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Which Video Card(s) for dual purpose? Home Office w/3 27" Monitors and a Mits HC4000 Projector

post #1 of 17
8/14/12 at 7:17pm
Thread Starter 
1) Could someone help me pick out a video card that will serve dual purpose? I dont mind running two cards if they are $300 each or less

2) And should I get a seperate Audio Card or just use the one in the motherboard?

  1. Daily home office work running three 27" monitors, mostly low power software, email, spreadsheets and MS-Word, but some CAD & Inventor and videos
  2. Hooked to a overhead HT projector, probably a Mits HC4000 by HDMI through a HT AVR amp located in the same equipment rack

So far what I have spec'd out for the main components is;

Processor:
Intel Core i7-3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 2011 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73820

Motherboard: Should I get a seperate Audio Card?
ASUS Rampage IV Gene LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

32 gig RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9Q-32GBXL

(2) hard drives - Mirrored as I have a lot of software:
Seagate Barracuda ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive



Also, this is the BD drive I was looking at; any comments?

LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support Model UH12LS29 LightScribe Support - OEM




Thanks for any help, Eric.
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post #2 of 17
8/14/12 at 7:53pm
I'm going to do something a bit weird here. FirePro W7000. It will run 4 DisplayPort monitors our of the box. It was the CAD that drove me that way. If you don't want the workstation workload to drive the decision, how about either an HD 7870 or 7970. Seeing as you are driving 3 HD monitors, I would go for the 7970 for additional Vram. Lots of connections, DVI, HDMI and Displayport.
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post #3 of 17
8/14/12 at 8:12pm
What resolution are your monitors? 1080? or 1440? Also do you need GPU horsepower for CAD or just something with a lot of outputs?
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post #4 of 17
8/14/12 at 8:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 View Post

What resolution are your monitors? 1080? or 1440? Also do you need GPU horsepower for CAD or just something with a lot of outputs?

I dont have the monitors yet, but they wont be anything too demanding. 16:9 1920x1080. I have been running various Samsungs, and will look at the Samsungs, Dells, HPs and the BenQ.

I dont really do that much CAD anymore, most of the time I am just running Word, Excel and Outlook. When I do run AutoCAD or Inventor currently, I havent had a problem and I am using an HP DV7 w/8 gigs of ram and a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570M w/ 1 gig using the laptops 17" monitor and a Sammy 24"

While I am building my new system, I want to move it to my HT closet which is in the same room, change to the three 27" monitors and also be able to run the projector when I want to, not really sure why, but what the hell?

I will be running some long 30'-35' hdmi cables from the remote PC to my desk mounted monitors. The PC will be in the same rack as my AVR and servor, so the PC to AVR (then projector) will be a relatively short HDMI.

I was thinking of two video cards giving me at least two HDMI ports, and trying to stay away from any of the dual link and display port adapter setups. In other words, I am looking for a card or set of cards so I can easily connect to my HT Projector at night and run the three monitors during the day.

I was thinking of using one HDMI and one DVI from one card along with a DVI from the second card to run the three monitors and run the other HDMI into the AVR for the projector.

Thanks, Eric.
Edited by EricU - 8/14/12 at 9:15pm
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post #5 of 17
8/14/12 at 9:37pm
I don't think you will get a card with multiple HDMI outputs. You could probably use dvi to hdmi adapters. But for the monitors DVI is probably better.

For AMD cards I think you will need at least one display port adapter (possibly active which costs more) to push 4 monitors.

A card like this 7850 has plenty of outputs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150608

But I personally haven't done it so I don't want to mislead you. On some cards one of the dvi ports is tied to the hdmi so its one or the other. If thats the case here it would be
hdmi > projector
dvi>monitor
display port x2 > monitors

But hopefully someone with more knowledge will jump in and help you out.

My .02 that board seems like overkill for your setup. The i7 2600k is pretty much equal to the 3820 and the 3770k is a bit better.
You could get a Z77 board that would support all that ram for much less.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157306

Just a quick example. Unless there is a specific reason you need X79 that I am missing.
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post #6 of 17
8/15/12 at 9:52am

Eric;

 

I did not see an SSD drive in you H/W list. I highly recommend one, at least for your system files (OS, programs, etc.). I would use the SSD in addition to your spindle drives and use these for your data.

 

____

Axel

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post #7 of 17
8/15/12 at 10:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricU View Post


I dont really do that much CAD anymore, most of the time I am just running Word, Excel and Outlook.  

 

So why do you want an LGA2011 i7?  If your're not doing CAD, you could do all this and play your videos with a $35 Celeron.

 

And why are you including 32GB of ram when 8 would be more than enough?

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post #8 of 17
8/15/12 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
So why do you want an LGA2011 i7? If your're not doing CAD, you could do all this and play your videos with a $35 Celeron.

I do still do some CAD and Inventor work along with some FEA work
Quote:
And why are you including 32GB of ram when 8 would be more than enough?

Again, I do still do some CAD and Inventor work along with some FEA work
Quote:
I did not see an SSD drive in you H/W list. I highly recommend one, at least for your system files (OS, programs, etc.). I would use the SSD in addition to your spindle drives and use these for your data.

I have a seperate server, and just dont see the cost benifit of running a SSD yet. I dont understand why they are still so expensive


But my reason for this thread was to try to find some solutions for the video card or cards as I have never run multiple cards before or so many monitors.

Eric.
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post #9 of 17
8/15/12 at 11:13pm
You would probably have better luck on a different site.
Hopefully I won't get in trouble.

http://www.overclock.net/f/74/graphics-cards-general
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post #10 of 17
8/16/12 at 2:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricU View Post

I was thinking of two video cards giving me at least two HDMI ports, and trying to stay away from any of the dual link and display port adapter setups. In other words, I am looking for a card or set of cards so I can easily connect to my HT Projector at night and run the three monitors during the day.

If you go with one of these, then you won't need 2 cards. If you go with IPS monitors with a displayport adapter, then you could run 2 dp and 1 dvi for the monitors, leaving the hdmi for the projector.

Not sure which card(s) to point you towards without more knowledge of what your CAD software needs in terms of acceleration.
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post #11 of 17
8/16/12 at 6:40pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yraen View Post

If you go with one of these, then you won't need 2 cards. If you go with IPS monitors with a displayport adapter, then you could run 2 dp and 1 dvi for the monitors, leaving the hdmi for the projector.
Not sure which card(s) to point you towards without more knowledge of what your CAD software needs in terms of acceleration.

The CAD software (AutoCAD and Inventor) doesnt seem to present a problem with my current HPdv7 running a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570 to a Samsung 24"

I have just never run multiple cards or three monitors or to a HT projector.

Eric.
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post #12 of 17
8/16/12 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricU View Post



I have a seperate server, and just dont see the cost benifit of running a SSD yet. I dont understand why they are still so expensive
.


So expensive? You can get a really good Intel 60gb for under $60 or Samsung 128gb for under $100. Not sure what you expect, but given the price of hard disks that seems cheap to me and the performance improvement is unmatched.
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post #13 of 17
8/16/12 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricU View Post

The CAD software (AutoCAD and Inventor) doesnt seem to present a problem with my current HPdv7 running a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6570 to a Samsung 24"
I have just never run multiple cards or three monitors or to a HT projector.
Eric.
Sounds like a 7770 would be a good choice.

I found this on the toms hardware review.
Quote:
Although one full slot on the 7770’s I/O panel is devoted to ventilation, you’ll still find one dual-link DVI port, one full-sized HDMI connector, and two mini-DisplayPort outputs back there, cumulatively supporting up to six screens (though practically, the limit is still four, since we still haven’t seen any DisplayPort 1.2 Multi-Stream Transport hubs).

I think also if you get monitors without display port you could possibly just get mini dp to dvi adapters. Monoprice has some for 6 bucks.
I started a thread at another forum to confirm some things.
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post #14 of 17
8/16/12 at 8:21pm
Hey I got a response on the other thread I started. It was actually from the AMD Hardware Representative that helps out on the site with stuff like this. (If you want the direct link PM me I don't want to keep posting links to external sites)

Anyways he said the 7770 will be fine. The display port adapters do need to be Active. Which are the more expensive ones. He linked some from newegg which are $25 each.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815309008

So your options imo are either to get monitors that support display port (and hopefully dvi as well), then all you would need are mini displayport to displayport adapters. (I asked him if active vs. passive comes into play here. I assume not so these should be pretty cheap)

Or to get any monitor that at least has dvi, And be ready to spend another $50 on the two active adapters.

Good luck. Looks like you have a ton of options when it comes to these cards.
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post #15 of 17
8/16/12 at 9:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 View Post

...Anyways he said the 7770 will be fine. The display port adapters do need to be Active. Which are the more expensive ones. He linked some from newegg which are $25 each...So your options imo are either to get monitors that support display port (and hopefully dvi as well), then all you would need are mini displayport to displayport adapters. (I asked him if active vs. passive comes into play here. I assume not so these should be pretty cheap).[/I]

So, do I need just one video card? or two?

And if just one, would I see any difference running a HD 7870? any problems with this card?

Quote:
...Or to get any monitor that at least has dvi, And be ready to spend another $50 on the two active adapters...

These are the monitors that I am currently leaning towards, SAMSUNG 650 Series S27A650D 27" LED Monitor w/Display Port which has a DVI and a Display port but no HDMI!!!
Quote:
...Good luck. Looks like you have a ton of options when it comes to these cards.

And that is my main problem! Which is also why I dont go to Starbucks!!!


Eric.
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post #16 of 17
8/16/12 at 9:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricU View Post

So, do I need just one video card? or two?
And if just one, would I see any difference running a HD 7870? any problems with this card?
These are the monitors that I am currently leaning towards, SAMSUNG 650 Series S27A650D 27" LED Monitor w/Display Port which has a DVI and a Display port but no HDMI!!!
And that is my main problem! Which is also why I dont go to Starbucks!!!
Eric.

You would need just one card.

The 7870 should be fine as far as I can tell. Just has more horsepower. I was looking at cheaper options since it looked like any more was going to be wasted for your use. But it you want something better by all means.

That monitor looks great. I don't think you need hdmi on the monitors or really want to use it. Just another thing to deal with as far as the handshake goes. I prefer dvi as its "always on". Never used display port not sure if there is any sort of handshake. But you would be saving yourself
some cash only needing the cheaper mini dp to dp adapter.

Kind of bul if you ask me that amd puts those mini dp ports on their cards but none of the vendors (that I saw) seem to include the adapters.Nvidia started using mini hdmi which also was annoying but some of the good companies like EVGA would include the adapter.

And shoot if your going to drop $300, why not spend $20 more and get a 7950 tongue.gif Reference card though so hot and loud. smile.gif
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post #17 of 17
8/16/12 at 10:34pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, so it sounds like it's a 7870 for me.

Now, I want to stick this card in a SilverStone Grandia Series GD01B-MXR-USB3.0 ATX Media Center/ HTPC Case in a media closet (with cooling, lots of cooling) that would require about 30' to 35' or so long cables.

35' DVI cables are not a problem to get - have never tried them, but have had multiple 30' HDMI cables.

Has anyone used a Long Mini DisplayPort cable?

Any thoughts? Eric.
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