# Hardware idiot looking for advice on a build.



## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on a build, and I know next to nothing about hardware.

Basically I'm just looking for a ton of desktop space to work on while doing web design. I'd like to go 3 monitors. One to have my code up, one for Photoshop, and another to keep abrowser up on, all simulataneously. 

It will need to keep Photoshop and Premiere running at good speeds, other than that I don't need it for any gaming purpose sor anything like that. Ideally it would have room to build upon, and hopefully last a good 4 years. 

I've been trying to piece together an idea of a build, and what I have, I've been told, is absolutely terrible. Anyone have a better suggestion?

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3 Motherboard LGA1155 P67

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K Quad Core 3.3GHZ Sandy Bridge 6MB

GPU: Visiontek Radeon HD 6870 2GB GDDR5 Eyefinity 6

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W 80+ Bronze

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (4x 2GB) DDR3 2000MHz Kit

HDD: Western Digital WD2002FAEX Caviar Black 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

Case: Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower Case


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

What do you mean by "room to build upon"? What are you thinking you would need to add down the road?


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

Just in the event that I would like to build up a gaming rig or something, so that I wouldn't have to scrap too many parts and start from scratch. Like I said, I really don't know much about the hardware end of things at all.


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## twicksisted (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> Just in the event that I would like to build up a gaming rig or something, so that I wouldn't have to scrap too many parts and start from scratch. Like I said, I really don't know much about the hardware end of things at all.



if you arent building a "Gaming rig"... why go for the HD6870 gfx card?


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

I'd like to run 3 monitors off one card, which I realize I can do with plenty of other cheaper cards, but like I said, I'd like to be able to grow upon the system I have, and the temptation to add more monitors is there. I suppose I could add another GPU later, but this seemed to be a good option too.


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

What you have would be fine for either. You don't need a 750 watt power supply for what you have listed there. 500 watts would be plenty. Also keep in mind that Photoshop does not currently support more than one video card in Crossfire or SLI. Something else to consider would be to get a Z68 motherboard rather than a P67 motherboard and to purchase a smallish SSD (60gb or less) that you can then just use as cache for your larger mechanical hard drive. I would also consider more RAM.


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

twicksisted said:


> if you arent building a "Gaming rig"... why go for the HD6870 gfx card?



Photoshop supports GPU computing.


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## Fishymachine (Dec 12, 2011)

In the case of a 6870, it will hit some sort of GPU-bottleneck long before the need for more than 1GB ... so I think you should either look for a 1GB 6870, or 6950(1GB will suffice even for it at most res) or a GTX560Ti ... and should the 78xx (die shrink of Cayman) hit the store sometimes this month?


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> I'd like to run 3 monitors off one card, which I realize I can do with plenty of other cheaper cards, but like I said, I'd like to be able to grow upon the system I have, and the temptation to add more monitors is there. I suppose I could add another GPU later, but this seemed to be a good option too.



Photoshop does NOT currently support multi-GPU computing.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

CJCerny said:


> Photoshop does NOT currently support multi-GPU computing.



I should still be ok with my choice of GPU for now that right?


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> I should still be ok with my choice of GPU for now that right?



Any new single Nvidia or ATI video card should do the trick. The faster the model, the faster GPU supported operations in Photoshop will complete.


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## Iceni (Dec 12, 2011)

I do a lot of photoshop work on a near identical system. (wedding photographer).

There is a pretty big difference in 4Gb and 8Gb of ram, But there isn't a lot of difference in 2GB x4 and 4Gb x2. I've tried both configurations.

With that in mind I would opt for 8Gb's on 2 dimms so you have the option to go up to 16Gb later. Ram prices atm are pretty good and provided your running Win7 64 ultimate then you will be able to use all that ram.

The I5 is slower than the I7 for photoshop, But not by a significant margin. The I5 with a little overclocking and a decent air cooler will see you been able to shop all day with very little effort. The I5 also give the perfect springboard to whatever appears on LGA1155 towards the end of it's life cycle. This means that an Ivy bridge CPU with even better clocks should be available in a couple of years that will allow you to keep the rig moving. It will be an easier upgrade choice to go I5-I7 than it would to go I7-I7. 

You also picked a winner with the GPU. The Hd6870 gets lots of points for been very much the correct Gfx to be getting on a budget. The £140 price tag and the overall performance of the card make it a very hard card to best. To get the next step up you would need to be looking at the HD6950 and that's over £60 more expensive. Both cards will play Skyrim on ulta settings. And while the 6950 is faster on a non gaming machine that's not top end or trying to benchmark it's not needed.

The only thing i would change is the HDD. I'd personally opt for a pair of 1TB drives, so you have the ability to backup and not loose all your data in the event of a drive failure. Redundancy in the work environment is key since it saves you time and money when things go wrong. 

You may also need a Sata DVD RW since the intel motherboards have no legacy support, and none of them have any IDE interfaces at all.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

So if Photoshop is my primary concern for the build, I would be better off going with the i7? The price difference isn't really that much, and is still within my budget.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

CJCerny said:


> Something else to consider would be to get a Z68 motherboard rather than a P67 motherboard



What's the reasoning for this?


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## Iceni (Dec 12, 2011)

no not at all the I5 is a better CPU. like i said the difference is marginal at best.

here's benchmark chart to show the difference.
Lower is better as you can see the I7 only just pips the I5. If you wait 2 years that may not be the case as PS gets updated.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/x86-core-performance-comparison/Adobe-Photoshop-CS-5,2773.html

As for the P67 / Z68 debate, there is very little difference in the 2 chipsets other than the ability to use the onboard Gfx on the CPU. Personally I would price check between the 2 and go for the best deal. The ability to use the onboard graphics may prove useful if say you have a GPU failure, But 99.9% of the time your never going to use the onboard GPU.


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## TRWOV (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> What's the reasoning for this?



SSD caching


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## JrRacinFan (Dec 12, 2011)

Methinks the OP did a fine job choosing parts. Feeling froggy and can afford the premium; then get a better board but the current one is fine.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> Methinks the OP did a fine job choosing parts. Feeling froggy and can afford the premium; then get a better board but the current one is fine.



I looked at getting a GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7-B3 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard 32GB DDR3, but it's almost a $300 difference on motherboard. I can afford it, but does it really come with $300 worth the improvements? Would it really be beneficial to spend that uch extra for the mobo? What wuld be a better balance of cost/power?


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> Hi, I'm looking for some advice on a build, and I know next to nothing about hardware.
> 
> Basically I'm just looking for a ton of desktop space to work on while doing web design. I'd like to go 3 monitors. One to have my code up, one for Photoshop, and another to keep abrowser up on, all simulataneously.
> 
> ...





OK, so let me ask a few questions, and then I'll qualify your listings here.

Personally, I think you'd be better served by spending a bit more money. If I was you, I'd go with a high-end mATX board like the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z, a 2600k, and an XFX HD6950 2GB.

The extra threads on the 2600k, doing programming and using photoshop, will benefit you, nevermind you wanting to do all these things simultaneously.

The faster GPU will play most games out today at 1920x1080 without issue, plus offering the ability to do half-decent tri-monitor gaming that you'll nearly be ready for anyway. The limited cost increase, for you, over the 6870 or whatever, is worth it. I say XFX becuase they have a great warranty in North America.

Now, the ram choice, i'd go with just some cheap CAS 9 1600 Mhz stuff. The 2000 Mhz stuff you chose isn't meant to be used with SKT 115 anyway, as SKT1155 doesn't natively support 2000 MHz.


What do you think bout those 4 things? board, cpu, vga and ram?


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## Iceni (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> I looked at getting a GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD7-B3 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard 32GB DDR3, but it's almost a $300 difference on motherboard. I can afford it, but does it really come with $300 worth the improvements? WOuld it really be beneficial to spend that uch extra for the mobo? Does Gogabyte have a midway point board in beteen these? I'm looking around butnot seeing much.



If your not overclocking and have no use for the extra PCIe slots (not going trifire/sli). then you can get pretty much any of the p67/z68 motherboards regardless of the price. They all have the same basic functionality. The main differences are better PCB's better heatsinks, and more knobs and twirly bits.

My own board is a cheap P67a R3. I can clock my I5 2500K to 4.6Ghz on air. Outside of this your paying a premium for toys nothing more. Get a decent brand motherboard. With everything you need on it, But don't sit there thinking you need to blow a fortune on the board. Most of the time your paying for features that have no impact on you. If your not a benchmarker, or have a super high end graphics machine eg 3 GPU's then you don't need most of the options. 

All P67 motherboards have the following as pretty much standard.

1x PCIe 16x (you only need 1)
4 dimm slots for your ram
6 sata ports 2x 6GB/s 4x3Gb/s

They all have the same mounting hole for coolers. 

Outside of this your spending money where you don't need to.

Saving money on the motherboard in your case would allow you to get more hard drive space, or get better monitors. 

the UD7






Gigabyte GA-P67A-D3-B3





take a good look 1 is considerably cheaper and does exactly the same job if your not going to be tweaking the living crap out of the system.


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## JrRacinFan (Dec 12, 2011)

@Lucid

What I meant by "better" was I mean something with SLI maybe Z68. Didn't mean for that to be construed as top of the line.  I mean right now, I like the Asrock Extreme 4(P67 or Z68). Not discrediting anyone else here but listen to cadaveca when it comes to board choice.


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## CJCerny (Dec 12, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> @Lucid
> 
> What I meant by "better" was I mean something with SLI maybe Z68. Didn't mean for that to be construed as top of the line.  I mean right now, I like the Asrock Extreme 4(P67 or Z68). Not discrediting anyone else here but listen to cadaveca when it comes to board choice.



Have to disagree with cadaveca on the board choice here. An Asus Maximus Gene is very appreciated by overclockers, but a total waste of money for someone who is a noob who isn't interested in overclocking and just wants a rig to run Photoshop well. Buy a brand name but inexpensive P67 or Z68 motherboard.


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## JATownes (Dec 12, 2011)

For Photoshop you might want to consider the NVidia card.  Photoshop CS5 supports the use of CUDA cores, and should increase the performance of Photoshop dramatically.





















Source

Just a thought, but it might be worth it if the main purpose is Photoshop.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Dec 12, 2011)

Seriously, reread Cadaveca's post.  There is only a few of things I need to add to the mix.

1) AMD is great for budget minded consumers.  If you're looking for a work horse then you might want to consider an Nvidea card.  Their GPU compute is so much better than the equivalent from AMD that it isn't funny.  Just be prepared for higher costs and energy consumption (with respect ot a similar AMD model) when actually using the raw power.

2) Remember that not many cards have 3 HDMI and DVI connectors.  You'll need to purchase one of the display port to _______ adapters to work with your monitors.

3) 4 years is a long time.  The extra hundred dollars is $25 per year, or $0.07 per day.  Can you really say that $0.07 per day is going to break you.  Not to mention, as the pressure from photographers increases so will the puch to make PS threading friendly.

Best of luck.  Just remember that $700 photoshop justifies a couple of extra hundred dollars to have a rig that is capable of running it to death.


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

CJCerny said:


> Have to disagree with cadaveca on the board choice here. An Asus Maximus Gene is very appreciated by overclockers, but a total waste of money for someone who is a noob who isn't interested in overclocking and just wants a rig to run Photoshop well. Buy a brand name but inexpensive P67 or Z68 motherboard.



I hear what you're saying, but the Gene-Z is under $200 already, and offers everything a similarily priced board does, but in a smaller package. The big thing why I suggest that board is that the BIOS is highly tuned for maximum performance with a wide range of installed parts, and comes with some fantstic support...not the OC features.


Besdies, not everyone saves every penny they can. The board looks good ,too!


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## Iceni (Dec 12, 2011)

> Maddeningly, Photoshop CS5 still does not support any native CUDA-accelerated functions, leaving us in the same boat as After Effects...until we realized that some plug-ins for Photoshop actually use CUDA. Sweet! When we found Digital Anarchy’s Beauty Box Photo plug-in, it was love at first sight.



Also taken from the same source. Opening paragraph in fact.

The vanilla CS5 without extra plugins doesn't use CUDA.

The situational use of plugins that do use CUDA means the feature is nigh on worthless. If PS released a statement to say they were going to implement it in CS6 then all workstations would be on Nvidia. As it stands unless your doing specific things that take the CUDA programming into consideration then it's just a pretty feature.


If you had a use for the plugin and used it on a regular basis. for example a beauty/fashon photographer then it's great. But for normal PS work with any image you'll spend more time looking for plugins that take advantage of the feature than you will loose on waiting for the render to finish.


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## EastCoasthandle (Dec 12, 2011)

For what the OP wants to do I would suggest 16Gigs of ram instead of just 8Gigs.  I know of someone who's doing the same trade and needed more then 8 Gigs in the long run.  He went with 12Gigs.  But in order to keep dual memory channel it's just easier to get 8x8 Gigs.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

I really don'tuse much in the way of plugins. A few on occasion, but nothing intense. I'm still using CS2 at the moment.


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## Senupe (Dec 12, 2011)

*+1 to Core i7 2600k* it will benefit a lot your Photoshop and heavy multi-threaded programs, if you just need to Multi-Monitor Nvidia graphics would require SLI or a very expensive multi-monitor solution, the best is going on AMD graphics card.

Please be more specific about gaming, if you gonna try Game in Multimonitor setup you'll need a BIG horsepower graphics card, in the other way you could even work at multi monitor with a very cheap solution like a 6750 or something. Like cadaveca said before, the sweet-spot for multi monitor is 2GB of VRam so there you have it.
Nice multi-monitor setup + gaming = Radeon HD 6950 2GB (Preferably FlexEdition)
Multi-monitor setup for just work or light gaming = AMD Radeon HD 6870 FlexEdition.

I recomed FlexEdition because you will be more relaxed assembling the PC on the outputs without buying more confusing stuff.

BTW *8Gb of RAM really makes* a difference, my syster renders faster than me even with 8GB 1333Mhz and mine is 4Gb 1600MHz - 8CAS.

*You won't need a big case like that unless you'r planing to get big components on it.* Mid-Tower Cases will fit nicely the 6950 and can be crossfired too. (Cooler Master, Corsair and NZXT have the best cases IMO). CM 690 II Advanced it's nice and have a good price.

*+1 To SSD for Cache of the HDD* Like TRWOV said, it's gonna improve your rendering like day and night, but SSD cache of the HDD can only be used on Z68 chipset, that's why most of us recomend that chipset.


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## Delta6326 (Dec 12, 2011)

Well if I was you here would be some stuff I would look at

If you want a full tower I would get the Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Black Aluminu... by the way it has a combo deal to get the 800D and your 2TB Hard drive Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L... Or you can get that case and get a deal on the I7 2600K Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

If you want a more professional look I would get the Antec P280 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

Senupe said:


> *+1 to Core i7 2600k* it will benefit a lot your Photoshop and heavy multi-threaded programs, if you just need to Multi-Monitor Nvidia graphics would require SLI or a very expensive multi-monitor solution, the best is going on AMD graphics card.
> 
> Please be more specific about gaming, if you gonna try Game in Multimonitor setup you'll need a BIG horsepower graphics card, in the other way you could even work at multi monitor with a very cheap solution like a 6750 or something. Like cadaveca said before, the sweet-spot for multi monitor is 2GB of VRam so there you have it.
> Nice multi-monitor setup + gaming = Radeon HD 6950 2GB (Preferably FlexEdition)
> ...



I chose the big case, because really, no matter what I want to do in the future that case should be able to handleit all. One case, and I shouldn't have to look at another for the foreseeable future. At least that's how I'm looking at it. 

If there's one part of my selections I'm confident on, it's my GPU. For thebalance of money and power I think it offers me everything I need. Realistically, I will probably never game on the box. I'm a console gamer til the end (awaiting the flurry of PC-gamer rage, lol) 

Mobo/CPU I'm a little unsure on, but it's starting to sound like the i7 2600k might be the better choice.

RAM I suppose I can add as needed, but it's really not going to break the bank on me to load her up. I'll probably just go with 16gb of 1600mhz in the end.

I'm also looking at my options for getting an SSD in there, seems like the way to go from what everyone has said.

Thnx


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

Delta6326 said:


> Well if I was you here would be some stuff I would look at
> 
> By the way I don't like that case.
> 
> http://img.techpowerup.org/111212/Capture028073.jpg



Looks good. I think the motherboard and cpu are the most of my deicision making at this point.


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## JrRacinFan (Dec 12, 2011)

@CJCerny

Neither did I say Max Gene Z was a proper choice either. What I am saying is get a board with stuff that the OP will use, P67 if no SRT, don't NEED SLI but it would be a plus, same can be said with the IGP of Z68.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

Looking for a few more opinions on whatbrand and size of SSD to go with, starting to re-piece together a parts list again. 

The ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z really isn't out of my budget for the mobo at only $220 shipped, so I think I'll just go for it.


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

You in no way need a Maximus or a 6870 if you aren't going to game or OC. I'd get the AsRock Extreme3 (which AsRock has hit the nail on) that was mentioned along with some cheap AMD GPU that has triple monitor output. You don't need an EyeFinity card for three panels


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

This is roughly what I'm sitting at right now...

SSD: Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD SATA III 6GB/s MKNSSDCR120GB ASYNC 90000 IOPS SATA3

HDD: Western Digital WD2002FAEX Caviar Black 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz RAM

PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W 80+ Bronze

Case: Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower Case

MOBO: ASUS Maximus IV GENE-Z Motherboard/LGA1155/Z68/SLI/CFX

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K Quad Core LGA1155 3.4GHZ CPU

GPU: Visiontek Radeon HD 6870 2GB GDDR5 Eyefinity 6


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 12, 2011)

sounds good but id deffinately hold out on purchasing a gpu at the min a month or 2 and itll be cheaper or better out for same money but mainly because ya never know just how mouthwaterin that next gpu out is and its nice to be on the edge , i got a 5870 day 1 was mint for at least 2 months just because it was the best you could get

and tomos is another day  you may game with a better pc ayway


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> You in no way need a Maximus or a 6870 if you aren't going to game or OC. I'd get the AsRock Extreme3 (which AsRock has hit the nail on) that was mentioned along with some cheap AMD GPU that has triple monitor output. You don't need an EyeFinity card for three panels



For the $40 I'll save on the motherboard, I don't wsee why going for the Maximus is a big deal. Might as well. 

I see a lot of cheaper AI GPUs I could use to run three monitors, but which will handle what I want to do still with efficiency? I'm looking at 3 24" monitors, and it's got to keep up with photoshop and Premiere. That's all I really care.


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

get the 6950. I have two, and three monitors, but I game. I photoshop, do a bit of html(or whatever it is I use for my reviews), but I also game and such.

I won't ever recommend AsRock boards until they send me samples. I have no idea about them, and there are mixed reports of customer satisfaction.

I recommend the ASUS Gene-Z becuase I have it sitting here in it's box.

My review is here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/Maximus_IV_Gene-Z/


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## Senupe (Dec 12, 2011)

Counting on your considerations i think you could perfectly use this parts.
-Added Intel 2600K for Horsepower CPU
-Added Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 FlexEdition due to the fact it can connect Eyefinity without requirig extra cables and can support 5 Displays at the same time.
-Added Cooler Master H.A.F. 932 Advanced Model, it's very similar to the H.A.F. X, and can fit the longest Graphics Cards and a lot of Air Coolers without messing the airflow, plus this one is black on the inside and have USB 3.0.
-Motherboard is ASRock because of the features for the price, they work terrific and have the features of overclock and Intel Smart Response Tech at a great price. JrRacinFan it's right, Asus have Incredibly Great Overclocking features, if you plan to overclock in the feature with SLI/CFX feature, you should really look for the Maximus IV Gene-Z, if you don't this ASRock board will work great.
-16GBs of RAM 1600MHz CAS9; 1.5TB HDD + OCZ 60GB SSD For Cache; and Cooler Master 212+ for keeping the CPU cold or just in case you want to use the "K" of your CPU.




*Seeing the SSD you chose i recomend to hold it back to 64GBs, that's the maximun allowed for ISR.*


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> This is roughly what I'm sitting at right now...



Look, if you're going to throw $220 on a mobo you don't need in any way, get the Asus WS Revo. It's much better than the Maximus Gene. Otherwise, pick up an AsRock Extreme3. If you aren't going to overclock or even game on that machine, then why are you getting an EyeFinity 6 card? Are you going for a 6 panel setup? No. Also, why the 750W PSU? You don't need that much for that setup. As pointed out in the thread title, you're going to waste your money idiotically if you don't listen to people's advise.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

theoneandonlymrk said:


> sounds good but id deffinately hold out on purchasing a gpu at the min a month or 2 and itll be cheaper or better out for same money but mainly because ya never know just how mouthwaterin that next gpu out is and its nice to be on the edge , i got a 5870 day 1 was mint for at least 2 months just because it was the best you could get
> 
> and tomos is another day  you may game with a better pc ayway



I'm not about to start worrying about whats just around the corner, there's always something bigger and better just around the corner when it comes to electronics. Took me 2 years to buy a new TV waiting for that bigger and better before I finally said screw it and went for one, lol. 2 Years I could have been happy with something completely satisfactory. 

I ran an $800 Staples out of the box HP Pavillion for 4 years before the board caved up until recently. I'm sure whatever I build will last me plenty. and keep me good and happy along the way...


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> Look, if you're going to throw $220 on a mobo you don't need in any way, get the Asus WS Revo. It's much better than the Maximus Gene. Otherwise, pick up an AsRock Extreme3. If you aren't going to overclock or even game on that machine, then why are you getting an EyeFinity 6 card? Are you going for a 6 panel setup? No. Also, why the 750W PSU? You don't need that much for that setup. As pointed out in the thread title, you're going to waste your money idiotically if you don't listen to people's advise.



Gene-Z is 169.99 @ newegg:

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155

Not everyone is so concerned with saving money as you are, BTW. Sometimes colors of a board or slot layout are all it takes to make it worthwhile. Someone chosing something they like, for whatever reason, doesn't make them idiotic.


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Dec 12, 2011)

np g your happy im happy(well not assed if honest)


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Gene-Z is 169.99 @ newegg:
> 
> ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z LGA 1155
> 
> Not everyone is so concerned with saving money as you are, BTW. Sometimes colors of a board or slto layout are all it takes to make it worthwhile.



So you're basically comfortable with suggesting the OP to throw away his money. lol. If we're to discuss about these things, the red-black color scheme of Asus is overused and crap IMO. You can get either of these two boards in that price range, both of which are superior. In fact, he doesn't need any of this if he isn't even going to OC at all. Irony.

ASRock Fatal1ty P67 PROFESSIONAL (B3) LGA 1155 Int...

MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s U...


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> So you're basically comfortable with suggesting the OP to throw away his money. lol. If we're to discuss about these things, the red-black color scheme of Asus is overused and crap IMO. You can get either of these two boards in that price range, both of which are superior. In fact, he doesn't need any of this if he isn't even going to OC at all. Irony.
> 
> ASRock Fatal1ty P67 PROFESSIONAL (B3) LGA 1155 Int...
> 
> MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s U...



SO now we're back to the P67 chipset? i thought the consensus was leaning towards the Z68?


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

Lucid said:


> SO now we're back to the P67 chipset? i thought the consensus was leaning towards the Z68?



You only get the option of an onboard SSD and video on Z68, which you don't need since you're already picking up one. Other than that, it's the exact same chipset as P67.


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## Lucid (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> You only get the option of an onboard SSD and video on Z68, which you don't need since you're already picking up one. Other than that, it's the exact same chipset as P67.



Got ya.


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> So you're basically comfortable with suggesting the OP to throw away his money. lol. If we're to discuss about these things, the red-black color scheme of Asus is overused and crap IMO. You can get either of these two boards in that price range, both of which are superior. In fact, he doesn't need any of this if he isn't even going to OC at all. Irony.
> 
> ASRock Fatal1ty P67 PROFESSIONAL (B3) LGA 1155 Int...
> 
> MSI P67A-GD80 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s U...



Again, it's about BIOS, product quality, and product support. I won't recommend P67 to anyone at this point. For cheap Z68, single card, no OC, the Biostar Z68 gets my vote, as it's cheaper than both those boards you listed.

Again, here's my review for that board:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Biostar/TZ68A_PLUS/


Of course, I have the boards I recommend, so my recommendations always come from having personally used each product. If I don't have it, I don't recommend it.


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

cadaveca said:


> Again, it's about BIOS, product quality, and product support. I won't recommend P67 to anyone at this point. For cheap Z68, single card, no OC, the Biostar Z68 gets my vote, as it's cheaper than both those boards you listed.
> 
> Of course, I have the boards I recommend, so my recommendations always come from having personally used each product. If I don't have it, I don't recommend it.



That's a completely absurd statement. Both the P67 and the Z68 are "Cougar Point". They're the same chipset, with one having the ability to have an onboard SSD (for cache) and onboard video. 

The P67-GD80 has high current inductors and Tantalum caps, so it's obviously not "low quality". For a sober fact, it's the best built Sandy board out there. It has more slots. As for the P67 Fatal1ty, it again has a bunch of slots with an expander, comes with mouse port HZ management and a better UEFI than a Biostar. You suggest Biostar, yet ditch these boards? What kind of logic is that? The boards I test are good. The ones I didn't must be crap. Wow.

And you know, if you want me to show off (like you), here you go.


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

John Doe said:


> For a sober fact, it's the best built Sandy board out there.


Very few P67 boards have PCIe 3.0 support(if any), so that's why I won't recommend them, nevermind the differences in BIOS. I wouldn't exactly call the GD80 the "best built Sandy board", as I haven't got one, but the main thing that sticks out to me is the lack of an external drive controller that many other products in the same price range offer. Nevermind the issues with the third slot and USB/eSATA.

From MSI's site:



> - PCI_E5 supports up to PCIE x4 speed (due to the limitation of the chipset, when the PCI_E5 has been installed with a PCIE x4 device, 2 eSATA ports, 2 onboard front USB 3.0 connectors, 2 PCI slots and 1 USB 3.0 rear IO port (the top USB 3.0 port at the side of audio jacks) will become unavailable.)



And it wasn't about showing off...it's to highlight that I have a limited supply of boards that I have reviewed, so my perspective is limited.

I will NEVER recommend something i haven't received for review. I think it's irresponsible for me to comment about products I have no idea of, so again, my recommendation are going to come form the boards shown in that pic. There's many many other boards I don't have, that'll never get any sort of recommendation from me, regardless of popular opinion.


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## John Doe (Dec 12, 2011)

Well I think that's an absurdist statement. 

PCI 3.0 is just marketing at this rate. None of the GPU's are using it and even then, it won't affect performance to a significant degree. 

As for the GD-80 being the "best built", I was referring to the component selection of the board. Yeah, a lacks a bit on extra features.


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## cadaveca (Dec 12, 2011)

PCIe 3.0 devices are forward-looking, yes. But as the OP said, he's looking for something that wil last maybe 4 years. PCIe 3.0 brings the possibility of upgrades.

One of the things I look at in my reviews is board-level component selection. That part of design figures largely in my opinion.


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## Delta6326 (Dec 13, 2011)

Hey just saying it would be cheaper if you got the PowerColor AX6870 2GBD5-6DG Radeon HD 6870 2GB 256... and I think its better. Also This ram is a very good deal just get 2x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR...


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## Lucid (Dec 13, 2011)

How are the ThermalTake PSUs? I see there is a combo deal for $85. 

Thermaltake TR2 W0388RU 600W ATX 12V v2.2 Power Supply 

&

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 



So I could grab another set of those Ripjaws and have 16GB of RAM and a 600W PSU for $120. That seems decent to me,but I was told explicity to make sure my PSU is rated 80+ which I dunno if that makes abig deal, but this oe doesn't seem to be.


Edit: Ahh, I see they have a combo with a COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Bronze, that goes for 4100, not bad either. I think that'd probably be a little better.


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## JrRacinFan (Dec 13, 2011)

The TR2 units are HEC/Compucase units. Decent 2nd tier, The CoolerMaster I'm unsure but both are just as good as one another. I myself personally wouldn't attempt any dual gpu setup with either.


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## John Doe (Dec 13, 2011)

Low end HEC are junk, so I'd avoid those. The Silent Pro on the other hand is a solid Enhance built. You can shoot for it:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=134


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