Hey Scott, a few things.
Where are you in the world? We don't know what 1500$ is (US, Canada, Australia, NewZealand etc all use dollars, to my knowledge).
If you have preferences, or if taxes / shipping should be included, as well as MiR. I've included what PC partpicker automatically does. Note, almost 1650$ is needed to buy everything upfront, but do you really need to get everything at once? No. The aftermarket cooler can wait, as well as the HDD, or even 2 monitors if your budget is tight, and you're expecting to be come into cash in the next few weeks. 240GB SSD? If you don't need the room, get a 120GB one. Know you won't crossfire? The mobo is overkill, as well as the PSU, if that's the case.
Also, which games you like matters too. Arma, for example, is just brutal. Other games, like anything that's older, or not very graphically intense, will run nicely. My favorite game is SC2 (at least right now it is). That doesn't allow for multi monitor the way you'd have it set up (at least, I think that's the case).
Also, check benchmarks. A card like the
7870GHz can
consistently lose to the better card (that is included in price) but be so close, that it doesn't matter a whole lot. Since the PSU leaves lots of room for crossfire (and the Mobo has 2 PCIe x16 at x16 slots) and since AMD is actively (and already has results) for better crossfire frame pacing (I don't mean performance, read
this if you are confused) crossfire is looking more and more like a good thing.
PCPartPicker part list /
Price breakdown by merchant /
Benchmarks
CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($144.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($164.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($85.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 USB 3.0 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($86.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($159.99 @ Microcenter)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($159.99 @ Microcenter)
Monitor: Asus VS239H-P 23.0" Monitor ($159.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $1570.84
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-12 03:44 EDT-0400)
Why did I go AMD? Because I'm tired of putting together Intel builds. Why not nVidia? Because. It's easy to change the build over anyways.
Does it seem like I cut corners *cough* case *cough*? 3 monitors are expensive. That doesn't even include a tri-monitor stand (not needed). And that's not to mention the lack of keyboard, mouse, speakers and the like. After market thermal compound? Don't be ridiculous, that $5 is better spend not paying attention to costs elsewhere.
One GPU? Well, budget, and read above. The thing about deciding on going for crossfire 7870GHz is that you can get one now, see what it's like, if you don't like it, buy another later on when budget is freed up.
5760x1080 is the kind of resolution that kicks a card when it's down. The 3GB of VRAM are nice, and might be used in some games, but others just don't need it. Want to cut down AA? That saves you VRAM usage. You're already so limited by raw performance, it won't make much difference (unless / until you crossfire). Cutting out AA all together would help performance too, but why do that? Pro-tip: Don't cut out AA altogether.
Hope you like it, I must say, I spent too long picking parts. It's time for bed!
P.S. I've edited and changed and tweaked and re-worded so many things up there, please excuse me if I don't make sense. I gave up sleep for this, but don't worry, it's fun for me.
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