$3000-4000 Gaming/Work build - 3-4 VM's & 4 screens

[Threadent]

Hello all,

 

I could really use some advice on putting together a high-performance gaming / working computer, dualboot Kubuntu Linux/Windows 7 64bit. I hope to be running several games as well as 3-4 virtual machines (mostly running windows XP & linux with 1-2GB of ram, some using SSH tunneling into work) at the same time (I like to multitask).

 

I'd also like to SLI with 4 screens (this is apparently more difficult than it sounds). If that's asking too much, then the closer the better. Unfortunately, the last time I built a computer was 2003, so while I can physically assemble the components, I'm not up on component compatibility. Some specifics:

 

Budget: $3000 soft cap, $4000 hard cap

Purpose: Gaming, work (compiling code, router configuration, miscellaneous jobs & service logging through Service Now (http://www.service-now.com/)). Might also move into rendering.

Location: Australia. This affects the budget a bit - about a 20% surcharge on components. But if someone posts a great $4000 USD system, I'll just have it shipped by an overseas shopping company (with the current strength of the AUD vs. USD, actually cheaper than buying locally)

 

I'd like performance to be as snappy as possible, so that I can alt-tab out of a resources-hungry game and into a VM window without noticeable slowdown.

 

As for some parts specifics, I'm looking at NVidia over ATI for the graphics card due to some apparent driver issues with ATI & linux. Unfortunately NVidia SLI seems to have some issues running more than 2 monitors at once. I'd like to be able to switch between 1-3 SLI-driven screens for games (including multi-monitor display for newer, prettier ones), using the remaining screens for system commands, work and VM's.

 

I'd also like a full 4-panel extended desktop to use solely for work apps when I have to do multiple things at once. Having to switch from SLI to non-SLI mode to accomplish this would be a pain, but perhaps an unavoidable one.

 

Finally, games run & resolutions. I'd like to get Metro 2033 & Crysis running at playable frame rates with the highest resolution possible, while retaining high graphics settings - keep in mind I want to run surround with 3 screens (again, if possible). Resolution slightly preferred over absolute quality - I'll turn the settings down if necessary to get a 3-screen spread.

 

I'm also interested in some screen suggestions, but I'm interested in components first - I can scrounge 3-4 LCD's by replacing my older machine's displays with some dodgy CRT's.

 

I'd be grateful for any help or suggestions. Cheers all

[Muchoman1]

hi mate, its great to see some more aussies on this site!

 

firstly, for multiple screens you cant beat AMD/ATI. with all the new 6xxx series cards running 6 off each card.

the amd drivers offer full support for linux aswell now.

 

secondly, for this price range the components i would suggest are; (all prices from www.pccasegear.com.au)

cpu- i7 950 - $325 (for what you want the 6core cpus will make no difference)

mobo- ASUS ROG rampage 3 formula - $369 (3way crossfire, usb3, sata3)

ram- corsiar dominator gt 12gb - $389 (2000mhz, cooling fan)

graphics cards- Sapphire 6950 2gb x3 - $987 (329 ea) (downclocked 6970)

psu- corsair ax1200w- $369

boot drive- ocz vertex 2/3 120gb- $259 (if you can wait, get the vertex 3 which will come out soon)

other hdd- 2x wd caviar black 1tb in raid 0- $210

odd- pioneer bluray burner- $127

case- your choice, i love the corsair 600t, it fits all the stuff with heaps of room to spare (my rig is very similar to this)- $215

screens- 4x Acer V243HLBD 24'' full hd monitor- $796 (run 3 in eyefinity with the 4th as a seperate screen)

 

total $4046

 

and anything else like keyboard/mouse/cpu cooler (if you want a better one)

[james91]

hi mate, its great to see some more aussies on this site!

 

firstly, for multiple screens you cant beat AMD/ATI. with all the new 6xxx series cards running 6 off each card.

the amd drivers offer full support for linux aswell now.

 

secondly, for this price range the components i would suggest are; (all prices from www.pccasegear.com.au)

cpu- i7 950 - $325 (for what you want the 6core cpus will make no difference)

mobo- ASUS ROG rampage 3 formula - $369 (3way crossfire, usb3, sata3)

ram- corsiar dominator gt 12gb - $389 (2000mhz, cooling fan)

graphics cards- Sapphire 6950 2gb x3 - $987 (329 ea) (downclocked 6970)

psu- corsair ax1200w- $369

boot drive- ocz vertex 2/3 120gb- $259 (if you can wait, get the vertex 3 which will come out soon)

other hdd- 2x wd caviar black 1tb in raid 0- $210

odd- pioneer bluray burner- $127

case- your choice, i love the corsair 600t, it fits all the stuff with heaps of room to spare (my rig is very similar to this)- $215

screens- 4x Acer V243HLBD 24'' full hd monitor- $796 (run 3 in eyefinity with the 4th as a seperate screen)

 

total $4046

 

and anything else like keyboard/mouse/cpu cooler (if you want a better one)

 

that isnt a bad build but i just want to say psu is real over kill unless u change parts to this.

i would change the ram to Corsair Vengeance 16GB $259 you can overclock them over 2000mhz and u save over $100

would change the graphics aswell go a Gigabyte Radeon HD6990 4GB $949 beats almost anything in crossfire / sli

and would run 4x monitors with no problems at all and u can always go crossfire with it later on not like you would need to.

change hhd's to Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB $199 no need to raid 2x1tb when its cheaper for a single drive which you could raid later and have more space not 4x1tb you can have 4x2tb will be cheaper yet more storage. if you just use the 2tb for storage could go western digital green's 2tb $99 there speeds are good i have one.

case is your choice as said but corsair have a 650D coming out which is awesome and cheaper i think there is a pre order on pc case gear where all the prices are from.

[eisbar]

Hey mate

 

quickly ran through 2 builds, ones 1366 and the other is 1155

 

1366:

cpu: intel 990x - 970 if you dont really plan on overclocking (save 600$)

mobo: X58-UD3R-rev 2

ram: corsair vengeance 12gb (3x4gb

gpu: gtx 580 twin frozr x2

psu: corsair hx-1000w

hard drive: samsung f3 1tb

SSD: ocz vertext 2 120gb

case: HAF X

total: $3887 w/ 990x or $3197 w/ 970.

 

1155:

cpu: i7 2600K

mobo:sabertooth p67

ram: corsair 8gb

gpu:GTX580 twin frozr x2

psu:corsair hx 1000w

hard drive: samsung f3 1tb

SSD: OCZ vertex 120gb

case: HAF X

total: $2917

 

prices from pccasegear btw

These are just rough by the way, im sure heaps of people here will change them around but its just a rough pick.

Feel free to mess around with it, as i said, it was just a quick run through

 

Cheers

Edited March 17, 2011 by eisbar

[Muchoman1]

that isnt a bad build but i just want to say psu is real over kill unless u change parts to this.

i would change the ram to Corsair Vengeance 16GB $259 you can overclock them over 2000mhz and u save over $100

would change the graphics aswell go a Gigabyte Radeon HD6990 4GB $949 beats almost anything in crossfire / sli

and would run 4x monitors with no problems at all and u can always go crossfire with it later on not like you would need to.

change hhd's to Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB $199 no need to raid 2x1tb when its cheaper for a single drive which you could raid later and have more space not 4x1tb you can have 4x2tb will be cheaper yet more storage. if you just use the 2tb for storage could go western digital green's 2tb $99 there speeds are good i have one.

case is your choice as said but corsair have a 650D coming out which is awesome and cheaper i think there is a pre order on pc case gear where all the prices are from.

 

firstly, the 1200w psu is a little bit of overkill for this rig but there max efficiency is at around 50-80% load

secondly, the 6990 is 2x69xx series gpu on one card and is clocked lower than the 6950. so for the same price you could have 3x 6950 or the equivalent of 2x 6950 with lower clocks. also the 6990 is in crossfire.

thirdly, the 650D is a 600t with a new faceplate and top. it is the same size, with the same fans and costs more.

fourthly, the 2tb drive wouldnt have the faster speeds from raid 0. i also have two of the green 2tb in raid 1 for secure storage.

[DanTheGamer11]

 

graphics cards- Sapphire 6950 2gb x3 - $987 (329 ea) (downclocked 6970)

 

 

shaders and stuff disabled too

[Muchoman1]

shaders and stuff disabled too

 

yes, but they can easily be unlocked.

[Alexandre]

firstly, the 1200w psu is a little bit of overkill for this rig but there max efficiency is at around 50-80% load

I really doubt that he will be pulling more than 400w for the majority of the time (1/3 load of 1200w) and even with a CPU overclock to 4.5GHz and 3x 6950s in tri-fire running at full load, he will only need a maximum wattage of about 750w with a combined current of ~58A on the +12 volt rail(s). Having the system at full load will probably be rare however.

 

@ OP if you really want to go for a AX1200w then by all means, but it may mean that you will be spending money on something that you probably won't need. I would probably look at getting a decent 900-1000w PSU - OCC's Recommended Power Supply List could be handy for that.

[mattyamdfanboi]

id be going as many cores as u can, virtual systems thrive on lots of cores, and some games too.. bf2 comes to mind.. that uses all my 6 cores and works the 580..

 

id def go 580 x 2 pure raw power, over clock them too

i 2nd this build

 

1366:

cpu: intel 990x - 970 if you dont really plan on overclocking (save 600$)

mobo: X58-UD3R-rev 2

ram: corsair vengeance 12gb (3x4gb

gpu: gtx 580 twin frozr x2 (except u could save money n go reference designed ones here)

psu: corsair hx-1000w

hard drive: samsung f3 1tb

SSD: ocz vertext 2 120gb

case: HAF X

total: $3887 w/ 990x or $3197 w/ 970.

[Griever2003]

i think that some of these builds are missing the point that he is wanting to run 3-4 VMs at the same time he is playing a game. on a performance standpoint if you do not want to notice any interruptions i would recommend getting a 6 core intel processor with at least 16gig of ram. if you are running those VMs constantly, depending on the configurations of your VMs and hardware, sometimes for ram it requires you to dedicate the whole physical stick(s) to be split between your VMs.

 

depending on your technical know-how maybe getting ESX as your base and building your virtual machines off of that would be benificial as well.

[james91]

firstly, the 1200w psu is a little bit of overkill for this rig but there max efficiency is at around 50-80% load

secondly, the 6990 is 2x69xx series gpu on one card and is clocked lower than the 6950. so for the same price you could have 3x 6950 or the equivalent of 2x 6950 with lower clocks. also the 6990 is in crossfire.

thirdly, the 650D is a 600t with a new faceplate and top. it is the same size, with the same fans and costs more.

fourthly, the 2tb drive wouldnt have the faster speeds from raid 0. i also have two of the green 2tb in raid 1 for secure storage.

 

yeah the 6990 is two 6970's on one card pretty much it is at stock lower clock but has the switch to clock it up two 880 same as the 6970 clock. and also it is in crossfire yes but u can add a second card if you really wanted to for a beast of a graphics machine. it is shown that the 6990 beats a 6970 crossfire setup.

 

and a 650D is not a 600t they are to different model's the 650D is the baby version of the 800 and 700 D

 

yes if it the 2tb are just for storage then speed should not be a problem they are more then fine as standalone not in a raid 0 array

[Waco]

i think that some of these builds are missing the point that he is wanting to run 3-4 VMs at the same time he is playing a game.

If those were my requirements I'd be looking to build 2 systems and use a KVM between them.