Gaming pc - confused about multi monitors and sound cards :)

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DMNL

Member
Hi all - have been enjoying reading through the forums and after collating lots of advice and reading reviews I have selected the following but would love some feedback.

With regards to multi monitors I have a Samsung 40" 3D Smart TV and a pretty standard yet full HD 23" pc monitor - will these play even though they are different and will I be able to watch a movie in 3d on the TV and browse the web on the pc monitor? Will playing games in 3D be possible with this setup?

As for sound cards I intend to get a 7.2 surround sound system for the tv - something close to this in specs - the question is does the source or the sound card count when sending the signal to the AV receiver? In other words should I spend the cash on the AV receiver or the sound card?

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-3930K (3.2GHz) 12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL CERTIFIED LIQUID CPU COOLER FOR SOCKET LG2011 (£79)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium (£59)
Network Facilities
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)

Configure
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
You should be able to play in one monitor and have the other monitor operating. When 3D mode is on however my secondary screen would usually go black. I would check whether or not your monitor is compatible with Nvidia 3D vision, I tested one 3D TV and the 3D was possible but it was not as good as having a 3D monitor supported by NVIDIA 3D vision. If the TV is in fact compatible you would need to buy a 3D vision kit.
I am afraid I do not have a clue regarding the AV receiver.
 
D

DMNL

Member
rubensolo said:
You should be able to play in one monitor and have the other monitor operating. When 3D mode is on however my secondary screen would usually go black. I would check whether or not your monitor is compatible with Nvidia 3D vision, I tested one 3D TV and the 3D was possible but it was not as good as having a 3D monitor supported by NVIDIA 3D vision. If the TV is in fact compatible you would need to buy a 3D vision kit.
I am afraid I do not have a clue regarding the AV receiver.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply - it is a Samsung UE40D6750 , thats a link to the spec page for it which I understand less than PC specs but it does use active 3D so I am hopeful (as it needs glasses like nvidia). Currently I use a separate pc and Samsung Allshare software which means I can play any movie 3D or not over the network which is nice as the £100 source pc is only good for web browsing so I wont be stuck for movies its just the 3d gaming.

Why do I need the 3D vision kit? It seems to offer 3D glasses (I have those) and software. My £100 pc with its tiny little nvidia card that isnt 3D capable has so much 3D software with it its daft :) Also I have no desire to use any 2D to 3D software. The TV has this and its simply a gimmick. I will only want to play things in 3D that were made for 3D if that makes sense.
 
D

DMNL

Member
rubensolo said:
I tried looking in the Nvidia website for compatibility of 3D vision with your monitor

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-displays.html

but could not find the model. I'll try to look for more info in your monitor this evening (sorry at work) and get back to you later.
Click to expand...

Thanks! - I have tried looking online but get conflicting info. I called the helpline today and after chatting with one of the guys have amended my system and got a few pointers. As the TV is capable of playing any 3D source it gets it should be OK and I have read online that people have successfully used Nvidia glasses with Samsung screens and vice versa. The TV detects 3D signals automatically and can play all kinds of 3D I have found so far. The only thing I cant play is old fashioned 3D as I dont have the 50p glasses :) As for the AV receiver the guy was honest and said he wasnt sure but it should be OK and as I have spent my home cinema budget on a PC it will have to wait for a while anyway so I can wait for the PC and choose a receiver to suit it. I will post back to the forums and let you know how I get on!

Here is the final spec (unless anyone has more advice, still time to change my mind!):

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P9X79: INTEL® SOCKET LG2011
Memory (RAM)
16GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS QUAD-DDR3 1600MHz X.M.P(4 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
INTEL CERTIFIED LIQUID CPU COOLER FOR SOCKET LG2011 (£79)
Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium (£59)
Network Facilities
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)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
I was told the following by Nvidia support:
Please note that the 3D vision kit works only with some Mitsubishi TV and not with Samsung TV
Since you are not overclocking I would go for air cooling rather than the coolit. Wouldnt you need a secondary drive apart from the SSD?
 
D

DMNL

Member
rubensolo said:
I was told the following by Nvidia support:
Please note that the 3D vision kit works only with some Mitsubishi TV and not with Samsung TV
Since you are not overclocking I would go for air cooling rather than the coolit. Wouldnt you need a secondary drive apart from the SSD?
Click to expand...

I think I was being confused by the Nvidia 3D kit option in the spec pages - I thought you needed it for 3D signals. On closer inspection it seems to be a cable and software to upscale 2D content to 3D. I do not want this function (the TV can do this on its own anyway) I just want the TV to get a 3D signal from the PC via the GPU.

Perhaps this helps - my laptop is full HD and has a blu ray drive so when I got the TV I bought some 3D blu rays. They wouldnt play in 3D however as its GPU wont do this however if I share the source over Samsung Allshare or my network it will play as the TV does the 3D bit. If I connect a mates set top box style blu ray 3D player it plays them. I want to make sure that this PC will send a 3D signal if I play a 3D game OR blu ray via the PC so I dont end up with 3D games as coasters too ;)

Heat has been a real issue for me in the past so taking no chances, the coolit wasnt much of a price jump and a quiet option which is important to me.

I should have said I have a blu ray and regular large storage drives sorry - you are right if I didnt it would be a tad bare! Is 120g going to be OK for win7/8 and leave room for some steam games? Asides from Steam almost everything is on my NAS. In fact if it wasnt for steam I wouldnt be here as I could do everything from my galaxy tab but where is the fun in that?!

I also upgraded the PSU on advice to give some leeway - all I intend to add in the foreseeable future is a blu ray and 4 3tb drives. The system says 600w will be fine for me right now and I dont intend to sli so will the extra 150w cope with the 5 extra drives without taxing the PSU? If it makes a difference I will be upgrading to quiet eco friendly drives as a priority over performance and will probably sell the blu ray as I have got used to ripping my stuff to a hdd and then using Allshare or streaming direct.
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Morning DMNL,
My understanding from the information I got was that any 3D content (movies or games) may not be compatible with the Samsung TV (this is regardless of you purchasing the 3D vision kit or not), it seems that only lcd monitors from Samsung have that featue. I'd wait for feedback from a forum member that has an Nvidia GPU and a 3D tv to verify this information.
The coolit is a great cpu cooler, got one and it keeps my cpu at iddle at around 30'C and 40-45'C when gaming. It is also smaller than the air cooling option but I noticed you got the Intel certified liquid cpu cooling chosen.
Regarding the 120gb, when I had one after installing the OS and main Drivers I had around 79 gb left, buzz has created a thread on SSD management and it helped me gain additional space on my SSD:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?14728-SSD-Management
By playing with the configurator and adding 3 3TB and other stuff it gives me 600w, I think the 750w should be sufficient.

Edit: sorry just noticed the samsung + nvidia glasses comment, was this an lcd monitor or a 3dtv?
 
Last edited:
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DMNL

Member
Very reassuring re the SSD thanks. Its an LCD 3D TV - confusing but I am buying the system today so we shall see I guess ;)

I just said coolit cos you did - the intel was the only option on the page other than air.
 
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DMNL

Member
Thanks - I dropped windows on order but as an add on added a power surge (£9 is a decent price) and a 5 day express build (£39) as I am a kid and this is a candy store :)

The SSD thread you linked to is amazing - I was making a load of HDD assumptions that this cleared up.

I will add a 3D post to the desktop section once I get the PC to detail the Samsung Vs 570 3D battle too :)
 
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DMNL

Member
I went for the Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium (£59) in the end as I felt I wasnt going to use much of the fatality card and prob wouldnt have wanted the full I/O part installed anyway so seemed a waste of £120 ish.

BTW had to go to the order page to check the full name of the soundcard and I spotted this:

Production Dates
Processed Date 16-05-2012
Build Date 17-05-2012
Test Date 17-05-2012

Is it time to start choosing where to put the case? :D
 
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