[Spyderturbo007]

I was wondering if someone could take a look at this build for me. A friend of mine asked me to build him a new machine because he's sick of his old Dell and after seeing my new machine, he wants a new one.

Anyway, he loves to have a ton of windows open at the same time and currently has 3 monitors and wants to add a 4th. Don't ask me why, but I guess that's his thing. Here is what I put together for him, but wanted a second set of eyes before he made his purchase.

• Rosewill CHALLENGER Black
• OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD Drive
• COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600
• 2 x HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB PCI-Express 2.0
• MSI P67A-G45 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67
• G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3
• Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

That build will run 4 monitors, won't it? I have the same video card and know it will run 2 monitors, so I was just assuming that with 2 PCI-Express slots in the mother board and 2 video cards, I could run 4.

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Hi Spyderturbo007.

Is there a top number for the budget?

Is the build for gaming or more for video, Photoshop. (workstation)?

[iammykyl]

Hi Spyderturbo007.

Is there a top number for the budget?

Is the build for gaming or more for video, Photoshop. (workstation)?

[Spyderturbo007]

Hi iammykyl,

No gaming other than maybe the occasional game of solitaire. He really big into trading stocks so he likes to have a ton of windows open when he's "playing the market". Real time quotes on one screen, his account on the other screen all while watching a CNBC video of the latest updates. He also likes to keep his email open all the time along with about 50 Firefox windows.

I would say it's more for some serious multitasking. I told him it would probably run around $900, plus the case of beer for me putting it together for him.

[Spyderturbo007]

Can anyone confirm that this motherboard / video card combination will handle 4 monitors?

[iammykyl]

Can anyone confirm that this motherboard / video card combination will handle 4 monitors?

From what I have been reading, there will be no problems running 4 monitors.

Have you considered looking at the correct type of card for the job. You would know that the solution would work out of the box and prices start at $75 for a duel head card. You would just have to ensure the outlets matched the monitors you have and supports Windows7 64bit. I would not go below 512MB of memory.

> http://www.newegg.co...ics-Video-Cards

Edited by iammykyl, 09 July 2011 - 03:28 AM.

[Spyderturbo007]

Do you mean something like this? I'm assuming I would need two of them to support 4 monitors?

I see those are labeled as PCI Express 2.1 x16 and the mother board I linked to above is only PCI Express 2.0 x16. Is that backwards compatible? Or maybe the NVS 300 would be a better choice?

Thanks iammykyl.

Edited by Spyderturbo007, 13 July 2011 - 08:48 AM.

[iammykyl]

Looks like my suggestion may turn out to be to expensive as both the cards under consideration have a single DMS59 outlet requiring an adaptor which is sometimes sold with the card > http://www.itsdirect...M_Bare_package_ or you have to buy separately > http://www.langtonin...0380641&loc=AUD

There are also 3 different types, 2 DVI. 1 DVI x 1 VGA. 2 VGA. the correct outlet would be needed for you monitors.

I am also unable to determine if you can switch a particular view between all four monitors so am going to ask for help from a more experienced tech.

Edited by iammykyl, 14 July 2011 - 06:12 PM.

[iammykyl]

Made enquiry about switching between monitors, below is clarification.

Thanks to rshaffer61

"Windows 7 does have the capability to run multiple desktops like Linux. As long as you can get the dual monitor cards in the system then he can run a different desktop on each monitor.
My windows 7 I have 4 different desktops and only one monitor. I switch between the desktops depending on what I am doing.
Games, Internet, Movie or office document."

[Spyderturbo007]

Sounds good to me. It looks like those cards are sold with the adapter. If you look at the last picture here, it looks like you get the adapter along with DVI to VGA adapters if you need them.

I think I'll recommend the ones you suggested even though they are more expensive. He isn't short on cash and it seems to be a cleaner, more streamlined solution over the ones I linked to. With those you need 4 different monitors and two different types of outputs and cables. It just seems like it would be a mess.

I'll stick with the ones that were designed for dual monitors. Thanks for your help and also for rshaffer61's assistance! He's the one I go to when running head first into a brick wall.

Edited by Spyderturbo007, 21 July 2011 - 07:29 AM.

[iammykyl]

Hi.

sorry not being in tough, had to go to the UK unexpectedly.

would appreciate an update on how things are progressing.

[Spyderturbo007]

I just wanted to update this thread as you asked iammykyl. We actually just ordered everything last night. He was holding out until he finished buying his new car. We went with the 2 x NVS 300's and a different motherboard that had 2 PCI-X 16x slots to accommodate both cards. He also decided he wanted a larger SSD, so we moved to a 160GB Intel 320 series SSD.

He'll be storing a bunch of incompressible files (mostly pictures) on the SSD so hopefully that won't affect it's performance. I've never set one up that way before. With my home machine, I use the SSD for programs and the OS while keeping everything on my unRAID server.

Anyway, I'm going to put it together for him on Saturday, so I should have an update next week provided everything goes well.

Edited by Spyderturbo007, 03 November 2011 - 06:19 AM.

[iammykyl]

Hi, it is great to hear from you.

see how the SSD performs. But Think you should get a second HDD (partitioned) for DATA storage and backups, including OS image.

Look forward to the results.

[Spyderturbo007]

Well, I got everything together for him and that sucker is fast! It takes about 16 seconds to boot all the way into Windows from the BIOS splash screen. Opening MS Word or Excel is so fast you really don't even see the initial splash screen. All of the programs open almost instantaneously. I think he's in love. The video cards you suggested worked out perfectly iammykyl, so thanks for the suggestions.

Now I just need to find a monitor stand or some type of bracket that will hold all 4 monitors. Right now it's a "hodgepodge" of monitors and he wants to buy 4 new ones that are all the same. We just have to find some way to mount them.

He has an external that I told him to store his image on and I've been trying to talk him into a Synology NAS for storage. He hasn't made a decision on that yet.

Edited by Spyderturbo007, 08 November 2011 - 07:41 AM.

[iammykyl]

The 3 most common mounting systems for display stand are through a work surface + clamp,

http://www.ebay.com....#ht_3894wt_1138

a clamp over the edge of the work surface, these look good.

http://shop.easymoun...28-002-0021.htm

and free standing ones, (i would drill the base and fasten it down) this manufacturer is often sited as one of the best, but expensive.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824994004

I think side by side is more suitable for gaming.

Unless he has an extremely sturdy work surface, or fastened to the wall, I advise placing the printer somewhere else.

Info, NAS. http://www.anandtech...-smb-nas-review

[iammykyl]

I am not pushing this product, I do not have any reviews for the monitor it is just a deal from Newegg and it might be suitable.

http://www.newegg.co...-_-24009306-L0E