Newbie Needs Help Building 6-Monitor System

[mep916]

Update: So I believe I have now found the right CPU cooler to meet those requirements... the Noctua NH-D14. It's massive: a 900gram heatsink paired with one 140mm and one 120mm premium fan. Many reviewers are saying it is one of the best air-based CPU coolers they've ever used, and also one of the quietest, ranging from 19.8dB down to 12.6dB.

The only catch is whether its 160mm height will fit in my CoolerMaster Storm Sniper case. This is probably a stretch, but if anyone happens to have that case, it would be a big help if you could measure the motherboard tray to side panel distance. Tomorrow I'll see if CoolerMaster can provide that measurement.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

FYI, the Prolimatech Megahalems is widely regarded as the best air cooler on the market at the moment. I'm guessing it will fit in the sniper, but it would be a good idea to check with coolermaster. I'm sure they can provide the measurement you need, or at least confirm whether or not it will fit. You'll need a fan as well. I'm not much of a fan guru so maybe someone can post a link to an efficient, quiet fan that would pair up with this if you choose to get it.

The i7 975 is faster at stock than the rest and provides an unlocked multiplier. That's about it. Unless you're into competitive benching, I honestly don't think that it would be a good buy. You can get the i7 920 up to 3.4 ghz without a sweat, although, for your purposes, it would be fine at stock.

 

[6MonitorTrader]

Thanks for the heads up, mep916. Now I have 2 excellent coolers to read up on.

Agreed regarding the 975, I think that's off the table now. I think I will be perfectly happy with the performance of the i7-920 at 2.66GHz, to be honest. I'm definitely not into competitive benching, but mostly I just want to robustly equip this system so that it is capable of being overclocked and still being cool and quiet. I see overclocking this system more as satisfying the curiosity I've always had about OC, and giving the system room to get faster in the future. Not really as a necessity to overcome an inherently slow system, or to meet some legitimate need for greater speed in the present.

 

[mep916]

Thanks for the heads up, mep916. Now I have 2 excellent coolers to read up on.

Agreed regarding the 975, I think that's off the table now. I think I will be perfectly happy with the performance of the i7-920 at 2.66GHz, to be honest. I'm definitely not into competitive benching, but mostly I just want to robustly equip this system so that it is capable of being overclocked and still being cool and quiet. I see overclocking this system more as satisfying the curiosity I've always had about OC, and giving the system room to get faster in the future. Not really as a necessity to overcome an inherently slow system, or to meet some legitimate need for greater speed in the present.

Yup, I hear ya. The i7 920 D0 stepping can run stable 24/7 at 4ghz without problems. Overclocking is a lot of fun, if you have the patience, and if you really want to get into the CPU Oc'ing side, then the 975 would be the best. However, to me, it seems as though you have a moderate interest in overclocking and you're more concerned with a functional PC to run your trading operation. If that's the case, the i7 will meet your needs and still allow an awesome OC. After playing with it for awhile, you can prolly get it at 4 ghz 24/7 stable with proper cooling.

I'm a satisfied V8 owner, but, with your budget, you may as well go with the best. Close competition to the megahelms is the TRUE and the V8. I've owned the Zalman 9700 - it's loud and not up to par with the current offerings in my opinion.

Also, if you plan on buying this entire build at once, use newegg for the majority of your components (you can't for the megahelms, for example). Maybe you already know that, but you posted links to amazon and whatnot... newegg has fast, reliable shipping and you'll receive everything in one entire shipment, or two separate shipments within a day of each other. Their prices are also competitive or better to the other e-tailers. I'm not shilling, just saying that it's nice to receive everything from one company, rather than placing several individual orders.

 

[G25r8cer]

I'm a satisfied V8 owner, but, with your budget, you may as well go with the best. Close competition to the megahelms is the TRUE and the V8. I've owned the Zalman 9700 - it's loud and not up to par with the current offerings in my opinion.

Also a satisfied V8 owner

2nd your opinion

With the budget go for the best :good:

 

[XtremepballerX]

6monitor trader email me asap please

Also are you going for 6 or 12gb ram? have you considered an SSD to boot?

 

[mep916]

6monitor trader email me asap please

Also are you going for 6 or 12gb ram? have you considered an SSD to boot?

I deleted your previous post and edited out your email address in this post. Please do not solicit other members or attempt to sell items in the forum. At 100 posts, you can post in our for sale section.

 

[6MonitorTrader]

RAM is one of the open questions at this point (the others being choice of graphics cards and the cpu cooler).

I think I will ultimately end up putting in 12GB, unless I get lots of feedback telling me that 12GB would have absolutely zero practical benefit to me, and be a complete waste. Right now what I am thinking of doing is making the initial build with 6GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 (1600MHz unless I get some guidance that I should select the higher speed). It would be interesting to use that for a few months, run some benchmarks (what to use, don't know yet), THEN add the final 6GB and run benchmarks again to compare. Would be fun to get that information. If I just went with 12GB upfront we'd never know how useful the extra 6GB really is.

Please give me your take on the memory speed best suited to my mb and cpu (Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 and Intel i7-920 which will eventually be OC to around 3.4GHz). For that matter, feel free to also weigh in on the Corsair Dominator brand and model. Is there another you would consider better?

As far as an SSD drive, yes but not right now. My plans for this system include a series of upgrades over the next few years, so that instead of steadily going obsolete, my system will actually get better and faster with time, at least for the first few years. The SSD drive upgrade would be maybe a year from now, a solid state drive for Windows running on the SATA3 (6Gb/s) that my motherboard provides; not sure if anyone even has any HD available yet that can use it. Then another of the upgrades later would be a dual-boot OS; I'd like to get into learning the Linux OS. Not sure what it would do for me exactly, just something I'm curious to learn about. And I have this general notion which I don't know if it's correct, that having Linux available would give me another layer of reliability, so if Windows is giving me some big troubles that I can't fix immediately, I could just reboot with Linux. ?

 

[XtremepballerX]

I honestly think that running a hdd at 6gb it's nit neccesary but would be Bella cool :d maybe get a small SSd for now. Also even the system with no upgrades would be good one for 2 years . Maybe would just need an ssd

 

[Drenlin]

I think I will ultimately end up putting in 12GB, unless I get lots of feedback telling me that 12GB would have absolutely zero practical benefit to me, and be a complete waste. Right now what I am thinking of doing is making the initial build with 6GB of Corsair Dominator DDR3 (1600MHz unless I get some guidance that I should select the higher speed). It would be interesting to use that for a few months, run some benchmarks (what to use, don't know yet), THEN add the final 6GB and run benchmarks again to compare. Would be fun to get that information. If I just went with 12GB upfront we'd never know how useful the extra 6GB really is.

I don't think you can get 6GB and add another 6 later if you're running dual-channel. You could start with 8GB and add 4GB later, though.

Please give me your take on the memory speed best suited to my mb and cpu (Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 and Intel i7-920 which will eventually be OC to around 3.4GHz). For that matter, feel free to also weigh in on the Corsair Dominator brand and model. Is there another you would consider better?

Corsair is a great brand. 1600 is a great speed as well, especially since you'll eventually be running 6 DIMMs.

As far as an SSD drive, yes but not right now. My plans for this system include a series of upgrades over the next few years, so that instead of steadily going obsolete, my system will actually get better and faster with time, at least for the first few years. The SSD drive upgrade would be maybe a year from now, a solid state drive for Windows running on the SATA3 (6Gb/s) that my motherboard provides; not sure if anyone even has any HD available yet that can use it. Then another of the upgrades later would be a dual-boot OS; I'd like to get into learning the Linux OS. Not sure what it would do for me exactly, just something I'm curious to learn about. And I have this general notion which I don't know if it's correct, that having Linux available would give me another layer of reliability, so if Windows is giving me some big troubles that I can't fix immediately, I could just reboot with Linux. ?

Linux is a good idea, as is adding a SSD for windows(doesn't corrupt as easily)

One thing I think you should consider is a RAID array. Basically, this writes your data to two(or more) hard drives at once, so that the two are exact copies of each other. What this means is that if one hard drive fails, which is entirely possible, you don't lose ANY of your data. That kind of security is invaluable in a business like yours.

 

[6MonitorTrader]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I am thinking I will do RAID in a future upgrade, but not in the initial build.

Re dual channel, actually my mb and cpu provide triple channel ddr3 support. As I understand it so far, you can use 1GB or 2GB or 4GB DIMMs, and they must be installed in sets of 3. Six slots, 24GB capacity. If I'm mistaken, definitely let me know.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3251

 

[Drenlin]

Thanks for the info. Yes, I am thinking I will do RAID in a future upgrade, but not in the initial build.

Re dual channel, actually my mb and cpu provide triple channel ddr3 support. As I understand it so far, you can use 1GB or 2GB or 4GB DIMMs, and they must be installed in sets of 3. Six slots, 24GB capacity. If I'm mistaken, definitely let me know.

http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3251

Oh, my bad...you're very right. Tri-channel it is.

 

[6MonitorTrader]

UPDATE: Hi again. After a long week, this configuration has gone through a number of changes, and is now in its final form. I will be ordering parts tomorrow. Thanks to the help I've received from this group, it is now a significantly better system than what I started with a week ago. Thank you! Since you had a part in this project, I thought you would be interested to see its final form. Following is the post which began the thread, with the changes shown in bold:

Hi everyone. New member at cf, glad I found you, as I can see from the posts there are lots of smart people here. Any help would be very much appreciated. Here's the context for this new build:

I'm a trader, working from home trading forex, options, and stock. I've been making do on a 17" laptop, with a 19" lcd for an additional screen. It's possible to trade this way, but not optimal. I'm feeling more and more need for screen real estate, and so I decided to make my laptop + 19" lcd be just my backup system in the event my main PC fails, and that I will move to a new 6-monitor desktop system. Tried configuring this new PC with HP, then Velocity Micro, then CyberPower, but none were flexible enough... too many constraints and compromises. So now I'm building it myself, though I'm a first-timer, long on ambition and short on knowledge. My plan is that this be a premium, no compromises, system that I can still be happily using 5 years from now.

My budget is $2000-2800 for the PC (or whatever additional it takes) and $1500 or so for the 6 monitors, desk-clamp stands, and peripherals. I'm not a gamer, so don't need high performance graphics, but at the same time I do not want slow-graphics issues either. Mostly it needs to drive six independent displays (dual-link DVI) at their native 1920x1080. I'll have several trading applications open, each with many windows, and will sometimes have Internet Explorer, iTunes if things get slow, email, and other stuff going on. I plan to use UltraMon software, and want to be rid of the hassle of minimizing and shifting between windows all day.

My other requirements, roughly in order: 1. Cool... don't want highest speed CPU & GPU if that means a hot and noisy PC 2. Quiet (as near silent as possible) 3. Highest quality, reliable components 4. Fast, and expandable/future-proofed to the limited extent I can do that 5. This system will probably run 24x7, with only occasional shutdowns. I'd like to run SETI@home or folding@home in the idle periods. I am interested in liquid cooling but know very little, and need your expertise there. I know zero about overclocking, but want to gradually learn about that, and after 6 months or so with the new PC, start experimenting with some moderate overclocking. So far the main resource I have, other than you guys, is Chambers' "Build Your Own PC, for Dummies" (2009 ed). Pathetic, I know, but that's where I'm at. Everyone has a first build, we don't learn it in the womb. And with you lending your expertise, what could possibly go wrong?


I plan to order my parts no later than Jan 15, and have it in working order by Febr 6. We'll see. Here's the configuration so far:

Case= CoolerMaster Storm Sniper Black Edition $166. This is a mid-tower, with 3 200mm fans on the front, side, and top, and 120mm fan on the rear. Liquid cooling ports/support at rear top, rear bottom, and under the top 200mm fan.
http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?category_id=19&product_id=2950

PSU= Corsair HX850W Corsair 750HX modular power supply $158 Is 750W the right choice? Each of my 3 graphics cards has a peak draw of I think 45W.
http://www.corsair.com/products/hx750/default.aspx

MB= Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 $375 Has 6 PCIe (2 are x16 and 2 are x8, but if more than 2 are populated, all 4 drop to x8 bandwidth... is that a problem given my choice of GPU?) USB3.0, SATA6Gb/s, eSATA among lots of other great stuff. I don't see much said about Gigabyte, mostly people seem to like EVGA and Asus and some others. What's your opinion?
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=3251

CPU= Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA1366 $290... Consensus seems to be that this has the most potential of any of the i7s for overclocking. I'm still considering the i7-975, but it's hard to find as many users reporting their experience with it. The 975 would give me some of that future-proofing I want, but will it run hotter (and so more system noise) than the 920? Since they all say 130W, can I assume all the i7 cpus will run at the same temperature if given the same clock speed? Can the 975 be overclocked 30-40% as the 920 supposedly can?
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Processor-2-66GHz-LGA1366-BX80601920/dp/B001H5T7LK/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2S3DADT0L1SGD&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

RAM= Corsair Dominator 1600MHz DDR3, 6GB 6-12GB, $206-412. Originally was 12Gb, but now I'm wondering. Will the multiple applications use I described in third paragraph above make good use of 12GB, or is 6GB more than I'll ever need and 12GB is just a waste? Also is 1600MHz the right choice, the best match to my mb and cpu and the overclocking I plan to do later, or should I be getting the 1800MHz? Initial build will be 6GB, will run some benchmarks, after a few months add the other 6GB, run the benchmarks again, then we will see whether 12GB is a useful upgrade.
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-TR3X6G1600C8D-Dominator-PC3-12800-1600MHz/dp/B001L4A76G/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I31JSIULCP9P19&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

CPU Cooler= Prolimatech Megahalems Rev B. Intel CPU Heatsink Zalman CNPS9700LED Ultra Quiet, $40. Here I especially need help, and this probably is not the right choice at all. Bottomline: I want the best cooling performance and lowest-noise cooler for the i7 that money can buy. What would that be in your opinion? I'm willing to use liquid cooling or air cooling, whichever will be the absolute best available solution. Thanks to mep916!
http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-CNPS9700LED-Ultra-Quiet-Cooler/dp/B000JSFZPS/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3GFC8DRDTJHH6&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

HD= Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Green SATA 32MB cache, $110. This is not 7200rpm, but is alleged to be lower power, cooler, and quieter than the Black drive. I'm OK with a minor performance drop if it means a quieter PC.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Intellipower-Desktop-WD15EADS/dp/B0021L9HE6/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=IVB6ENREU1NR5&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

DVD= Samsung Internal Half Height DVD-W Supermulti SATA 22x Lightscribe, $31. This does DVD-RAM which I want because I have lots of the media. Anyone know what DVD-W is? Does anyone know of a better drive you can suggest, which does Lightscribe and DVD-RAM, as well as the usual formats? I have no interest in BluRay for the computer.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Internal-Height-Supermulti-Lightscribe/dp/B002HFWBIA/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I19SXC80A7SLBS&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

GPU= SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD5750 1GB GDDR5 PCIE, 3 independent outputs 2 DVI 1 DP, 2 of these cards. Many thanks to G25r8cer for advocating for this card. I would never have guessed that a card of this class could possibly run at such low power and be so cool and quiet, 18W at idle.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?psn=000101&pid=292
EVGA GeForce 9500GT 1GB DDR2, 3 each, $65 each. This one still feels like just a stab in the dark. Again, I don't need high-end gaming performance at all, although I wouldn't want to preclude the ability to play a game at some point. What I do need: Dual-Link DVI, 2 of them on each card, 1920x1080 res on all 6 monitors, good enough graphics performance that I won't notice any defects or slowness, the ability to get the job done in spite of only x8 bandwidth on the PCIe path, low power, cool, and quiet. Those are the needs I had in mind choosing this GPU. Can you suggest a better alternative? Also I have a question about SLI. My plan is to not use SLI, because as I understand it, SLI would give me graphics acceleration which I don't really want, and I would end up with output to only 1 or 2 monitors? Is that correct?
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=01G-P3-N959-TR&family=GeForce 9 Series Family

Sound= Onboard 7.1 audio. What do you think? If I went with a sound card, what would it do for me that my on-board hd audio chip won't? If it matters, I'm getting Logitech X540 5.1 speakers. Not great, but a big upgrade from what I had before.

Monitor= Viewsonic VG2427wm 24 inch 1920x1080, 2 each for the center monitors, and Viewsonic VA2223wm 22inch 1920x1080, 4 each for the left 2 and right 2 monitors. ViewSonic VA2223wm 22in 16x9 1080p LCD, 6 each, $159 each. Too late for input on this, already bought 3 of them.
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktop-monitors/lcd/value-series/va2223wm.htm

OS= Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit OEM. After learning that my mb provides "Smart TPM" Trusted Platform Module that enables use of Bit Locker, I'm getting Win7 Ultimate in case I change my mind later and want to use Bit Locker. Windows 7 Professional 64bit OEM, $140
http://www.amazon.com/Windows-PRO-Bit-OEM-1pk/dp/B002NGQLIE/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3OD5CMC7FNG56&colid=2LUQKFN99817X

Sorry about the long-winded post, but I wanted to give you the full picture. Any light you can shed on any of my questions would be very much appreciated. Thanks so much, in advance.

Any thoughts or suggestions on the configuration are still welcome.... probably will start ordering parts Monday evening.

Many thanks again for your help. I'll keep you posted on my progress and will no doubt be back with more questions later.

 

[2048Megabytes]

This is one of the most impressive systems I have ever seen someone build on these forums. You must post pictures of your setup. I am very curious.

 

[bomberboysk]

The 5770's have 2 DVI ports and 1 Displayport. The displayport requires a displayport to dvi adapter but, they are cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0280&cm_re=displayport-_-12-270-280-_-Product

Those passive adapters will not work on the 5770.

 

[ScottALot]

I really haven't read all the posts, but I'd suggest a P55 system for the simplicity and price of it. An i5 would go very nicely with the dual 5770s, and keeps that low-profile, low-heat theme to it.

 

[6MonitorTrader]

Quote:
Originally Posted by G25r8cer
The 5770's have 2 DVI ports and 1 Displayport. The displayport requires a displayport to dvi adapter but, they are cheap.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-280-_-Product

Those passive adapters will not work on the 5770.

bomberboysk, can you elaborate a little on why you say that please? Is it because you tried it and it didn't work? If you did, were you using resolutions above 1920x1200? That requires the active DP to DVI adaptor.

Or are you saying that because you're reporting what others have done? I've read reams of conversations on other forums on the passive vs active adaptor controversy (see widescreengamingforum.com from September through December, for instance) and seen so much contradictory information. Hard to know what to make of it. How many actually have the card and have tried it, and how many are warning that passive adaptors don't work because they've seen it on the web so often, and they're trying to pass on a helpful warning?

Of the folks who actually did use the passive adaptor on a 5xxx card and it didn't work, how many of them were maybe using monitors with resolution above 1920x1200, which the passive adaptors won't support, and that started the confusion? Could be.

Again, I could be dead wrong, I don't know what to make of it when so many smart people are contradicting each other. ATI has said explicitly (see the Eyefinity Technology Brief) that passive adaptors do work, up to 2. But then ATI reps have also said they don't work, so who knows. Accell Cable, which I consider a solid reputable company, makes both the passive and active adapters, and says that they work.
http://www.accellcables.com/products/DisplayPort/DP/dp_dvi.htm

http://www.accellcables.com/products/DisplayPort/DP/dp_dvid.htm

My understanding, which may be wrong, at this point is: Passive DP to DVI adaptors do work, but work for Single-Link DVI resolutions only, up to 1900x1200, and up to 24 bit color depth. Also ATI reports somewhere, that they can only be used up to 2 per system, for some reason which may vary depending on which specific 5xxx cards you have. Active DP to DVI adaptors work for both lower and higher resolutions, and are required for Dual-Link DVI resolutions, above 1920x1200 and up to 2560x1600. Also the active adaptors provide 36 bit color depth.

Let me know bomberboysk whether you know this firsthand, because I haven't ordered yet and you could save me from a mistake.

For now, I'm going with the theory that all I need is the passive adaptors, and worst case scenario is I have to return them and get the active type.

 

[AnaB]

Trading Computer Build

Hi 6MonitorTrader,

I know this thread is older, but if your still out there I'd like to ask you if you went ahead with your items above for you build and if so, are you happy with it, and did you encounter any problems after installation that one should look out for.

My husband trades at home as well and has a 7 year old, 6 array set up that needs to be replaced (Pentium 4 eek...) so I'm going to build him a custom system too. This will be my second build; around the same time you were shopping your build, I was building my first kick *** graphics computer. It went together nicely and I had no issues with it (Yeah!).

So, if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you and see how it went and if you'd still recommend your wish list.

Thanks,
Ana

 

[fastdude]

PCIe bandwidth - HD5750 performance will not be decreased anymore than 10% by being in a slot running at x8
CPU - Why not i7-950, same D0 stepping, just as OC'able only cheaper and faster at stock

 

[Benny Boy]

Sad there's no ssd.
Seems like with all the windows, tabs, apps, 6 monitors, you'd want that speed.

EDIT:

Also, if you plan on buying this entire build at once, use newegg for the majority of your components (you can't for the megahelms, for example). Maybe you already know that, but you posted links to amazon and whatnot... newegg has fast, reliable shipping and you'll receive everything in one entire shipment, or two separate shipments within a day of each other. Their prices are also competitive or better to the other e-tailers. I'm not shilling, just saying that it's nice to receive everything from one company, rather than placing several individual orders.

And the CS is outstanding.
The also have combos and such.
An example would be 7 p for as much as $50 less.

 

[Drenlin]

Guys, this thread is almost a year old...

AnaB, welcome to the forums! Please make a new thread, and we'll help you put one together. :good: