any issues will most likely be worked out over time.

Fans are the Corsair HD120 RGB. They add some color to the build, though they also introduce a nightmare of cables to the build.

Case is my trusty Cerberus X in Ecru Beige with a DIY tempered glass side panel. I have the white as well, but I found I preferred the softer tone of the beige over the harsher and brighter white. Also I should note that I have one of the earlier production units of the Cerberus X, which might affect people who try and replicate this build.