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Building a ~2,000 rig, need help with triple monitor and opinions!

sikhness

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Hey, so this is my first time posting on this site, but I want some opinions and some help on my new setup. BTW, I live in Canada so if you suggest any products, it helps if they can be easily bought here :)

My planned setup is:

CPU:

· Intel Core i7-4770k Haswell 3.5Ghz LGA 1150 BX80646I74770K

· Intel Core i7-4790k Haswell 4.0GHz LGA 1150 BX80646I74790K

Motherboard:

· MSI Z97M

· MSI Z97-GD65

· MSI Z97-Gaming 7

· MSI Z97-GD65 Extreme OC Performance

Cooling:

· Corsair Hydro Series H60 Liquid Cooling CW-9060007-WW

RAM:

· 2 x HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX

GPU:

· MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 780 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 N780 TF 3GD5/OC

SSD:

· Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5’’ SATA 6Gb/s TLC Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE250BW

o Bought this already for about $150

SSHD:

· Seagate Hybrid Drive 2TB MLC/8GB 64MB Cashe SATA 6.0 Gb/s NCQ 3.5’’ Desktop SSHD


So the sections with multiple bullets are ones im trying to decide between. For my CPU, I am most likely getting the 4790k, as its just plain better. As for the MoBo, most likely the Z97-Gaming 7.

Overall, I would like some opinions on how you think this plays out, or if there are any major flaws I m have overlooked. This PC will be mostly for gaming.

The really important thing I needed help with though is the monitors. I want to run a triple monitor setup (I dont want to play all my games on all 3 monitors, just a few). The issue I am having is in terms of connecting the monitors to this card. For monitors, I would like to have a very small bezel if any at all, to reduce the space inbetween and also im not looking to spend over 250$ on each one. The Asus MX239h I think was a really good one, but im not sure I can hook up 3 of those to this PC. Thanks for any support!

 

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Just as a heads up 5760x1080 uses a lot of GPU power. Depending on the games you're playing, a single 780 may not be enough. My recommendation is not to go with the 3 monitor setup unless you have some serious cash to spend on GPUs. What you want very well might cost more than 2k CAD, but I would expect that you wouldn't spend less than 1k on GPUs alone for a surround setup to be reasonably performant.
 
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This is just my opinion on your build but for the most part it looks ok except in the GPU department.

Your going to need some serious power to do a triple monitor surround/eyefinity setup. My advice is to swap out the 780 for something else depending...

I personally prefer eyefinity to surround, in the past trying to run it its a pain to find good support and on top of that you need a lot of power with very little headroom for a choices in cards. Its going to depend if your willing to swap to AMD for the cards or not but in the past my 580 setup was a pain to get games working perfectly with adequate performance hence a reason I actually tried AMD cards. Nvidia seems to not be focusing on supporting that aspect either to much at least recently.

You might be better off grabbing a pair of R9 290's and trying to rework the budget to incorporate that since either way your going to need multiple GPU's.

As for monitors, I prefer Acer if your looking for thinnest bezels possible. They seem to be the best in that category at least, I run Hanns-G monitors for my setup though their bezels are not extremely thin I worked around that with the way I set them up.

This all of course just mounts to my opinion and nothing more. Just some friendly advice from someone else running a 3 monitor gaming setup.
 

sikhness

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So the main thing that doesnt seem good is the GPU then from what you guys are saying. But I found a bunch of reviews on that exact card, they ran the card on 5760x1080 to which it came up a little under 60fps on games like Far Cry 3 and Skryim. But thats on absolute max settings, wouldnt it be fine if I left it at like high or med-high? Im not going to be using all 3 monitors for every game, just a select few. And the issue with switching out the card for an AMD is that id have to change alot of other stuff to fit into that. And in the future I could also grab another 780 to run at the same time. Also keep in mind its not a standard 780, it comes OC out of the box plus its designed especially for gaming
 

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My rceommendation


CPU:
___________

i7-4790K


Motherboard:
_______________________

MSI Z97-Gaming Series 7

Cooling:
____________________________

Hyper 212+



RAM is fine


GPU:
___________________

2x R9 290s


SSD is fine

SSHD is not worth it just get a decent 7200RPM HDD
 
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If budget is a concern, get an i5 and put the difference towards a second GPU.
 

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If budget is a concern, get an i5 and put the difference towards a second GPU.
This isn't a bad idea, although you would only get maybe another 120 CAD to work with if the OP did this. Generally speaking, CPU becomes much less of a bottleneck at higher resolutions as the GPU spends more time rendering versus lower resolutions.

I still think that I personally wouldn't opt for the surround/eyefinity option unless the budget was at least 500-1000 CAD higher IMHO, but I could be wrong.
 
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So the main thing that doesnt seem good is the GPU then from what you guys are saying. But I found a bunch of reviews on that exact card, they ran the card on 5760x1080 to which it came up a little under 60fps on games like Far Cry 3 and Skryim. But thats on absolute max settings, wouldnt it be fine if I left it at like high or med-high? Im not going to be using all 3 monitors for every game, just a select few. And the issue with switching out the card for an AMD is that id have to change alot of other stuff to fit into that. And in the future I could also grab another 780 to run at the same time. Also keep in mind its not a standard 780, it comes OC out of the box plus its designed especially for gaming
I find that hard to believe they are running a 3 monitor surround setup on ultra on games like far cry 3. Normally these are the numbers you would see on a surround setup in far cry 3 average. Even with a high overclock, you probably will not get above 45 average FPS (That being absolute best scenario). Your going to need multiple GPU's either way even on a 290X, 780ti, or Titan Black to run game on ultra preset at 5760x1080 or 1200. I run Far Cry 3 on my R9 290X Trio surround and can achieve above 60 FPS average at ultra but even then I still see a few drops here and there.

My advice is to do like they are doing and drop to the Devils Canyon i5 (the 4690K) and overclock that beast. You will likely notice no difference when gaming on the i5 versus the i7 since the main difference (There are others but the main one) is the hyper-threading.

Then just invest in a pair of R9 290's with a decent aftermarket cooler. You will run most games at ultra full maxed at 60 FPS in surround with a few exceptions. That would be the best option I see for you in my book.
 
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He doesn't need a pair of 780's or R9 290x's for eyefinity if he plays older games that are not too demanding and for the newer titles he can disable eyefinity and play on the center screen. Not everyone plays games at 60fps on ultra. I personally don't give a **** as long as the game plays well and I am having fun.
 
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Definitely get the 4790k over the 4770k if you can as apparently it is the same price as a 4770k. If you plan on OCing it a lot it might be worth looking at a beefier cooler as the h60 isn't that great if I'm honest (still good but not as good as other options out there).

As far as gpu power goes, if you can put up with turning down settings, then a 780 should be fine. Otherwise if you have the "ZOMG-I-MUST-HAS-ALL-SETTINGS-TURNED-TO-MAX" disease like I do, then you might want to look at a 6GB GTX 780 or R9 290. That way you also have the option of SLIing/Crossfiring them down the track if you are unhappy with performance.

And just in my opinion, I'd get a separate SSD and HDD rather than a SSHD. Say a 120gb or 240/250gb ssd (samsung evo drives are probably best bang for buck) and a 1tb drive if you can.

Also you haven't mentioned about a power supply? You'll need one of those.
 

sikhness

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I find that hard to believe they are running a 3 monitor surround setup on ultra on games like far cry 3. Normally these are the numbers you would see on a surround setup in far cry 3 average. Even with a high overclock, you probably will not get above 45 average FPS (That being absolute best scenario). Your going to need multiple GPU's either way even on a 290X, 780ti, or Titan Black to run game on ultra preset at 5760x1080 or 1200. I run Far Cry 3 on my R9 290X Trio surround and can achieve above 60 FPS average at ultra but even then I still see a few drops here and there.

My advice is to do like they are doing and drop to the Devils Canyon i5 (the 4690K) and overclock that beast. You will likely notice no difference when gaming on the i5 versus the i7 since the main difference (There are others but the main one) is the hyper-threading.

Then just invest in a pair of R9 290's with a decent aftermarket cooler. You will run most games at ultra full maxed at 60 FPS in surround with a few exceptions. That would be the best option I see for you in my book.
Yeah, the build they use is a little bit different, so I guess. I cant really drop to an i5, Im also using this PC for software development (Im in Software Engineering) down the road, so the processor is a must.

He doesn't need a pair of 780's or R9 290x's for eyefinity if he plays older games that are not too demanding and for the newer titles he can disable eyefinity and play on the center screen. Not everyone plays games at 60fps on ultra. I personally don't give a **** as long as the game plays well and I am having fun.
This^ I dont plan on using all 3 screens for gaming all the time, only select games where it REALLY enhances the experience, like Skyrim or something similar.

Definitely get the 4790k over the 4770k if you can as apparently it is the same price as a 4770k. If you plan on OCing it a lot it might be worth looking at a beefier cooler as the h60 isn't that great if I'm honest (still good but not as good as other options out there).

As far as gpu power goes, if you can put up with turning down settings, then a 780 should be fine. Otherwise if you have the "ZOMG-I-MUST-HAS-ALL-SETTINGS-TURNED-TO-MAX" disease like I do, then you might want to look at a 6GB GTX 780 or R9 290. That way you also have the option of SLIing/Crossfiring them down the track if you are unhappy with performance.

And just in my opinion, I'd get a separate SSD and HDD rather than a SSHD. Say a 120gb or 240/250gb ssd (samsung evo drives are probably best bang for buck) and a 1tb drive if you can.

Also you haven't mentioned about a power supply? You'll need one of those.
Yeah, there's like a $20 difference, but with that you get 4.0Ghz instead of 3.5Ghz (This is literally the only difference but thats freaking huge). I might OC here and there, because the card comes kinda OC by default, plus the MoBo and card have pretty easy options to OC. So wait, theres one thing im wondering now. I was considering just getting this card, but then in like the next year or so, just saving up for the exact same card and running 2 of them, is that not an option? Like running 2 x GTX 780s? And the harddrive is pretty open to move around with so that I might just do. Yeah the power supply im going to look at after i have finalized the parts im getting, but ill most likely grab a Gold Standard Corsair one (Apparently these are amazing)

Also, I havent gotten much feedback on the motherboards? I am most likely getting the Gaming 7, but is this fine if im planning to buy another 780 in the future to run SLI?
 
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Yeah, there's like a $20 difference, but with that you get 4.0Ghz instead of 3.5Ghz (This is literally the only difference but thats freaking huge). I might OC here and there, because the card comes kinda OC by default, plus the MoBo and card have pretty easy options to OC. So wait, theres one thing im wondering now. I was considering just getting this card, but then in like the next year or so, just saving up for the exact same card and running 2 of them, is that not an option? Like running 2 x GTX 780s? And the harddrive is pretty open to move around with so that I might just do. Yeah the power supply im going to look at after i have finalized the parts im getting, but ill most likely grab a Gold Standard Corsair one (Apparently these are amazing)

Yeh SLIing 780s is certainly fine (that's what I'm running right now :) ). If you want to buy new though, just bear in mind that when shops run out of stock for them when the new series of graphics cards come in (most likely early-middle next year), it is highly unlikely they will be able to get more in stock which means you'll probably have to buy second hand if you wait too long. I think that 3 displays might be pushing the 3GB vram on a normal 780, especially in the future (SLIing them still means you'll have 3gb vram available, not 6gb). That's why I recommended the 6gb variations of the gtx 780 or looking at the R9 290 from AMD.
 
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That's why I recommended the 6gb variations of the gtx 780
If he can afford it hat would be a good idea.
 

sikhness

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Yeh SLIing 780s is certainly fine (that's what I'm running right now :) ). If you want to buy new though, just bear in mind that when shops run out of stock for them when the new series of graphics cards come in (most likely early-middle next year), it is highly unlikely they will be able to get more in stock which means you'll probably have to buy second hand if you wait too long. I think that 3 displays might be pushing the 3GB vram on a normal 780, especially in the future (SLIing them still means you'll have 3gb vram available, not 6gb). That's why I recommended the 6gb variations of the gtx 780 or looking at the R9 290 from AMD.
Do you think if I got the 6GB version, I would be able to run games on all 3 monitors decently well? This is the card that I would get then: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127797
 

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He doesn't need a pair of 780's or R9 290x's for eyefinity if he plays older games that are not too demanding and for the newer titles he can disable eyefinity and play on the center screen. Not everyone plays games at 60fps on ultra. I personally don't give a **** as long as the game plays well and I am having fun.
Well, if he is playing a game like Farcry 3 or Skyrim, I suspect surround/eyefinity won't run that smoothly.
Yeah, the build they use is a little bit different, so I guess. I cant really drop to an i5, Im also using this PC for software development (Im in Software Engineering) down the road, so the processor is a must.
This^ I dont plan on using all 3 screens for gaming all the time, only select games where it REALLY enhances the experience, like Skyrim or something similar.
Yeah, there's like a $20 difference, but with that you get 4.0Ghz instead of 3.5Ghz (This is literally the only difference but thats freaking huge). I might OC here and there, because the card comes kinda OC by default, plus the MoBo and card have pretty easy options to OC. So wait, theres one thing im wondering now. I was considering just getting this card, but then in like the next year or so, just saving up for the exact same card and running 2 of them, is that not an option? Like running 2 x GTX 780s? And the harddrive is pretty open to move around with so that I might just do. Yeah the power supply im going to look at after i have finalized the parts im getting, but ill most likely grab a Gold Standard Corsair one (Apparently these are amazing)
Also, I havent gotten much feedback on the motherboards? I am most likely getting the Gaming 7, but is this fine if im planning to buy another 780 in the future to run SLI?

Holy multi-post Batman! @sikhness there is an edit button for a reason, don't go bumping threads repeatedly like that. Mods frown upon it and I'm sure one will be along shortly to clean up the thread.

Software development isn't an excuse for not getting an i5, an i7 doesn't make you a better developer and the improvement HT offers is highly workload dependent. Also the way you worded it, it sounds like you're a Comp Sci student and really don't know what lies ahead of you as you haven't entered the workforce yet or done any substantial development projects on your own. My recommendation would be to just get an i5, there is no reason for school or gaming where hyper-threading really would be of any use to you. If anything you want more memory in case you want to run VMs, but an i5 would be fine for development and if you really need more power than that, you need a server, not an i7. :p
 
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Do you think if I got the 6GB version, I would be able to run games on all 3 monitors decently well? This is the card that I would get then: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127797
It would be better as the more ram you get the less chance that will be holding you back especially in higher resolutions. But I still would like to warn that if your doing surround you will be better off with AMD's eyefinity in the end in my book because surround is something Nvidia does not focus much on.

Either way though, a couple 780's or R9 290's are going to be needed for a 3 monitor setup.
 

cadaveca

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It would be better as the more ram you get the less chance that will be holding you back especially in higher resolutions. But I still would like to warn that if your doing surround you will be better off with AMD's eyefinity in the end in my book because surround is something Nvidia does not focus much on.

Either way though, a couple 780's or R9 290's are going to be needed for a 3 monitor setup.
I moved from 7970 Eyefinity to 780 Ti Surround. My opinion is the exact opposite of yours.

I wasn't happy with just two 780 Tis, I had to get the third, which meant that X79 was really the only option.

I'm playing with Z87/Z97 Tri-card now...I can't comment to much about that really.
 

OneMoar

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you gonna need 2 or 3 gpus to run tipple monitors for gaming unless you can live with 25fps
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_780_Ti/15.html
about the only game that peaks above 40FPS is skyrim you severally underestimate just how much raw gpu power is needed to drive 3 1920x1080 monitors
keep in mind that review of daves is a single TI you don't have a TI selected so expect worse ..
tho the review does like a plain old 780

tripple monitor gaming is WAY over rated you are better off with a SINGLE high quality 1080P or higher 24 inch + monitor
 

OneMoar

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for over all single monitor performance the 780 is the way to go
 

sikhness

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It would be better as the more ram you get the less chance that will be holding you back especially in higher resolutions. But I still would like to warn that if your doing surround you will be better off with AMD's eyefinity in the end in my book because surround is something Nvidia does not focus much on.

Either way though, a couple 780's or R9 290's are going to be needed for a 3 monitor setup.

Would a second 780 later on be enough? Im not going to die if I have to play on medium settings or even low for triple monitor because I can always just play one a single one on high.

I moved from 7970 Eyefinity to 780 Ti Surround. My opinion is the exact opposite of yours.

I wasn't happy with just two 780 Tis, I had to get the third, which meant that X79 was really the only option.

I'm playing with Z87/Z97 Tri-card now...I can't comment to much about that really.

So are you suggesting AMD or NVIDIA overall for multi-monitor gaming? And 2 780TIs wasnt good enough?

you gonna need 2 or 3 gpus to run tipple monitors for gaming unless you can live with 25fps
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_780_Ti/15.html
about the only game that peaks above 40FPS is skyrim you severally underestimate just how much raw gpu power is needed to drive 3 1920x1080 monitors
keep in mind that review of daves is a single TI you don't have a TI selected so expect worse ..
tho the review does like a plain old 780

tripple monitor gaming is WAY over rated you are better off with a SINGLE high quality 1080P or higher 24 inch + monitor

Do you think 2 x r9 280x would be better? And most games im planning on playing on a single monitor anyways, its just a few would be cool to play on 3. Dont have to run full quality if running on all 3 and I can just wait til I get enough money to buy a second 780 to run SLI
 
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I moved from 7970 Eyefinity to 780 Ti Surround. My opinion is the exact opposite of yours.

I wasn't happy with just two 780 Tis, I had to get the third, which meant that X79 was really the only option.

I'm playing with Z87/Z97 Tri-card now...I can't comment to much about that really.
I was never once happy with using surround on my 580 setup. My HD 6990 setup ran alot easier as does now my new R9 290X setup.
But then again everyones experiences does differ, but ive found AMD is more up front about eyefinity where as Nvidia seems to rarely ever even mention surround anymore.

Would a second 780 later on be enough? Im not going to die if I have to play on medium settings or even low for triple monitor because I can always just play one a single one on high.
So are you suggesting AMD or NVIDIA overall for multi-monitor gaming? And 2 780TIs wasnt good enough?

I recommend AMD for multi-monitor gaming based off my experience though both companies can run a 3 monitor setup. You can get to R9 290 cards for around 100 bucks less each than a 780 and they perform roughly around it especially if you buy an overclock edition. They are the best money to value cards right now on the high side.

Do you think 2 x r9 280x would be better? And most games im planning on playing on a single monitor anyways, its just a few would be cool to play on 3. Don't have to run full quality if running on all 3 and I can just wait til I get enough money to buy a second 780 to run SLI
Meh, I would think getting a single better GPU for now and expanding later would be a better option than going that route unless you can get a stellar deal on some R9 280X cards.
 
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This might help you decide since he uses 2 780's and 3 screens.

 

Aquinus

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I think what everyone is really trying to say is that your goal and budget are incompatible.
 

sikhness

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I was never once happy with using surround on my 580 setup. My HD 6990 setup ran alot easier as does now my new R9 290X setup.
But then again everyones experiences does differ, but ive found AMD is more up front about eyefinity where as Nvidia seems to rarely ever even mention surround anymore.



I recommend AMD for multi-monitor gaming based off my experience though both companies can run a 3 monitor setup. You can get to R9 290 cards for around 100 bucks less each than a 780 and they perform roughly around it especially if you buy an overclock edition. They are the best money to value cards right now on the high side.

Meh, I would think getting a single better GPU for now and expanding later would be a better option than going that route unless you can get a stellar deal on some R9 280X cards.

So I can get the MSI Gaming Edition r9 280x cards for 240 each. The MSI Gaming Ed. r9 290x would cost me 505 apiece.
 

cadaveca

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I was never once happy with using surround on my 580 setup. My HD 6990 setup ran alot easier as does now my new R9 290X setup.
But then again everyones experiences does differ, but ive found AMD is more up front about eyefinity where as Nvidia seems to rarely ever even mention surround anymore.

I feel that they don't mention it, because it's just a given that it's part of what they offer, like 3DVision. Pretty much any new game supports either, and I find that daily usage when swapping between multi-monitor and single is a lot better on NVidia, and game performance scales a bit better. That's not to say it's perfect, but I do feel that it is in a big way better.

One of the biggest differences to me is how monitors connect to the GPUs, and how the driver works in desktop vs 3D.

So are you suggesting AMD or NVIDIA overall for multi-monitor gaming? And 2 780TIs wasnt good enough?

Honestly, in some games, you need to drop settings with just two. Plus three is more visually impressive. I mean, only so many people say they were dumb enough to spend that much on VGAs....:p

Really, you need to spend way more money. Go single-monitor, and a single 780 or 290 is enough. the 780 TI or 290X is just icing on the cake, made with gold. If your wallet can afford it, get one.

That said, single VGA, I think AMD is better, and has better value. 290 and 780 trade blows, same with 780 ti and 290X. I simply don't have any faith in AMD's drivers for multi-GPU and multi-monitor. It is possible that 290/290X fixed the issues I had, but after complaining for years about microstutter and most people denying it even existed, to it now being a commonly accepted issue, I have simply given up on AMD. I'd recommend you stay as far away from AMD cards as is possible.

But then, I see some 280X for like $240 locally. Almost tempting, really. Buy 3 of those, sell one 780TI for that cost. :roll:
 
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