Spec my colleague a PC: take 2

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

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So now that haswell is out, he has his money ready, budget has raised to £2500, and he's decided on monitors and a case that he likes so this is the current spec i have in mind:

3 x Asus SonicMaster MX279H 27" Ultra Slim Bezel LED Monitors
2 x HIS HD7950 IceQ x2 BOOST Graphics Cards
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K
1 x Crucial RealSSD 256GB SSD
1 x Seagate 2TB HDD
1 x Asus Z87-Plus Motherboard
1 x XFX 850W XXX Edition Modular 80 plus silver PSU
1 x 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport Ram
1 x Bitfenix Colossus Venom windowed case
1 x Asus Xonar DGX (Unsure what the onboard Z87 sound is like?)

Any good adaptions i could make? Currently comes in at £2,405. I'd like to add a better heatsink and fan than the stock one, 1 or 2 140mm fans to the case where they aren't already (as quiet as possible). Also I'm unsure if that's the best motherboard for his purpose?

Also what adapters am i going to need him to buy in order to use eyefinity? (mini-dp to hdmi i guess?)

Thanks for any help
 
YOUR BASKET
3 x Asus SonicMaster MX279H 27" Widescreen Ultra Slim Bezel LED Monitor - Black with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower Speakers £299.99 (£899.97)
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail with FREE Grid 2 PC Game £275.99
2 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ X² BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QMC3G2M) £269.99 (£539.98)
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series 7mm 256GB Solid State Hard Drive - (THNSNH256GCST) £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £131.99
1 x Bitfenix Colossus Venom Green LED Big Tower Windowed Case - Black £119.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £89.99
1 x XFX 750W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Silver' Power Supply £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £68.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £2,492.75 (includes shipping : £38.25).

 
Thanks Idleman :) Any reason for the change of motherboard? I don't really know what each of the variations of gigabyte and asus boards currently offer but i put the asus in purely because their website isn't a piece of **** like gigabytes haha

Also i don't really know anything about toshiba for SSDs, their RMA system as good as the others? (should the worst occour)

EDIT: Any suggestions for a cheaper cooler? He won't be that in to overclocking, though he dabbles he's by no means a tweaker so £60 could be a bit overkill
EDIT2: I think a heatsink around the £30 mark would be more suitable for his needs, something that'll keep things cool at a small overclock during the summer months.
 
Last edited:
Milmar said:
you need an active display port adapter
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-058-HS&groupid=1929&catid=1757
doesnt looke like overclockers have one that goes to hdmi
Click to expand...

I thought the only difference between active and non active was the maximum res? And active was only needed for resolutions above 1920x1200 to an individual output? (or when changing an analog signal to digital) or is one still needed in this case due to the overall output across the 3 screens coming to higher than that res?
 
am going to say its not cause i tried using a non active for a 17" monitor and it wouldnt work with my other two monitors but i maybe wrong
 
Idleman said:
Hope this helps.

http://support.amd.com/us/eyefinity/Pages/eyefinity-dongles.aspx
Click to expand...

hmm that page would suggest that there's no issue with them, but reading through this page: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-167206.html half way down someone puts this comment:
You need at least one ACTIVE adapter, as the maximum connections the cards support is two (2) "Legacy" connections passively(this includes direct connections).

In other words, you have two choices:

1: One monitor MUST use DP directly,

or

2: An active adapter must be used.
Click to expand...

So now im even more confused, why advertise passive adaptors if they effectively have no use? or is that information wrong as well?

EDIT: http://www.sapphireforum.com/showth...e-3-or-More-Monitors-Eyefinity-Setups-and-You!!

Got it! So the first monitor you connect via displayport must be active, every subsequent monitor can be passive. Time to source an active adaptor then....
 
Last edited:
Ok just to confuse things further.....those monitors state that they use HDMIv1.4, does this mean i need to ensure any displayport adaptors that convert to hdmi are compatible with hdmi 1.4 or is that all in the hdmi cable and not related to the adaptor?

Trying as hard as i can to source an active mini dp to hdmi adaptor in the UK, ideally in that AMD supported list, but i can't find anything but el-cheapo startech things, and my experiences with their devices hasn't been great....
 
I found some on that popular site people go to for things like this.... only thing is they're by brands i've never heard of, but they do specifically state eyefinity in the description, so i might go for that.

EDIT:
Mini Active DisplayPort Port DP to HDMI Adapter, 3 Display
Price: £13.57
Input: Mini DP Port (Male)
AMD Eyefinity Technology - 3 display.
Output: HDMI (Female)
Connector: Display port male to DVI Female (Active).
Chip in-set, Plug and play, Easy to operate, AMD Eyefinity Techno

Sounds like what I'm after.
 
mrbios said:
EDIT: http://www.sapphireforum.com/showth...e-3-or-More-Monitors-Eyefinity-Setups-and-You!!

Got it! So the first monitor you connect via displayport must be active, every subsequent monitor can be passive. Time to source an active adaptor then....
Click to expand...

if this is true then all he needs is http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-058-HS&groupid=1929&catid=1757
and then
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-093-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1753
 
mrbios said:
I found some on that popular site people go to for things like this.... only thing is they're by brands i've never heard of, but they do specifically state eyefinity in the description, so i might go for that.

EDIT:
Mini Active DisplayPort Port DP to HDMI Adapter, 3 Display
Price: £13.57
Input: Mini DP Port (Male)
AMD Eyefinity Technology - 3 display.
Output: HDMI (Female)
Connector: Display port male to DVI Female (Active).
Chip in-set, Plug and play, Easy to operate, AMD Eyefinity Techno

Sounds like what I'm after.
Click to expand...

i would total check that cause even on ebay active costs more than that
 
So the last thing i need to know.....does hdmi version matter? The monitors state v1.4 does that mean all hdmi leads i use must be 1.4 compatible? I've no idea what the differences in hdmi version mean tbh
 
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