3x 1440p monitors

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getdamafiaonyou

getdamafiaonyou

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Mar 4, 2013
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So my dad asked me to build him a pc for work, It'll have an haswell i7, I'll probably give it a small overclock, 32gb ram, 600w psu, 2 2tb HDD (in raid 1), boot SSD. The kicker is he wants to use 3x Dell 1440p monitors. Now he wont be doing any rendering or photo/video editing. Nothing I would really consider heavy, he may need a little extra push on occasion though, just to be safe. What would you guys recommend for such a build? I'm leaning AMD, due to the memory bus and price/performance. Since this will not be used for gaming however I'm not even remotely sure what to use to run that kind of resolution for simpler tasks, with the occasional need for power. Thanks.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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The only video issue is supplying 2560x1440 to three monitors. You don't need anything powerful.

This resolution requires:
1) Displayport, or
2) Dual-link DVI

You might be able to use an Intel iGPU via Displayport and an HD7770 (possibly just a $30 HD6450) if it has Displayport and a Dual-Link DVI output (multi-monitor mode in motherboard BIOS).

I'm not sure where you can buy an inexpensive card with THREE outputs at this resolution, but another alternative is TWO separate graphics cards if the iGPU solution doesn't work (i.e 2xHD6450).

32GB RAM? Why?

Since he's not doing video editing or gaming even 4GB would be adequate but I'd recommend 8GB.

Windows OS:
Windows 8 64-bit Pro OEM (and get Start8 from Stardock for $5 to bypass the new interface)

Monitor:
He may have specific professional requirements but a monitor like THIS ONE has both Displayport and DVI for easy access (also has HDMI but likely that would limit to 1920x1080).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005494
 
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getdamafiaonyou

getdamafiaonyou

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He wants the Dell monitors, so I'm not entirely sure, but seeing as how it's 2500 bucks for 3, I'm sure they've got all the ports I'd need. 2 7770's might be a good idea, since they are so cheap, and just to be safe performance wise. As for the 32GB RAM, for the same reason that I had to talk him out of a xeon powered machine, he is stubborn, and simply put thinks things matter that dont. I keep trying to get him to come use my system with a nice 1080p, i5 and 16GB, but he wont. Anyways thanks guys.
 
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getdamafiaonyou

getdamafiaonyou

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Well i7 may benefit him, he likes to do heavy multitasking, and it's a good performer for the price, hell he was looking at spending 4k through dell for some POS. The 600w is simply because I've got a nice 600w in my system but am upgrading to either a 1000 or 1200, So since it's less than a year old I'll just use it in his build. As for the rest of the specs, other than the fact that he wants an i7, nothing else is really confirmed yet. This will be probably be the third build I'll have drawn up for him, he wants an interesting case, so I may go mini-itx, pretty much the only thing I know he wants 100% is the monitors, so I was looking for the minimum I would need to run them.
 
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k1114

k1114

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If you want 6670 performance, by all means get the v4900. But for that price you'd get a whole lot more performance from a 7850.

Maybe you missed it but the e3 1230v3 is exactly the same as a haswell i7 except .2ghz slower than a 4770k. For $100 less, it's a much better deal if you won't oc. You can use it on the same chipsets and you can use the same non ecc ram.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Jun 20, 2006
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An HD7850 won't run all three of the 2560x1440 monitors.

Plus, he's not gaming anyway so "performance" isn't an issue.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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No.
It won't run three, 2560x1440 monitors.

You need DisplayPort or Dual-Link DVI and you only have one of each.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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Okay, it looks like you're right. The Asus 2GB HD7770 you linked has 2xDual-Link DVI and a Displayport so that should support three monitors at 2560x1440.

Every card I looked at only had a single-link DVI but I guess this is changing with more high-res monitors.
 
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