Alright guys, following a (slightly desperate) plea to my supplier, I asked him to spec me up a machine. This was my brief:
Must have:
GTX970 4GB 64Gb RAM - not too fussed whether this is DDR3 or 4. CPU: 6 cores, overclockable, base around 3.3 GHz - something along the lines of the 5820K Mobo - whatever works!
He's come back with 2 options - both clocking in at a hefty 5k +:
Option 1, Xeon E51650:
4 x Kingston 16GB DDR4 ECC Registered 2133MHz CL1 336x4 = 1344
Intel 6-Core Xeon E5-1650V3 3.5GHz, 15MB Cache, 1 740
ASUS X99-E WS MB, Socket 2011-3, Intel X99, 8x DD 685
Galax GF GTX 970-4GD5 HOF. PCI-E3.0. 4GB 256-bit 490
1 x Plextor SSD M6e M.2 PCIe 2280 256Gb 309
1 x Corsair 240GB Neutron XT Series SATA III MLC 7mm I 194 (Mobo cant support 2 Plextors)
Corsair Obsidian Series 450D Black High Airflow Mid-T 159
1000W "Antec" High Current PRO" 80PLUS Platinum 286
Corsair Hydro Series H110 Liquid CPU Cooler - Move t 147
And apparently this can be safely Turboboosted to 3.8GHz without voiding any warranties.
Or, Option 2, i7 5930K
Intel i7-5930K Core i7 CPU, Six Core 3.50 GHz, 15MB 809
2 x Apacer 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 2800MHz Commando O 1694
2 x Plextor SSD M6e M.2 PCIe 2280 256Gb 618
All other parts the same.
With OS, build, warranty etc comes to approx AU$5000, which is 1k more than I was originally thinking, but at this stage, I'd rather get a great, good value machine and get back to earning money to pay for it...
NB.
i7-5820K vs 5930K - he was quite against the 5820K for a few reasons that I'm afraid went over my head. One of his points was that for a build of this price its a far inferior CPU to the 5930K... the 5930K operates at a lower temp? and has better grade silicon? so you can expect the 5930K to last a lot longer... Which he felt was important for such a high spec machine which will hopefully stay useable for the next 4+ years. Overclocking - He was very wary of OC, as he said its easy enough to setup (2 clicks) but you need to be really careful how its going to effect all the other components. And if you dont know what you're doing (thats me), it can be very risky.
So... what are your thoughts??
Thanks again for all your input - really appreciated.