system upgrade

[schouwla]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within one month

BUDGET RANGE: US$1500-2500

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: stock and futures trading, torrent, surfing Internet, watch HD movies, Monte Carlo Simulations, C++ and C# programming, no gaming

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:
1) Power Supply 620Watt, Enermax ELT 620 AWT, Silent
2) 3 LDC monitors, 1xEizo 19? FlexScan S2000 and 2xSamsung 21? 213T
3) Case CoolerMaster Stacker full tower
4) 3 x Smart Drive 2002 Silent hard disk boxes http://www.gup.co.jp reviewed by toms hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2287.html
5) 100 mbps up/down fiber internet connection
6) keyboard, mouse, headphones, Windows Vista 32bit SP1, DVD R/RW, DCD reader

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: kakaku.com since I live in Japan, but will use newegg.com here

PARTS PREFERENCES: ASUS MOBO

OVERCLOCKING: Yes

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1600x1200 on all three monitors

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
A) I like a quiet system.
B) For over clocking would prefer some easy auto over clocking feature since I have no experience in OC
C) Torrent traffic can be a little hard on the disks so need one that lasts long.
D) I know that my 32 bit OS can?t use 6G memory yet, but might upgrade to 64 bit one day!
E) Do I need a better sounds card than the build on one?

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail - $244.05
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115202

MOBO: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard ? Retail - $289.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131365

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C9 - Retail - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145222

GPU: HIS Hightech H465PS512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card ? Retail - $141.98 ($70.99 each)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161274

HDD: 2x Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM - $279.98 ($139.99each)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136351

CPU Cooler: COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail - $59.89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835103055

Total before shipping $1,125.88

This means I still have some money left over what should I spend it on or just stop here?
What about the new i7-950 that has that has the new D0 processor stepping? (nice and easy OC)

 

[somethingsketchy]

I am not sure what you are using to connect three monitors together, but you'll need at least 3 monitor connectors for what you have in mind.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102809 (Sapphire 4850x2)

This was one of very few cards I could find that has 4x DVI connectors to allow for 3+ monitors to be connected at once. I am not so sure how much an i7 will help with stocks and futures trading (I have no experience in this area - mind you), but I would think an Q9550 or Q9650 would suit you better. 6GB of RAM looks pretty good (never hurts to have a lot, especially with a lot of instantaneous trading. Hard drives look good (are you planning to RAID these together for data security like RAID 1 or RAID 5?). With the budget you have you can probably pick up a copy of Vista business or Ultimate 64bit to fully utilize all of the memory you'll put into the build. I've used Vista Ultimate since October of 2008 and I have no complaints.

If you still have money left over, it never hurts to look into RAIDing (to protect your work and data) and maybe even upgrading to 4 monitors

Otherwise your build looks really good.

 

[schouwla]

What about the noise level from the fans?
I was choosing 2 fan less cards and was hoping to use them together on my three screens.

I think the i7 CPU is actually cheaper considering its better effeciency, as for the MOBO it might cost me a little more.

Any RAID5 cards you can recommend?

Might upgrade to Vista 64 bit now and run vmware for my backward compatible development projects.

Lars

 

[somethingsketchy]

Video card fans are usually pretty quiet, unless you manually turn them up to a higher RPM. You can get two fanless cards, but they'll run very hot unless you have adequate ventilation in the case.

As for RAID-5 cards, I don't have a recommendation (it's a bit out of my price-range for a good quality RAID card) but you can spring for onboard RAID. Motherboards these days have pretty good RAID capabilities, compared to their predecessors. It can be a nice start until you can find a really good RAID card to work with.