Having a custom pc built, questions on a few parts

ltylert1996

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Im building a nice pc that can support multiple monitors(Not for gaming). When going through the parts, this graphics card EVGA FTW Edition ACX 2.0 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 ACX 2.0 4GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 says it can support up to 4 monitors. It says it has an hdmi port, a display port, and 2 dvi ports. I for some reason thought you couldnt use dvi ports and hdmi ports at the same time, so if someone could clarify that, that would be great. Also, I assume different ports can put out different max resolutions, so what are the max resolutions for each port? Next is the power supply. The computer I built shows a recommended power supply of 570 w. Should I get something like a 1000 w just to be safe? And is one plugin able to supply that much power? I use a surge protector and wasnt sure if i could plug this into the surge protector or if it needed an individual plug. Or maybe even more than 1 plug. Anyways thanks for any help and advice you can give me and I apologize for asking some stupid questions, I just want to be sure about everything.
 
Solution
This will do what you need, and then some. Not great for gaming, but great for six displays showing stock market data. It's also not using high end workstation components, but even at two grand it would be a stretch to go with an E5 Xeon, ECC memory and a WS board of any quality. This would be fine. Far better than what we were thinking about earlier in the thread.

You will however need to get two DVI to HDMI adapters in order to use the two DVI ports as HDMI. Two of the monitors can run on D-Sub (VGA), two can run natively on HDMI and two can run on adapted HDMI. I also threw in a Blu-ray player instead of a DVD optical drive. You never know, on a slow day you might want to watch a movie. Heh.

PCPartPicker part list / Price...

ltylert1996

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Thank you. Like I said, would it benefit me to buy the larger power supply just to be safe? I dont mind spending a little extra
 

ltylert1996

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Heres a link to what I am planning on right now... any advice or words of wisdom welcome. I will consistently be using multiple monitors and multiple windows on each monitor so I tried to pick a fairly good gpu and ram

http://
 

ltylert1996

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Well I have absolutely no knowledge of building pcs, so that is kinda out of the question. You think I would be better off ordering the parts elsewhere and having someone build it?
 
Most reputable shops will assemble and test your parts for around 100 bucks, which is well worth it. In reality, if you can read and know how a screwdriver works, you can assemble your own PC. There's no mystery or major skillset needed. If you can build a basic shape using legos or assemble a child's toy Christmas morning, you can build your own PC. But the local shops are usually glad to do it for you. What country are you in?

Before you go buying anything from iBuypower or CyberpowerPC, you should know a few things about them. They are the same company for one thing. For another, they assemble and sell junk, using lopsided configurations that are NOT tested prior to shipping, regardless of what they may say. I've seen at LEAST fifteen examples of rigs here on Tom's that were shipped out to the customer with installed parts that could NEVER work together, so there's no way they could have been tested prior to being shipped out. They also charge shipping both ways for ANY kind of RMA, regardless of the reason.

Have a read, and keep in mind, this is only two threads. There are hundreds more that are similar or worse:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/334926-31-cyberpower-review

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/387498-31-digital-storm-power-cyberpower-alienware


And I thought I'd throw this one in for good measure:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/323621-31-cyberpower-warning
 

ltylert1996

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Thanks for the heads up man. In that case, I might just individually price all my parts and try to build it myself. I have no idea how, but I wont be buying it for awhile so it gives me time to figure out how to build one. Im just worried about buying parts that wont fit on the motherboard, or breaking parts by trying to put them in the wrong places and having to buy new ones. How can I be sure all my parts are compatible before buying?

Oh I forgot your question, Im in the united states.
 

ltylert1996

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I tried to find the same parts or other suitable parts on amazon and this is what I came up with. I actually added a few pieces and upgraded some stuff and its still way cheaper.

http://

Also, one of my friends has a gaming computer and is about to build himself a new one, so he offered to build mine for me when I got the parts. Now if anybody wants to look through those parts and tell me if theres any problems that would be great. Like i said before I dont know how to tell if parts are compatible or not, but hopefully everything there can be used with that motherboard
 
Nah, your shopping cart won't show up for other people who don't have YOUR browser cookies on their machine. The way to do it is to use PCPartpicker.

You can pick which retailers you want to see prices from, in case you only want to order from specific vendors, or see prices from all listed retailers, to get the cheapest price on each part. You can choose to see prices that include any mail in rebates, or turn off mail in rebates, which is what I generally do when selecting parts to show in threads here. That way you know what the actual initial investment will be. It's also helpful in order to see what you've got by posting the build here. We can easily post some optional builds here for you if we know your budget or help you to create your own build.

Just go to www.pcpartpicker.com and create an account and then choose your country and start selecting parts. When you're ready to post the build here just click the (bb code) button and copy the text then past it here in your thread. It will look like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($324.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($142.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($124.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($355.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Core V71 ATX Full Tower Case ($130.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($139.93 @ B&H)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($27.87 @ Amazon)
Total: $1720.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 15:03 EDT-0400
 

ltylert1996

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alright i think i got everything on there minus the mouse keyboard and speakers

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($175.85 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2666 Memory ($194.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($98.24 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.50 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($91.75 @ OutletPC)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($15.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.49 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1364.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 18:42 EDT-0400
 
Ditch the CM power supply. Cooler Master, Corsair and Thermaltake all have crappy power supplies unless you overpay for one of their high end models, and that's not one of them. I'd go with this one:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($82.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $82.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 18:54 EDT-0400


Also, you can't run that memory. Stick with 1866mhz modules. I'd use two 4GB or two 8GB modules. FX chips don't like memory over 1866mhz too well and they don't benefit from anything over 1866mhz much anyhow. You also don't want a 5400 RPM drive. Too slow.

I'd do the build like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($137.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($175.85 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($98.24 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($91.75 @ OutletPC)
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DG 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($25.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($18.49 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1252.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 19:01 EDT-0400


I'll have to look later but I don't think that case supports any liquid cooling and the 120mm liquid coolers suck for 125w and higher TDP chips anyhow. I'd probably opt for air cooling using the Cryorig H5 or H7. I'll help you revise it some more after I stuff my face. Dinner time.
 

ltylert1996

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Awesome, thanks for the heads up again man. Really saving me some money and trouble right now. Now as for buying from there, do you just go down through and order each one using the buy option on the side? Or is there a way to buy them all at once?

Oh and any recommendations for cool cases is welcome, I just picked one that looked decent to get a parts list made up with an accurate price
 

ltylert1996

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Posted that before I saw you update your comment. Thanks for all the help man! Im really out of my league with this stuff, thanks for helping me make it nice. Looking forward to seeing what you can come up with later!

In the future im going to need to be able to run 6 total monitors from this computer, but these graphics cards seem strong enough to handle that. And another thing, now that the price is getting much cheaper I would consider getting 32 gb of ram instead of 16 just to make sure its still fast in the future. Not sure if that would effect anything or whether everything would be fine if i changed from 16 to 32
 


That won't be possible, if you SLI the graphics cards. If you don't SLI, then I believe you can run three monitors off each card. It really depends on WHAT you intend to do on those six monitors. In SLI you can do ONE of the following:


1. One monitor in SLI mode.
2. One monitor in SLI mode, one extra monitor (not SLI accelerated).
3. Three monitors in Nvidia Surround mode (SLI accelerated).
4. Three monitors in Nvidia Surround mode (SLI accelerated), one extra "accessory display" (not SLI accelerated).


If you can tell me EXACTLY what you will be doing with this machine, and what your budget for the machine itself, not counting any monitors, will be, I'll get you where you need to be.
 
I'm not sure that he does, I was almost thinking he intended to use them as dual, but separate, cards. In which case it doesn't make a lot of sense to spend that kind of money when lower tiered cards are more than capable of the same display capabilities so long as it's not for gaming.
 

ltylert1996

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Sorry guys I didnt realize there were different ways to run 2 graphics cards. I just wanted 2 so I could power 6 monitors. I was told before that most graphics cards can only handle 2 monitors so i tried picking a little bit nicer ones that said they could run more than 2. However it works, my intent was to run 3 monitors from each graphics card.

My intent for the monitors is stock charts. Im involved in the markets and planned on having charts up on several monitors, which doesnt seem like it would be an extremely heavy load. My monitors run at 1920x1080.

The most I would like to spend is around 1700, but 2k is pretty much my max for the computer.
 
You're not planning to game on this AT ALL then? Just work stock market stuff, HD video etc., on six monitors? No gaming, yes?

What kind of inputs are the monitors? Are they all the same? Mixed? It's important to know exactly what inputs each monitor has in order to know what kind of cards you need. Active adapters may be necessary in order to utilize some card outputs with three outputs per card, but that's no issue. They're cheap if they are needed. It's possible they won't be needed depending on the type of card used.