3,000$ - 6x Monitor build

[Kiiro Neko]

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 650D

Monitors: ASUS VE247H Black 23.6" Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor (x6)

GPU: 2x 7970 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150596

PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 950W High Performance 80PLUS Silver --- OR
SeaSonic X750 Gold 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD. ((Opinions please!))

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k

Cooler: Corsair H100

Also - already own the necessary HDD's & SSD's so I didn't bother adding any in.

Total is about 2700$ without OS & Monitor stand

What do you guys think about this build? If I save now I could build this by December - Will only be using three of the monitors at a time during gaming sessions. It's for video editing & mainly gaming. Thanks for any input you can give me!

 

[killerhurtalot]

oh man.... if you're doing this for video editing/gaming... you should drop a monitor (or add $130) and get the i7 3930k ($570)... (6 core w/ HT) it'll provide a good boost to video editing speed....

 

[Kiiro Neko]

Yeah I was thinking about getting the 3930k for futures sake so I don't have to break a sweat over Haswell since everyone suggest waiting until it's out, but I'm trying not to break the 3k mark by too much since + OS and Monitor Stand it'll be around 3250.. I could drop a monitor I suppose. I already have one of the monitors I listed on there anyway - was going to leave it on this current rig but I don't mind taking it off if it means 3930k. Thanks for the idea!

What do you think of this board for 3930k

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131801

I'm not really experienced with 2011 so I'm not sure what's good and what isn't.

 

[killerhurtalot]

are you going to be overclocking the hell out of the cpu? If not, then you can go with the cheapest one... (I assume you will do so since you're going with liquid cooling) Most of the X79 boards are catered to the extreme overclocking/enthusiasts crowd... (with all the heat sinks everywhere on the motherboard...)

And if you're doing heavy video/photo editing... 8 gigs isn't going to be enough... you should get 4 sticks of 4 gig ram (since it's quad channel ram) (I doubt you will need over 16 gigs...)

I'd say go with the Asus rampage IV gene for $270... since you really don't need a lot of the other "features" such as quad PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots... or 8 ram slots... or one extra sata port (7 ports vs 8) and etc....


just throwing this out there. Do you really need 6 monitors? otherwise try going for the dual CPU server motherboards...

 

[Kiiro Neko]

Yeah I'll do some light overclocking more than likely at first then heavy later on.

The board you suggested looks nice but it's m-ATX. I'm hoping for a full sized board like the Sabertooth I showed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231551

Was looking at this RAM for quad channel since the board only supports up to 1866.

More than likely I'll be able to squeeze in a few extras by the time I'm ready to purchase all of this since it's still about 4 months away.

 

[killerhurtalot]

Woops. didn't see it was micro atx lol. But ya. Sabertooth is fine then.

 

[manofchalk]

The 3770k should be plenty for Video Editing. LGA2011 is only really a consideration if that was purely the machines job and it had to be the best you could afford.

If you are going to be using dual HD7970's, get a proper custom designed one. Those ones use a reference design which will run hotter and be louder.
Gigabyte HD7970. $440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413

No need for 950W on a dual card rig, 750W will be plenty.
750W Seasonic X Gold, Fully modular. $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151087

For a Video editing rig, you need to double that RAM. 8GB wont carry you far. Dropping down to 1600Mhz wont impact performance (to any real degree) and will save you a few bucks.

Problem with the monitor you have chosen. No Display-port inputs. HD7970's have a HDMI, DVI and two Mini-DisplayPort outputs. So with two cards you can connect 4 monitors on DVI/HDMI, but you will need to use those DisplayPort... ports... in one way or another.
Here's a Mini-DiplayPort to HDMI adaptor.
Bytec adapter. $10
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270265

Also this might save you quite a bit, if you have the knowledge and ability you can build your own monitor stands.
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing-components/peripherals/build-a-triple-screen-stand-for-25-1090082
Even if you dont know how, given how expensive pre-built stands are, I bet it would be cheaper to get the supplies and hire a carpenter to build it than it is to buy one.

 

[zander1983]

System looks good. But I will swap the PSU for one of the following more reliable better built PSUs:
Corsair HX1050 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139034
XFX 1000W - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207019
Seasonic - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151105

 

[Kiiro Neko]

@ manofchalk. Thank you for the input! As much as I would love a 2011 board, it is a bit much including the CPU and I have no experience at all with it.. (Plus I can still add the sixth monitor if I use 1155 at the time of purchase). If you say the 3770k is fine I'm alright with that. My only question is do you think it'll still be up to par when Haswell comes out? Don't want to have to upgrade when it comes out - I'm hoping this build will last me quite a long time.

As for the Display ports, yeah. I was a bit worried about that and I'm also hoping that the adapter doesn't force any quality loss.

I'm looking at the link for a home built triple monitor setup and unfortunately I'm a bit dense when it comes to creating things like that. I'll definitely attempt to create it if I feel up to it around the time of the build though! I did find a six monitor stand on ebay for about 100, if I fail I might just opt for that.

I'll quickly edit the build so others can see and give suggestions.

 

[zander1983]

To run all 6 monitors with no adapters, look at the ASUS 7970 DCii

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD7970DC2T3GD5/

You can run 4x display port and 2x DVI-i screens at the same time in crossfire mode!

 

[manofchalk]

The next generation Haswell i7's will perform better than the current Ivy Bridge's, its just the way that technology advances.
That being said, the 3770k will still be fine. I see no real reason to upgrade the CPU until Broadwell (The "Ivy Bridge" upgrade to Haswell, est 2014) or maybe even Skylark (Next architecture after Haswell, est 2015).

DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI are all digital signals, so there shouldn't be any quality loss converting between them. Maybe if these were 120Hz/3D monitors it would become a concern, but as they aren't, don't think there will be any degradation.

Yea, I would have no idea how to build it either. But I thought it was cool so I show it to people who ask about Eyefinity rigs. Who knows, they may be a tradie and can actually do it.

 

[manofchalk]

To run all 6 monitors with no adapters, look at the ASUS 7970 DCii

http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD7970DC2T3GD5/

You can run 4x display port and 2x DVI-i screens at the same time in crossfire mode!

The problem was DisplayPort outright, not just the Mini DisplayPort's. The monitors dont support it, in mini or normal. Also the ASUS card uses triple slots, so not much room between cards if you get two of them.

That card can support six displays, but if the right hand DVI slot is connected by Dual Link DVI, the DisplayPort below it is inactive.

 

[Kiiro Neko]

Best answer selected by Kiiro Neko.