Another workstation advice-thread

[fillishave]

Ok so it's time to upgrade my x99-build and I want to make sure I make the right choices in terms of hardware and cooling options. I will both use this machine for Octane but also a lot of After effects, Photoshop etc

What I will be buying new:
Asus WS X299 Sage (Is the PLX-chip thing still an issue?)
Intel i9-9940x
2 x RTX 2080 ti (reference blower style)

What I will transfer from the old build:
64 gb Corsair vengence (can't remember the specs right now)
EVO 960 NVMe SST 1 tb
2 x Samsung 1 TB SSD's
2 x 1080 Ti Founders edition

So first big question, does this seem like good setup? If not what would you change? I'd prefer not to go Threadripper due to, what I understand, some issues with problems in Adobe programs
Next big question: will this work in an air cooled environment without throttling?
Which brings me to the final big question: If aircooling can work I'm guessing it depends hugely on the choice of case. I have looked at Thermaltakes Core X9 since the cards aren't stacked on top of each other and the large case in itself with plenty of opportunity for air to flow. If not this one, do you have a suggestion for an alternative case?

Thanks for reading through yet another "workstation advice"-thread and thanks in advance for the help!

P.S. Bonus questions: if I go with an air cooled solution do you have a recommendation on cpu-cooler? D.S

[FrankPooleFloating]

Yes, the X9 orients the mobo horizontally and the GPUs are vertical, but it is your mobo which decides how close your GPUs are to one another. I believe PCIE slots are maybe a standard distance from each other on ATX mobos... All I know is my three hybrids are mere millimeters away from each other. This is one of the reasons I use hybrids. I was even doing hybrid mods for years before they were commercially available from EVGA, MSI, etc. No throttling and never had a GPU die or take a piss in my workstation.

As I mention in about a dozen threads or so (maybe the reason you looked at X9 was me) the X9 is a great case. Maybe I could have gone with an X5... If you take out the drive cages like me and have two 200mm fans in the front, and just mount SSDs to floor, the entire front half of the case is completely empty, which is kinda comical I suppose, but it works great and top-mounting of rads/fans is perfect. Exactly what I need. Heat rises yo.

[fillishave]

Yes, the X9 orients the mobo horizontally and the GPUs are vertical, but it is your mobo which decides how close your GPUs are to one another. I believe PCIE slots are maybe a standard distance from each other on ATX mobos... All I know is my three hybrids are mere millimeters away from each other. This is one of the reasons I use hybrids. I was even doing hybrid mods for years before they were commercially available from EVGA, MSI, etc. No throttling and never had a GPU die or take a piss in my workstation.

As I mention in about a dozen threads or so (maybe the reason you looked at X9 was me) the X9 is a great case. Maybe I could have gone with an X5... If you take out the drive cages like me and have two 200mm fans in the front, and just mount SSDs to floor, the entire front half of the case is completely empty, which is kinda comical I suppose, but it works great and top-mounting of rads/fans is perfect. Exactly what I need. Heat rises yo.

Hi, thanks for the reply!
Yeah the horizontal positioning of the motherboard is one of the reasons I looked at this case. I currently have a (much smaller) case from Case labs with a horizontal mobo and like that setup. Obviously a hybrid or custom loop-solution would be a better option but I already have two 1080 ti Founders edition that I'm going to put in the case and I am thinking of perhaps adding water cooling at a later time. But I wanted, if possible, to setup an air cooling solution first and see how that goes so I was interested in if anyone has a similar setup (ie not water cooled) and is happy with that.

PCIe slots are standard distanced for sure and I know from my own experience that is indeed a very tight fit which is why I wanted to know if someone can say for sure (obviously not for sure, but from own experience) wether it's a futile attempt or if it'll work.

The reason I looked at the X9-case is mainly because I have spent about two weeks looking at quite possibly ALL larger cases that exist on the market (and then some) and this one falls into the "least ugly but good functionality"-category. Can't say that I am jumping with joy over the looks of this one either but I am even less of a fan of a gazilion RGB-leds and all tempered glass cases with small parts of metal on them I was also looking at the Fractal Design Define XL but it seems to me like it's a bit too closed in in terms of airflow.
And also I want a case that is expandable in case I do decide to water cool it at some point. I have built way too many cases that are small and good looking but suffers greatly in thermals.

[anifex3D]

We have a similar setup with the Asus WS x299 SAGE motherboard and X9 case and i9 processor. We are running 4 RTX Titans and the processor all on air with average temps of 72-73c on the cards running 24x7. The key to making it all work on air with this board was using 2 Thermaltake TT Premium PCI-E x16 3.0 Extender Riser Cables. This allowed us to have space between the 2 mounted on the Motherboard Cards and then attach one card to the top of the case and put one card on the bottom of the case, spreading out the heat. We would not recommend mounting 4 blower style cards all together on this board there will only be a few mm's of space between the 4 cards and no airflow for them except for the bottom/first card. Our suggestion would be to mount your current 1080ti blower style cards on the motherboard and then buy non-reference style cards and mount them away from each other and off the motherboard using the PCI-E cables. This will give all 4 cards the airflow they need and there is no loss in performance using the cables. It isn't the prettiest way to go with the build but highly functional if you want 4 cards on air.

PC cooler: Noctua NH-D15S, Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan. The thing is a beast but keeps the temp on the cpu below 45c no matter what has been thrown at it.

[fillishave]

We have a similar setup with the Asus WS x299 SAGE motherboard and X9 case and i9 processor. We are running 4 RTX Titans and the processor all on air with average temps of 72-73c on the cards running 24x7. The key to making it all work on air with this board was using 2 Thermaltake TT Premium PCI-E x16 3.0 Extender Riser Cables. This allowed us to have space between the 2 mounted on the Motherboard Cards and then attach one card to the top of the case and put one card on the bottom of the case, spreading out the heat. We would not recommend mounting 4 blower style cards all together on this board there will only be a few mm's of space between the 4 cards and no airflow for them except for the bottom/first card. Our suggestion would be to mount your current 1080ti blower style cards on the motherboard and then buy non-reference style cards and mount them away from each other and off the motherboard using the PCI-E cables. This will give all 4 cards the airflow they need and there is no loss in performance using the cables. It isn't the prettiest way to go with the build but highly functional if you want 4 cards on air.

PC cooler: Noctua NH-D15S, Premium Dual-Tower CPU Cooler with NF-A15 PWM 140mm Fan. The thing is a beast but keeps the temp on the cpu below 45c no matter what has been thrown at it.

Thank you so much for the advice, that's a great idea! Good way to make use of the large size of the case. I really don't mind the looks on the inside, I'd take an ugly stable build over a fancy schmancy overheated one any day
Did you need any special brackets/screws etc to mount the cards elsewhere inside the case or was it possible to mount them using what's included with the case?
I think this will be the way to go for me.

[anifex3D]

We did the mounting old school with zip ties. It works.

[fillishave]

20190110_131136.jpg

20190110_131013.jpg

We did the mounting old school with zip ties. It works. Not sure why the pictures came in upside down - sorry.

The pics were correctly oriented when you clicked them so all good! Would have been all good if they were upside down once clicked as well
What length cable did you buy? I see that it comes in several lenghts, the shortest being 300 mm

[anifex3D]

300mm for the top cable and 600mm for the bottom. The cables are pretty flexible so you can see how we bent it around for the bottom card. The top card draws fresh air in from the top of the case. The bottom card gets its fresh air from the 2 200mm fans on the front of the case (one comes mounted on the x9). Then a 140mm exhaust fan out the back on top and another 120mm out the back on the bottom (comes with case). Then we added another 200mm fan on above the video cards for good measure - you probably wont need that with the blower style cards.

[fillishave]

300mm for the top cable and 600mm for the bottom. The cables are pretty flexible so you can see how we bent it around for the bottom card. The top card draws fresh air in from the top of the case. The bottom card gets its fresh air from the 2 200mm fans on the front of the case (one comes mounted on the x9). Then a 140mm exhaust fan out the back on top and another 120mm out the back on the bottom (comes with case). Then we added another 200mm fan on above the video cards for good measure - you probably wont need that with the blower style cards.

Cool thanks! I guess with this method it would even be possible to add even more than four cards in the future as well. Again thanks for the good idea!

[anifex3D]

300mm for the top cable and 600mm for the bottom. The cables are pretty flexible so you can see how we bent it around for the bottom card. The top card draws fresh air in from the top of the case. The bottom card gets its fresh air from the 2 200mm fans on the front of the case (one comes mounted on the x9). Then a 140mm exhaust fan out the back on top and another 120mm out the back on the bottom (comes with case). Then we added another 200mm fan on above the video cards for good measure - you probably wont need that with the blower style cards.

Cool thanks! I guess with this method it would even be possible to add even more than four cards in the future as well. Again thanks for the good idea!

Not sure if more then 4 would be possible unless you used risers for all and mounted them who knows where. The blower cards take 2 spaces and cover the other PCI-e slots. I don't understand why they always put the PCI-e so close together that only way they can work is on a liquid loop. I wish they would build a huge motherboard that would fill the whole x9 case who cares as long as it functions.