Building my boss a new computer - suggestions?

[CurseTheSky]

Back in the day, my boss had a Dell XPS from the Pentium D era / 7800 GTX SLI. The case, PSU, and motherboard were all Dell proprietary, so when the motherboard died (numerous bad caps), I convinced him to move over to newer hardware. He's been using a Q8400 / 2GB DDR2 / Crosshair II (780i SLI - to support his graphics cards) for several years now, and he's ready to make the jump to something newer.

The budget is $600-650. We will need:
- Processor (Quad Core)
- Motherboard (Intel chipset only; needs at least 5 SATA ports)
- Memory (prefer 8 GB)
- Graphics Card (Would prefer native 3 monitor support)

We will be reusing:
- PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Power Supply
- Silverstone Fortress 2 Case
- G.Skill 120GB Sandforce-based SSD
- Several other hard drives, DVD drives, etc.

The system will most likely NOT be overclocked, but my boss prefers to have "the best" or close to it. For example, I could probably only spend $300-400ish and meet his needs, but he'd not only prefer to, but would insist on spending more to get nicer stuff. Remember, this is his choice, not mine.

The closest Micro Center is about two hours away and costs $20+ in gas and tolls, so I'd prefer to order online if possible.

So far I've come up with:
- i5 2500k ($220 @ Newegg)
- Asus P8Z68-V Pro ($210 @ Newegg)
- Corsair / other brand 2x4GB DDR3 (~$80ish @ Newegg)

Look good so far? Also, what should I consider for a graphics card to natively support 3 monitors?

Thanks!

 

[dma0991]

Core i5 2500K $210
RAM 4GBx2 ~$80
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 $160
Sapphire HD6870 1GB $190

TOTAL $640

You could drop the Asus for an ASRock board instead. It is as good despite it being cheaper than the Asus. The HD6870 should be able to support triple monitors via Eyefinity from a single card.

 

[mfenn]

Core i5 2500K $210
RAM 4GBx2 ~$80
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 $160
Sapphire HD6870 1GB $190

TOTAL $640

You could drop the Asus for an ASRock board instead. It is as good despite it being cheaper than the Asus. The HD6870 should be able to support triple monitors via Eyefinity from a single card.

That looks fine to me. If the boss is not a gamer, you could get a 5770 or something and do just as well.

 

[vailr]

Re:
"We will be reusing:
~
- Several other hard drives, DVD drives, etc."

I'd recommend against re-using any IDE storage devices, if those are.
A Radeon HD6670 should be adequate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102935
But: in an employee/boss situation, wouldn't it be safer to just buy a complete new Dell i5 CPU system?

 

[biostud]

any reason to get K if not o/c?

 

[betasub]

But: in an employee/boss situation, wouldn't it be safer to just buy a complete new Dell i5 CPU system?

This. Think warrantee & service support.

If Dell can't provide the right graphics outputs, then adding in something like a 5570 shouldn't be a problem.

 

[mfenn]

This. Think warrantee & service support.

If Dell can't provide the right graphics outputs, then adding in something like a 5570 shouldn't be a problem.

Dell offers Radeon 5000 and 6000 series parts on the Studio XPS 8300, so you should be good to go there.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Since there's no OCing involved, I think this is the best choice:

Intel Core i5 2400: $190
Patriot Gamer 2 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz: $75
ASRock P67 EXTREME4: $160
Sapphire Radeon HD 6850: $170

Subtotal: $595
Total: $603

This is in the lower end of the budget and will be good for everything he wants, including running three monitors from one GPU (which is something that unfortunately only AMD GPUs can do). It will consume very little power and produce little noise. I prefer you pass on the 2500K because it's only 5% faster than the 2400 and will cost $30 higher.