Help me build a ~$1500 graphic design 3 display desktop (ordering tonight!)

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
Hi,

I'm going to be putting together a desktop for work. Ideally I'd like a 3 monitor setup (center being the main with left and right as secondary displays) on a desk mount, but I could work with 2. My budget is approximately $1500 for everything. I'm very comfortable building computers, but I haven't had the need to build one in some time so I'm not up to date on the current bang-for-your-buck trends.

I'm open to suggestions on all components, particularly the CPU/motherboard/RAM as I'm not sure what's good these days.

Reliability is key. I don't necessarily need the fastest - just fast & reliable is much better.

----------------------------------
EDIT - latest build, getting ready to order


Ok, here's my 'final' list:

Case $130 Corsair 600T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139007
Displays $459 3x Acer 23" IPS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009483
DVD $18 LG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136259
HDD $140 2x WD 1TB Blue http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236339
PSU $58 Corsair CX600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139028
Speakers $30 Logitech X-140 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121002
Keyboard $90 Logitech Illuminated http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126194 (I can't find another one that has the same type of keys, I really like the feeling of this style of keyboard)
Mouse $30 Logitech M500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104328
External enclosure for backup HDD $23 Rosewill http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173042
RAM $96 2x 8GB Crucial Ballistix http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148655
SSD $135 Samsung 840 Pro 128GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147192
Graphics $155 Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202004 (compatible with EyeFinity, and I'm using monitors that have DVI/HDMI so this should have enough connections as it has 2x DVI and 1x HDMI)
CPU/Mobo Combo $320 Haswell i5-4670K + MSI Z87-G45 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1352786
UPS $145 CyberPower 1350VA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16842102070

Misc
$35 Rosewill 90 piece tool kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16899261004
$25 TrendNet impact punch down tool http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16899888402
$18 Adata 16GB USB drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1K60FC8162

Total, shipped, with all discounts is $1910. $45 in MIRs.

I have to order this today, would appreciate any last minute suggestions or changes or whatever. Thanks for all the help so far. Mainly I just want to make sure the 3 monitors and the graphics card will work smooth together.
 
Last edited:

Essence_of_War

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2013
2,650
4
81
What sort of work are you doing?

A couple options I see for savings are:

1) Case - The CM HAF 932 is a pricey case. I'd go with something like the Corsair 300R or 500R, both are on sale at Newegg right now for a steal (60 and 80 after rebate respectively). Build quality is high, lots of cabling assistance, and you'll have plenty of space for an ATX MoBo, extra HDDs if you need them. And it saves you money!

2) CPU/MoBo - Are you married to SB/IVB? Haswell is out, and there are a TON of good deals on Haswell parts on Newegg right now. Check out the promos.. You can get an i7 + the MSI G45 MoBo for $410. If you don't need the i7, MSI + i5 is $320.

3) HSF - if you want cool + quier, I'd expect to spend $30 on a CM 212 Evo. It's cooler, and quieter than intel's stock cooler.

4) RAM - for most things, 8gb is fine, if your work is video editing, I'd go with 16 gb if you can. You can get 2x4 GB for $52, or 2x8GB for $96.

5) Video Card - Again, it depends on what sort of work you're doing. If you're not doing anything that relies on gpu acceleration, and as you sadi you're not gaming, you can any gpu that with sufficient outputs. Here's the Radeon 7750. 1x each of DVI-D, DisplayPort, and HDMI, no auxillary power connections. Will handily drive 3 displays.

6) SSD - your SSDs look fine. You could go for the non-pro samsung to save a few bucks if you'd like.

7) HDDs - At the 1 TB capacity, I think the Blacks are just overpriced compared to the WD Blues. The performance difference is negligible. They're both 7200 RPM, 1 platter drives. You're paying for an extended warranty.

8) PSU - you already own the PSU? If you do, that's a perfectly good one. If you have to buy a PSU, it's overkill, the CX600 will power any single gpu system and it's only $40.

9) Monitors - those three Acer's look nice. You can save $10 each if you go with the similar asus model .

It's also a really good time to be in the market for a nice IPS display. Acer, Asus, and Dell have 23'', and 24'' IPS displays for great prices right now. I would consider trying to get one or more of these. If you're going to spend a lot of time looking at a monitor, your eyes will greatly appreciate the difference in picture quality.

If it were me, I would build something like this for the computer:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.62 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.62 @ Amazon) (for enclosure!)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $900.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-27 08:22 EDT-0400)

Add-in $140 for your KB, M, Speakers, and $30 for the external enclosure you wanted comes to $1070.

That leaves you with $430 in your budget for monitors.
If you badly want 3x, you can pick up three of these Acer 1080p IPS displays for $459. I know it's hair over your budget, but you could make that back by switching to the non-pro samsung SSD.

I really like the extra vertical space that a 16:10 monitor gives, so I would pick up:
1x Dell u2412 for $267
and
1x Acer IPS (from above)

to come in under budget. You can always add a third later if you'd like.
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
Not having enough vertical pixels is kind of annoying. If you can run 3 displays vertically you should do that. That gives you 3240x1920.

qs3-vertical-a.jpg


Something like that, but hopefully with a smaller bezel.
 

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
0
71
If reliability is the key you need to strongly consider a prebuilt, especially in a work situation. How much would you say your time is worth per hour? Or, put another way, if your computer is down for a day, how much revenue do you lose?
 

Essence_of_War

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2013
2,650
4
81
For the GPU, if you want a little extra gpu oomph, and an extra DVI-D connector, there is a 7790 @ $110.

And it comes with games that you could either keep or sell to off-set the cost difference.
 

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
What sort of work are you doing?

A couple options I see for savings are:

1) Case - The CM HAF 932 is a pricey case. I'd go with something like the Corsair 300R or 500R, both are on sale at Newegg right now for a steal (60 and 80 after rebate respectively). Build quality is high, lots of cabling assistance, and you'll have plenty of space for an ATX MoBo, extra HDDs if you need them. And it saves you money!

2) CPU/MoBo - Are you married to SB/IVB? Haswell is out, and there are a TON of good deals on Haswell parts on Newegg right now. Check out the promos.. You can get an i7 + the MSI G45 MoBo for $410. If you don't need the i7, MSI + i5 is $320.

3) HSF - if you want cool + quier, I'd expect to spend $30 on a CM 212 Evo. It's cooler, and quieter than intel's stock cooler.

4) RAM - for most things, 8gb is fine, if your work is video editing, I'd go with 16 gb if you can. You can get 2x4 GB for $52, or 2x8GB for $96.

5) Video Card - Again, it depends on what sort of work you're doing. If you're not doing anything that relies on gpu acceleration, and as you sadi you're not gaming, you can any gpu that with sufficient outputs. Here's the Radeon 7750. 1x each of DVI-D, DisplayPort, and HDMI, no auxillary power connections. Will handily drive 3 displays.

6) SSD - your SSDs look fine. You could go for the non-pro samsung to save a few bucks if you'd like.

7) HDDs - At the 1 TB capacity, I think the Blacks are just overpriced compared to the WD Blues. The performance difference is negligible. They're both 7200 RPM, 1 platter drives. You're paying for an extended warranty.

8) PSU - you already own the PSU? If you do, that's a perfectly good one. If you have to buy a PSU, it's overkill, the CX600 will power any single gpu system and it's only $40.

9) Monitors - those three Acer's look nice. You can save $10 each if you go with the similar asus model .

It's also a really good time to be in the market for a nice IPS display. Acer, Asus, and Dell have 23'', and 24'' IPS displays for great prices right now. I would consider trying to get one or more of these. If you're going to spend a lot of time looking at a monitor, your eyes will greatly appreciate the difference in picture quality.

If it were me, I would build something like this for the computer:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.62 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($66.62 @ Amazon) (for enclosure!)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 500R Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $900.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-27 08:22 EDT-0400)

Add-in $140 for your KB, M, Speakers, and $30 for the external enclosure you wanted comes to $1070.

That leaves you with $430 in your budget for monitors.
If you badly want 3x, you can pick up three of these Acer 1080p IPS displays for $459. I know it's hair over your budget, but you could make that back by switching to the non-pro samsung SSD.

I really like the extra vertical space that a 16:10 monitor gives, so I would pick up:
1x Dell u2412 for $267
and
1x Acer IPS (from above)

to come in under budget. You can always add a third later if you'd like.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback, I'll go line by line:

1) I'll consider the Corsair 500R. The 600T is only $25 more and I love that case. Very roomy, tons of airflow, just great all around. I'm debating between these 2 now.

2) I'm not in the loop on IVB/SB/Haswell - what's the main difference? So to answer your question no, I'm not married to them, but I do need a solid motherboard. To date I've had very good experiences with Asus and Gigabyte.

3) The cooler you mentioned is 'open box'. Is it a big noise/temperature difference between that and stock cooler? I'm not going to be overclocking mind you.

4) For RAM, I'm going to go with 2x4 right now. I'm not going to be doing any serious video editing for a while, so if/when that happens I'll just get more RAM.

5) For GPU, no major acceleration. I'm going to be doing a lot of image editing in Photoshop and I don't think that really uses GPU at all, but that's about it for the time being. As I mentioned earlier, if it gets to a point where I need the extra RAM or a high end graphics card, I'll get one. Question - how will I plug 3 monitors into this though?

6) I'd like a fast SSD, very important to me - not really skimping here.

7) HDD - noted, will go with the WD Blue.

8) No, don't own the PSU. I have one like it, but in my computer (not a spare). I'll go with the CX600 then.

9) I'm going to spend over 40 hours every week looking at a monitor, so yes it's important. You recommend those 3 Acer IPS displays then?

TIA!


Not having enough vertical pixels is kind of annoying. If you can run 3 displays vertically you should do that. That gives you 3240x1920.

qs3-vertical-a.jpg


Something like that, but hopefully with a smaller bezel.

True, but it's not that big a deal to me and I prefer not to get used to it as a crutch. I need to view things how our customers will view them, which is horizontal, at all times.

If reliability is the key you need to strongly consider a prebuilt, especially in a work situation. How much would you say your time is worth per hour? Or, put another way, if your computer is down for a day, how much revenue do you lose?

By reliable I just mean quality components. I've generally had good luck (knock on wood) with building my own systems and having them run stable for years. I'm not looking for a prebuilt.

For the GPU, if you want a little extra gpu oomph, and an extra DVI-D connector, there is a 7790 @ $110.

And it comes with games that you could either keep or sell to off-set the cost difference.

How quiet is it? I've had a PowerColor GTX460 before and returned it immediately as it was WAY too loud and ran pretty hot to boot.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
8GB of RAM?! No, no, no, and no. You start at 16GB, and then watch it as you work to see if more would be helpful. Avoid 2-RAM-slot mobos. 8GB is only $50-60.

Quiet cooling? How quiet do you mean? The CM case (and its fans) would negate any seriously quiet coolers, generally. Without overclocking, the Hyper212+ Evo is not going to be much of an improvement.

SSD: Corsair Neutron (GTX?), Samsung 840 Pro, or Plextor M5S.

HDD: Blue 1TB, specifically the WD10EZEX.

Mouse: fine. Consider other devices, though, like trackballs. People are mostly used to mice, but mice are generally inferior, except for fast-paced games, as pointing devices.

Monitors: for graphic design? No, no, no, and no. A Dell IPS should be your budget option.

Multiple monitors: you will need a video card supporting 3 monitors, and your monitors must have the correct, or adaptable, input types.

Finally, does $1500 need to include the OS (making it $1350-1370)?
 

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
Ok,

1) I can remove the cooler.
2) I'm sticking to mouse, that's my preference.
3) Does that PowerColor card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131490) support 3 monitors? Or what should I get? Please recommend, need to order in next few hours. I'm guessing I need a card that supports EyeFinity.
4) I have all the necessary software.
5) Already going for that 16GB Crucial RAM.
 
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Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
0
0
Ok, here's my 'final' list:

Case $130 Corsair 600T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811139007
Displays $459 3x Acer 23" IPS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009483
DVD $18 LG http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136259
HDD $140 2x WD 1TB Blue http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236339
PSU $58 Corsair CX600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139028
Speakers $30 Logitech X-140 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121002
Keyboard $90 Logitech Illuminated http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126194 (I can't find another one that has the same type of keys, I really like the feeling of this style of keyboard)
Mouse $30 Logitech M500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104328
External enclosure for backup HDD $23 Rosewill http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173042
RAM $96 2x 8GB Crucial Ballistix http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148655
SSD $135 Samsung 840 Pro 128GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147192
Graphics $155 Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202004 (compatible with EyeFinity, and I'm using monitors that have DVI/HDMI so this should have enough connections as it has 2x DVI and 1x HDMI)
CPU/Mobo Combo $320 Haswell i5-4670K + MSI Z87-G45 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1352786
UPS $145 CyberPower 1350VA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

Misc
$35 Rosewill 90 piece tool kit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16899261004
$25 TrendNet impact punch down tool http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16899888402
$18 Adata 16GB USB drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1K60FC8162

Total, shipped, with all discounts is $1910. $45 in MIRs.

I have to order this today, would appreciate any last minute suggestions or changes or whatever. Thanks for all the help so far. Mainly I just want to make sure the 3 monitors and the graphics card will work smooth together.
 
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Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
The PC looks OK.

But...

What's with the punch-down tool and other kit? That's a brand new one. Just skip it, for the moment. Networking tools and parts on the cheap should come from Monoprice :). What exactly are you going to be doing with that?
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
Your PC doesn't look like something that costs almost $2000; you should either spend an extra $150 and get higher-end everything, or cut your budget back by $500 and go for a bang-for-the-buck build.

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=23297166

$2085 after coupons, MIRs, gift cards. It's an upgrade in many areas; better CPU, better mobo, better GPU, better mouse, better case, better PSU, Blu-Ray, and larger SSD (trust me, 128GB isn't enough).

The only tool you need to build a PC is:

538237557.jpg
 
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Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
That's definitely a better box (better/worse mouse is too subjective, IMO). "Are those monitors up to snuff," is a good question. It's indeed not a $1500 build, but $1400 worth of monitors with a PC somewhere in the bottom, and I'm guessing the OP likes the looks of the 600T. I do wonder about the bang/buck of those monitors, but have never seen them before, and the OP's being all rush-rush, so :| (U2312HM for a budget?).

When I see $1500, I think maybe $1650 would be pushing it for better stuff, and pretty much gave up before even trying to actually choose parts (good luck to y'all who tried :)).

But then cheap networking gear got added, with no prior mention, including what it's going to be used for or with, and it became $2000.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
116
That's definitely a better box (better/worse mouse is too subjective, IMO). "Are those monitors up to snuff," is a good question.
The monitors look quite nice IMO. LED IPS, super thin bezel, and ~$150-ish after coupon. 23" full-HD is a nice sweet spot between size, resolution, cost, and pixel density. It's a $1500 PC with $500 worth of displays, and if I'm paying $1500 for a PC it better be high-end.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
5
71
www.mfenn.com
I have to order this today, would appreciate any last minute suggestions or changes or whatever. Thanks for all the help so far. Mainly I just want to make sure the 3 monitors and the graphics card will work smooth together.

AFAIK, the 7850 can only handle 2 TMDS-style displays simultaneously. You need to use an active DisplayPort -> DVI adapter like this in order to drive all your monitors.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
AFAIK, the 7850 can only handle 2 TMDS-style displays simultaneously. You need to use an active DisplayPort -> DVI adapter like this in order to drive all your monitors.

Yes make sure you get an active adapter, very important because you will not have any DP monitors.
 

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
3
81
Overall the build looks pretty good but frankly I wouldn't touch a CyberPower UPS with a 10 foot pole. I've dealt with them before and I will not be dealing with them again. I highly recommend that you get an APC or TrippLite UPS instead.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
142
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Overall the build looks pretty good but frankly I wouldn't touch a CyberPower UPS with a 10 foot pole. I've dealt with them before and I will not be dealing with them again. I highly recommend that you get an APC or TrippLite UPS instead.
I thought the same thing, but that *particular* CyberPower unit has fantastic reviews on Amazon and Newegg.
 

birthdaymonkey

Golden Member
Oct 4, 2010
1,176
3
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I would also question those monitors for graphic design use. How colour critical is your work? Are you designing stuff that is going to be printed and needs to look like it does on your screen?
 

nsafreak

Diamond Member
Oct 16, 2001
7,093
3
81
I would also question those monitors for graphic design use. How colour critical is your work? Are you designing stuff that is going to be printed and needs to look like it does on your screen?


I agree with the above. If your work is color critical your monitors are going to take a large chunk of your budget. I typically recommend Dell UltraSharp panels for those that are doing color critical work but there are other options out there, although the average price for a good color critical 22" panel is usually around $250 - $300ish.
 

jpeyton

Moderator in SFF, Notebooks, Pre-Built/Barebones
Moderator
Aug 23, 2003
25,375
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I would also question those monitors for graphic design use. How colour critical is your work? Are you designing stuff that is going to be printed and needs to look like it does on your screen?
My guess is that anybody working in an industry where color is critical already knows whether or not they need color-critical equipment, and/or probably already has access to that equipment.

One of these will usually get a monitor close enough to spec: http://spyder.datacolor.com/

While something like a Dell U2410 or Asus ProArt would be better for color critical work, three of those would also bust his budget wide open.
 

Essence_of_War

Platinum Member
Feb 21, 2013
2,650
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Hopefully this is still useful:

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback, I'll go line by line:

1) I'll consider the Corsair 500R. The 600T is only $25 more and I love that case. Very roomy, tons of airflow, just great all around. I'm debating between these 2 now.

That seems reasonable. I have had a great experience building with the 500R, but I've never touched/looked-at the 600T, so I think it's mostly personal/budgetary preference.


2) I'm not in the loop on IVB/SB/Haswell - what's the main difference? So to answer your question no, I'm not married to them, but I do need a solid motherboard. To date I've had very good experiences with Asus and Gigabyte.

Haswell is the latest chip. IVB is ~1 yr old. SB is ~2 yr old. IPC and clocks have both gone up, pricing is comparable, so unless you're trying to break the 5GHz barrier on air or something, I would roll w/ Haswell.

The MoBo I suggested is solid. MSI/Gigabyte/Asus/AsRock all have comparable RMA rates at this point, so unless you have a strong personal preference for the bios or some other feature, I would just say go with whatever has the features you want that is cheapest :)


3) The cooler you mentioned is 'open box'. Is it a big noise/temperature difference between that and stock cooler? I'm not going to be overclocking mind you.
I've noticed a difference between intel's stock coolers and any reasonable after-market cooler. If you're not taking specific precautions to silence your case, I think the cooler will probably be dwarfed by the case fans, though. If you're pretty sure you're not going to OC, sticking w/ the stock cooler is fine and it will save you 20-30ish bucks.

4) For RAM, I'm going to go with 2x4 right now. I'm not going to be doing any serious video editing for a while, so if/when that happens I'll just get more RAM.

8GB is fine if you're just gaming. If you're using 64-bit programs that can take advantage of more than 4 GB of RAM, I'd recommend starting w/ 2x8GB, giving yourself room to grow if you need it.

5) For GPU, no major acceleration. I'm going to be doing a lot of image editing in Photoshop and I don't think that really uses GPU at all, but that's about it for the time being. As I mentioned earlier, if it gets to a point where I need the extra RAM or a high end graphics card, I'll get one. Question - how will I plug 3 monitors into this though?
...
How quiet is it? I've had a PowerColor GTX460 before and returned it immediately as it was WAY too loud and ran pretty hot to boot.

I think Mfenn and some others covered this. You need an active adapter. You could also go with a card like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130827
which has 2x DVI, 1x Mini-HDMI, and nab a mini-HDMI-> HDMI cable off of monoprice. It's a little pricier for the card, but depending on the cost of the active adapter, it might be cheaper overall.

If you're not gaming, and they aren't being used for compute/acceleration, even driving three displays shouldn't tax these cards much. I would expect the case fans to be louder than the GPU fan in such workloads! If there are problems with the fan kicking in, you could always use MSI Afterburner to either manually restrict the fan RPM, or to build a less aggressive fan profile.

9) I'm going to spend over 40 hours every week looking at a monitor, so yes it's important. You recommend those 3 Acer IPS displays then?
I haven't used those particular IPS displays. As I mentioned, I would probably shoot for having 1 24'' ultrasharp, a secondary 23'', and perhaps add a third later.

The 24'' dell I mentioned has DVI, HDMI, and DP input. The 23'' Acer's have Dsub, HDMI, and DVI input. The card has DP, HDMI, and DVI output. So if you use the DP on the 24'', HDMI or DVI on the Acer, you can add a 3rd Acer, with either DVI or HDMI respectively, later if you'd like. No active adapters needed.

I can speak to the difference between IPS and TN displays. I have a 24'' dell u2412m at home, and my work monitor is a 23'' TN Apple Cinema Display at the same res, and the difference is striking. Buying a nice home monitor made me loathe my work monitor. :p
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
22,400
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www.mfenn.com
Overall the build looks pretty good but frankly I wouldn't touch a CyberPower UPS with a 10 foot pole. I've dealt with them before and I will not be dealing with them again. I highly recommend that you get an APC or TrippLite UPS instead.

If you were talking about a $1000 APC, I would be inclined to agree. Cheap UPS's from all 3 are made with pretty much the same parts.
 

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
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Thanks for the feedback guys. Had to go with the Gigabyte MB since the MSI was sold out by the time I ordered. Yes this was 'rushed' - it was a time sensitive order. To the poster who suggested the 'better' items for a little extra, it's unnecessary. I know exactly what I'll be doing and how much power I require for the foreseeable future, and this worked out well. Also, some components like the case, the expensive keyboard, the choice of mouse, the UPS, etc, is personal preference. There were some components here I've used before I would like to stick with, so that's why I picked them.

This wasn't a 'get me the absolute best value for $X' thread, but rather general recommendations on parts.

Thanks again.
 

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2000
4,694
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Build went smoothly (knock on wood). I recommend people to order Arctic Silver TIM remover/cleaner and AS5 thermal compound - I already had these so didn't need to get them.

I also just ordered this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814999030

To make the 3rd monitor work.

The comp is a screamer so far, but I just now finished all the software installs, so we'll see how the design work goes. Still, I have a much less powerful PC at home and it works just fine for what I do, so this is a big step up.

And it's 3 monitors, so I feel like a boss.