Triple monitor PC spec for work - comments welcome

emchrism

emchrism

emchrism

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Hello everybody,

I'm looking to build myself a new, triple monitor PC, to replace my old and tired machine at work. I've also been itching to try out an Eyefinity setup for a while, so I thought, why not overlap the two! Therefore I’m looking to build a reasonable priced PC with Eyefinity capability (if that’s not an oxymoron?). I've put together the following build within my budget of £350~, excluding monitors/keyboard/mice/OS which I already have.

I've been unable to find a standard size DP adapter on the Overclockers store, are there any compatible DP with the 'Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5570 (Display Port edition)' I've selected?

As it's been a few years since I last assembled a PC from scratch, and before potentially spending work's money on new PC components that don’t fit together, if anyone had the time to have a quick look at the build and let me know any potential problems or improvements, that’d be very much appreciated :)


 
So your budget is £350 ex vat?

Whats the main uses of the computer?

Also, what inputs do your monitors have?

And will you be overclocking?
 
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For a work rig, i would think you could use a cheaper mATX mobo then redirect the money to the radeon 5770, so u get a bit of gaming grunt out of the system too on your break time ;) Do you need 8GB? what is the system for?

We were discussing eyefinity last night. Stulid had a link for new display port adapters not active ones. Bear with i'll find the thread and edit the link in later

*edit*

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18272764 - thats the thread he suggested some nice display port monitors which is the best solution.
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/ATI_Eyefinity_Adapter/ - thats the link he kindly posted about the adapters
 
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Hi there.

• Want triple monitor eyefinity setup
• Budget of £350 exc VAT
• For home use and Gaming

Might I suggest this setup instead:)

Untitled-98.jpg


The motherboard is well featured good for overclocking and a great price too,

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A78LTM_LE/

The chipset also supports a feature called ATI SurroundView™ where you can connect a monitor to the motherboards DVI/HDMI output and also power two more screens from a independent GPU such as the 5830, this isnt the same as having a widescreen Eyefinity view, instead it allows the three monitors to display say a Movie, Web page and anything else on the third screen.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/chipsets/7-series-integrated/Pages/amd-760g-chipset.aspx
Untitled-100.jpg


And as your wanting a triple screen/eyefinity setup, thats going to need as much pixel crunching power as possible because the resolutions can reach upto 5760X1200

So as you can see from this chart the 5830 is a signifcant amount faster,

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_5570/29.html
perfrel.jpg



The Displayport adapter you are looking for is this,

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?leg=&psn=000107&pid=357
DP_DVI_2.jpg
 
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Nice spec stulid. I had forgotten the 5830s had dropped in price so much, definately makes sense over the 5770 i mentioned. I definately agree the gfx card needed an upgrade in the spec though.

It wasn't made clear if he wants to game in eyefinity but it certainly makes sense to juggle some parts to get a better gfx card for the reason you already mentioned
 
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I think you are right surveyor, I could check my mobo manual but I seem to recall it was for very low spec cards and it was a pretty useless feature. I had completely forgotten about it as it was that insignificant.

Even still the 5830 would be a better choice of card to be fair
 
honosuseri said:
I think you are right surveyor, I could check my mobo manual but I seem to recall it was for very low spec cards and it was a pretty useless feature. I had completely forgotten about it as it was that insignificant.

Even still the 5830 would be a better choice of card to be fair
Click to expand...

The 5830 is a fine choice.

I just don't want anyone to think it would work in Hybrid Crossfire X.

The post has been edited now to remove the reference to Hybrid Crossfire X.
 
Thanks all

Hi sk82jack,

So your budget is £350 ex vat?
Click to expand...
Yes, ex VAT. That's the average cost of mediocre spec branded PCs we get everyone. I think it should be possible to do a lot better than a 2.5Ghz dual core, 2GB machine for that money! And it I won't have to spend an hour or so removing all the bloatware that comes pre-installed on it too :)

Whats the main uses of the computer?
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Network/System Administrator type things, lots of Microsoft administration applications (that seem to love eating RAM), running multiple Virtual Machines for testing/study, programming (Visual Studio 2010 also loves the ol' RAM). The most demanding graphics applications will probably be the Window 7 "Ribbons" screensaver. However, if possible, I thought it'd be a good chance to see if I could get an Eyefinity setup included to have a play with, even if on a low resolution, the driving game Dirt (ok, does it show I'm not much of a gamer any more these days?!) Hopefully come bonus time, (on the assumption I get one!) I'm hoping to get a decent gaming rig for home.

Also, what inputs do your monitors have?
Click to expand...
Several monitors available of the same make/model, either 1280x1024 (5:4) or 1400x900 (8:5) resolutions, they've got both VGA and DVI connectors. No display ports or HDMI though.

And will you be overclocking?
Click to expand...
Not planning too no
-----------------------------------

Hi Honosueri,

Thanks for the info on the DP, that's a very interesting article.

Do you need 8GB? what is the system for?
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It's for running several Virtual Machines. Between study (currently working way through 2008 certifications), development, testing deployment of software I've ended up with about a dozen virtual machines :)
-----------------------------------

Hi stulid,

Thanks for taking the time to post that great response :D The SurroundView feature which looks to be just what I need, and thanks for the link to the DP adapter required too.

I went for the more expensive mobo/hard disk for the SATA 6GB support as working with a lot of VMs, and my machine is often disk IO bound. That said my current work machine is only running at SATA1 speeds (for reasons unknown) and has 3GB RAM (DDR2 5400) so it's often paging to disk and I think a decent amount of RAM should resolve that problem.


I'll hopefully get an order in shortly and, presuming my cabling work isn't too embarrassing, post back some pics.

Thanks again all for your time and help. Awesome :)
 
A mechanical harddrive doesnt need SATA 6GB/S, its a pointless feature added by manufactures, this is because they aren't fast enough to even saturate a SATA 3GB/S connection.

The only time a SATA 6GB/S is needed is for SSD drives.
 
No need to thank me. The title of the thread instantly reminded me of the conversation from last night. The credit goes to stulid, I just forwarded his post.
 
Parts arrived and assembled. GPU connector and CPU Fan Noise woes

Hello again :)

A quick update, work OK'd new PC. It's been delivered, assembled, and a rather un-spectacular image is as follows:



When you've stopped laughing at my cabling fu (or lack of), it's only my 2nd build and if I do so say so myself, it's a lot better cabling wise than my first attempt! (that's a screenshot that's never getting uploaded!)

However, I've hit a couple of problems and I hoping for some further advice please:

1) A rookie mistake on my part, the PSU (a Cooler Master Elite Power 500w) only has a single 6 pin PCI Express power cable, and the GPU I ordered requires two (a Radeon HD 5830). Other than getting a new PSU, or if possible, requesting a refund, I don't have many other options really, do I? (excluding option 3, to get it right in the first place!)

2) The stock fan on the AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 125W Edition" 3.20GHz CPU is a lot louder than I expected. I've only tested the box using an Ubuntu Live CD so far, so, once an OS is installed with the "Cool and Quiet" functionality, will that make a big difference in reducing noise levels and the general level of irritation I'll be causing my colleagues?

3) A minor annoyance, the 12v power cable cuts right across the mobo, where hopefully, one day a beefy great GPU will set up home. Is one of these the appropriate extension cable? NZXT 8-Pin (EPS12V) White Sleeved 25cm Extension Cable

Thanks again in advance for time and help, very much appreciated :)

Other than my mistakes, everything's been great with the order and delivery so far
 
1) You should be able to get a molex to 6-pin adaptor - in fact, most GPUs come with one.
2) Check what settings there are for the fan speed in the BIOS - you can probably set temperature thresholds which will moderate the fan speed.
3) That's the one, but you could always just route that cable around the side using these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CM-003-AK&groupid=701&catid=1428&subcat=1433
to tie it to the back panel.

Your bundle of cables makes me sad :(
 
Thanks for the reply and suggestions Wilko49.

I'll have a look into that today and do my best to make the cabling less offensive (even if it comes to photoshopping it!) :)
 
You should be able to get a molex to 6-pin adaptor - in fact, most GPUs come with one.
Click to expand...

There was indeed one of these adapters in the box, in my eager anticipation I didn't see that there was another compartment to the box :o

I've been unable to get the CPU fan to run any quieter, perhaps I've not seated it very well as it's running at about 45~ on idle which seems hotter than I had anticipated.

I've a cable kit, new CPU fan and thermal paste on order.
 
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