Upgrading from 3 monitor to 6 monitor setup

headbangeriam

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Sep 18, 2009
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Hello to all,

I currently have a simple 3 monitor setup but i want to upgrade to 6 monitors. almost all my hardware is atleast 2 years old so will be buying everything needed.

Although i am wanting to upgrade to 6 monitors, i want the option to connect 3 more in the near future (4-6 months from now). This is what i have selected so far

CPU: i7 3770 (not k) (http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P150776P)

motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Formula (http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P156042P)

The reason for getting this is because it is extended ATX. Personally i think this the features on this are overkill but it is the one available from the site i am using.

GPU: 2 x 7970 (http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P162231P)

The only reason i am buying these is because 2 of these give me the option of connecting 9 monitors. but i also play RTS and FPS games

Monitors: 6 x Samsung 24" 1920x1200 (i have always used 1200 and dislike 1080) (http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P152832P)

RAM: Corsair 32 (4 bg sticks) (http://www.pcworldbusiness.co.uk/catalogue/item/P156452P)

Case: NZXT Phantom Black Orange (http://www.ebuyer.com/389841-nzxt-phantom-black-orange-stri-ca-phatm-o2)

PSU: Atleast 800 watts.
HDD: i bought a new HDD 1 year ago and will use that

On weekdays, i will be using my computer for work but on weekends i do gaming RTS and FPS. i do not plan on using all 6 monitors for games. only 3 in eyefinity (from what i have read apart from few games, 5760x2400 is just too much for any card to handle at the moment)

Are all those items compatible with each other? my budget is £3000. almost half of it is for monitors and the rest is for the components. I do not want to upgrade my computer for atleast 2 years (unless something really wicked comes out). So in that sense, is this a good build that would last for the next 2 years?

Also, my only concern with the 6 monitor (or 9 monitor in 4-6 months) is that how much of a stress will it be for those 2 cards to display 6 1920x1200 resolution? i have seen some cards on the pcwb website which are going for £2000 . can they handle those resolution better or will the 7970s be enough?
 
Solution
Those expensive cards you see are workstation cards they do big gpu compute stuff like fluid dynamic physics not for games dont worry about those. The parts you listed will work and very nice choices. I would however get the i7 4770k or nonk if your not overclocking. If only because the price wont be very different. Of course that leads to a new mobo as well but you can find plenty of crossfire ready boards at a decent price. I dont know the display limit nvidia has on multi gpu setups but i know they scale much better when paired up....Food for thought.

freshbakd

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Mar 17, 2012
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Those expensive cards you see are workstation cards they do big gpu compute stuff like fluid dynamic physics not for games dont worry about those. The parts you listed will work and very nice choices. I would however get the i7 4770k or nonk if your not overclocking. If only because the price wont be very different. Of course that leads to a new mobo as well but you can find plenty of crossfire ready boards at a decent price. I dont know the display limit nvidia has on multi gpu setups but i know they scale much better when paired up....Food for thought.
 
Solution

headbangeriam

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Sep 18, 2009
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To be honest with you, i would prefer nvidia cards as well because they have never let me down in gaming. but the only card i could find with the option of 5-6 outputs was the 780. but i think to get 2 780s just for weekend gaming is too much. i only play games like Rome Total War, R.U.S.E, C&C, Company of heroes.. maybe COD every now and then or Battlefield 2 which i can happily play without having everything on ultra.

As for 4770, from the reviews i read, it was just barely faster than 3770 (http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/515/Intel_Core_i7_i7-3770K_vs_Intel_Core_i7_i7-4770.html). the only other cpu i considered was 3930 which is 6 core and as i understand it, there are no applications or games that use 6 core. i am surprised about the 4770, i would have thought it would be much more faster than that. otherwise for £40 more it is not a bad deal.
 

rcknroll35

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Sep 20, 2011
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Hi headbangeriam,

I have a 10 monitor setups at home so i'll chip in. If you're not gaming on 6-9 monitors, then you could either buy one great 4 monitor gaming card + workstation 4 or 6 monitor card. OR you can always just go with a 6 monitor gaming card.

6 monitor gaming on one card:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085O90SQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0085O90SQ&tag=gott0b0-20&linkCode=as2

6 monitor work card:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C7EPSVS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00C7EPSVS&tag=gott0b0-20&linkCode=as2

4 monitor work card (i have that one, works like a charm):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00554X4FE/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00554X4FE&tag=gott0b0-20&linkCode=as2


Me I have the last card + 2 cheap 2xmonitor geforce the 2 monitors that the motherboard pushes.


if you have any question, dont hesitate