3 Monitor Gaming PC

Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Hi there, doing this for a friend. Basically, my friend wants to spend £2,000 on a pc for gaming but needs 3 monitors (not included in that price). He is getting a quote from one of his friends working in pc world and I made a bet that I could beat that quote with a better spec and price. Anyway, here is what I have come up with, is the one graphics card going to be enough to power 3 screens?

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-3930K (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79 PRO: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA2011 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,935.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
no, the gtx 580 is only able to run 3 screens alone, you will need two cards for 3 screens

drop to an i7 2600 and you should probably be closer to getting a second 580, youll need 2 of them for 3 screens

this should be perfect for what your friend wants

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

2nd Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)

Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Oh right, thank you, I thought I may need more but wasn't sure!!! Should I be considering anything else other than 2x580, I can't up the price any more though.
 
Last edited:
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
2xHD6970's would be a good choice, they don't perform quite as well as the 2x580's but they're not too far behind, cheaper and use significantly less power.
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Ok, they are significantly cheaper and as long as you won't notice it in most games, I am more than happy to go with the hd6970s.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
i wouldnt get 3 personally, the power draw would be huge, and so would 2x6970s, the two 580s will only require 850w and they alao have 3gb VRAM, 1gb more than the 6970s meaning it probably performs better on 3 screens
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Prolific Poster
Wozza365 said:
i wouldnt get 3 personally, the power draw would be huge, and so would 2x6970s, the two 580s will only require 850w and they alao have 3gb VRAM, 1gb more than the 6970s meaning it probably performs better on 3 screens
Click to expand...
At full load 2xGTX580's still use more power than 2xHD6970's.

power consumption.png
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
according to PCS, the same build other than the cards, the 6970s use 120w more than the 580s, dont know where you got those stats from

PSU calculator says that the 6970s use 8 more watts than the 580s
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Ok, had a look, came up with this, only one problem, there isn't a psu powerful enough. PCS says I need 1313w but the most powerful psu they have there is 1200w. Anything I can do??? Anyway, here is the spec:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
2nd Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
3rd Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6970 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1200W PRO SERIES™ GOLD AX1200-80 PLUS® GOLD MODULAR(£208)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
Active Display Port to DVI Adapter (EYEFINITY 3 MONITOR SETUPS) (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,961.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
id stick to 2 580s imo, upgrading from 2 to 3 cards actually has very little effect and you wont benefit much at all from 3 cards, the 3rd would be a waste of money, whereas 2 580s would be very effective and also have 1GB more VRAM, which is a lot, as much as eyefinity are meant to be more refined for multiple monitors, i still think the 580s would be much better, you are also cutting out luxuries such as an SSD on the above spec which is a very nice thing to have
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Ok, so you think this is better, it is a little more expensive but for the amount of money, I am sure it won't matter. Also, I have added the blu ray drive which I have been asked to add recently!!! Anyway, here is the spec:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£39)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Eyefinity / GeForce 3D Vision
Active Display Port to DVI Adapter (EYEFINITY 3 MONITOR SETUPS) (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,062.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
do you need 16GB? could save money there as well as dropping to a triple copper CPU cooler, dont forget silver warranty though
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
change the caviar green to a black for all ya games.

get rid of the display port thingy for the amd setup.
 
Music Guy123

Music Guy123

Prolific Poster
Ok, here is a re-post of the spec due to some silly mistakes!!!

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£39)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £2,056.00 including VAT and delivery.

So you think this is better than the 3x amd eyefinity graphics cards.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
yeh definitely, a 3rd graphics card is pretty much pointless, even a second card doesnt double the power, nowhere near, i imagine its 150-170% of the single card most of the time, i imagine only about 200-230% of the power with 3 cards, SLi/XFire are both still works in progress and will take a while to be more effective, driver updates are currently showing the inncrease

if you wanna save another £20, you could drop to the HAF932, would still be pretty good, or the CM690 with the fan controller apparently pretty good with all the fans fitted
 
tom_gr7

tom_gr7

Life Serving
personally i'd get a different case altogether, the haf-x is good but, but i'd fancy something else.
 
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