Doombringer

Safely redeployed back to the good old U.S. of A., and have completed my rig. Three monitors has never looked so great - assembly has gone off without a hitch, and software installation is progressing. ArmA II and DCS: Black Shark look amazing on three monitors and using TrackIR 5, but I can't max out Crysis with Eyefinity on only one card still... Might attempt that later, once I've been properly overclocked. :thumbsup2: Still running diagnostics, so I don't have any stats on temps or benchmarking yet. Any advice anyone can provide during this stage in the game would be appreciated. Thanks for all the help!

Well, I committed. Went with the Corsair 850HX, but stuck with the Silverstone Fortress. I'm not interested in water cooling just yet, so I'll keep the Cooler Master and Corsair cases in mind for my next build(s). Noctua NH-D14 in tow, with 3x ASUS VH236H 23" 1080p monitors and an ERGOTECH triple-monitor mount. Also went with the CH Products HOTAS setup, plus a Logitech G9x, G19, and G35 alongside. Two weeks to go until I'm home and can put all this to use!

Oh, I'm not complaining by any means - just saying that we don't have fast food chains in the middle of the desert. I'm well aware that things could be worse, haha. --- Definitely going triple-monitors. Which ones, is the question. Haven't got much feedback in my other thread in 'System Builds' with advice for my questions. I could always post them in each part's specific forums, but I'd hate to clog up this place with what is pretty much just redundant spam... <_<

I'm afraid I have no idea what Burger King or Anthony's Pizza you are referring to. Army gets a lot of funding for that kind of stuff though, due to their enormous numbers. USMC bases are pretty much just dirt, barbed wire, and tents - so enjoy your Triple Whopper with bacon when you get it. The Marines are getting chow hall gruel and MREs.

Well, considering that you're a Medic in a Combat Engineer battalion (read: U.S. Army?), I'll probably have no idea. The Marines are stationed in the southern Helmand and Kandahar Provinces - focused where the Taliban had established a strong foothold when we left this place the first time (not so much anymore, with us wiping them from the face of Marjeh). The Army is northeast, primarily near the capital and scattered throughout the other regions of the country. Down south, the weather's starting to warm up a bit. Got a little chilly this winter, but no snow for us. From what I understand, the weather's actually pretty nice up north during the summer, but watch out come winter time!

Thank you for the insight, I see your point. I think I'll be reading up on the HX850W then.

S'okay, MisFiT_, I understood you.

Well, I was certainly planning on overclocking the machine (how far, is the only question in my mind, other than "How!?" ). And I'm planning on keeping a full HOTAS/Pedal setup attached to the PC. Not sure how much power that'll draw, but you think an 850W should cover all that? IRT the reviews, yes, I get that Newegg reviews are something of a gamble, but my resources for professional reviews are slim. I can't access certain websites from here because they are classified as "Web Hosting", so I'm pretty much reading as often as I can from Passmark, Anandtech, and this site. If you have any others, please share! My PM inbox is a'waiting. Newegg calc'd my power consumption at like 768w. Figured the 1000w was "safe", and that 850w would be cutting it close.

Thanks for the chart and advice, sdy284. I'd have to concur with the 'bending of parts' strategy. The P6X58D looks pretty similar to the P6T6 WS in terms of distance from the CPU socket to the RAM slots, so I should be in the clear.

Thanks for all the thanks, folks! @ feetfats, mine is, currently, strictly an aerial reconnaissance platform, but we can perform artillery targeting and terminal guidance operations (calling in airstrikes) as well. We also have laser designator capabilities, allowing us to "buddy lase" Hellfires fired from helicopters or GBUs dropped from aircraft. FY12 we'll have 25-lb. laser-guided glide munitions and a re-wing upgrade, allowing us to fill an important niche in combat operations. Not overkill on personnel like a Hellfire is... Read all about us here, here, and here. On the second page's photo album, you can see a bunch of pictures of our unit's activation and ball (USMC is enhancing their UAS coverage dramatically). I was the narrator at our ball. (on the right, of course, haha!)

@ feetfats, I got the reviews from Newegg. I generally read through a number of them to get a good sampling of the goods and bads, not simply the reviews that are posted on those websites advertising their product. Thanks. @ bilcliff, thanks for the link. I was originally considering the NH-C12 model (in my above build) due to the clearance and size, but it looks like the NH-D14 has the same clearance (44mm) as the NH-C12... Oddly enough, that Noctua FAQ answered my question about Corsair Dominator DDR3. Looks like the heat sink is removable in order to fit under large radiators like the Noctua models - does anyone know if removing the Dominator's heat sink will significantly impact the RAM's performance/cooling, or is it more or less for show? @ Chuckles, the Noctua FAQ for the NH-D14 says that you can only mount it one way with the included adapter...

Sure thing, ajmatson. Give me a couple of days and I'll try to get some pics cleared to post up on my photobucket.

Thanks for the welcome, all. @ psycho_terror, I'll definitely heed that advice. Keeping up with the changing times is difficult with sporadic internet access at best - but I'll definitely check and double-check before I hit the 'Buy' button. @ paulktreg and HyperHorse, yes, UAV stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Think of it like a remote-controlled spy plane, but on a slightly larger scale. I fly the RQ-7B Shadow TUAS (Tactical Unmanned Aerial System), and am currently deployed with VMU-3. Sorry for the acronym overload, the military is worse than the computer industry.

Thanks for the warm welcome, sdy284 and Psywar. Went ahead and created an introductory thread, as per your advice, and now I have just a few more questions to reiterate (I guess they got lost in the jumble, above). CPU Cooler My concern here was mainly whether or not I had the room for that fan. I was definitely leaning towards the NH-D14, but was unsure whether it would fit in my case and still allow for some headroom for the RAM... Does anyone have any advice as to how I could find this information out? PSU I'll definitely be grabbing that Corsair 1000HX, if it's as good as you say it is. Wasn't aware that the Rosewill was so sub-par - its' reviews seemed decent enough. I'll do some more research here. In regards to the PSU being the "lifeblood" of the machine, what exactly could kill it? I'm kind of confused about that. Blu-Ray The LG is only a Blu-Ray Reader, as far as I am aware. I wasn't planning on doing much Blu-Ray Writing, but was definitely planning on ripping Blu-Rays to my HDD to digitally stream to my television (vice simply purchasing a dedicated Blu-Ray player for my Home Entertainment System). --- and back to the top --- Case Do windowless models help much with sound or heat management? Motherboard What are your opinions on SATA III and USB3.0? Are there any devices out that even take advantage of either technology? I've heard that regular 7200RPM SATA 6.0GB/s HDDs are bottlenecked by their own RPM in this department... Memory Anyone know where I could find DDR3 without heatsinks, and/or dimensions for this stuff? I've searched a number of places but nowhere have I found whether or not this RAM is >40mm tall (thereby rendering my CPU Cooler unmountable). SSD Install OS + High-Performance Games on it? Or just the OS and "heavy" apps? I've heard both ways, with no definitive answers... HDD Is 1TB going to cut it for Blu-Ray Ripping? Or should I look into higher-capacity models or duplicates? Monitors Anyone know if the 9X X-Top monitors support Eyefinity? Are reduced-bezel (but more expensive) options really that much greater for gaming? --- Thanks for your valued time,

Hello everyone! My name is Chris, and I'm a U.S. Marine (Sergeant) UAV Operator who currently finds himself in Afghanistan (but otherwise in Twentynine Palms, CA). Re-enlisted this year, so I'm bringing home a respectable amount of money from overseas, and will be purchasing my Dream Flight-Simulator PC this summer upon my return from deployment. Moderate technical skills - I've built two computers before - but I know I have plenty of room for improvement and learning, especially in the realm of software and performance-tuning a machine (so I know I'm in the right place! ). If anyone has any advice for a relative newcomer (other than "read the entire Hardware Forum", which I'm already attempting ), please don't hesitate to chime in! Respectfully, Chris