Tech Help JohnT's EGO Machine ~ some advice please

J

JohnT

EGO Is My Life!
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Jul 5, 2006
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I'm calling this build the EGO Machine. The goal is to build a machine that will run 3 1080p monitors.

I need help picking out a graphic card. Do I need a 1080 to run three monitors? Can I get by with a 1070? Should I SLI two 1070's? What about two RX480's? Should I wait for the RX490?

This is what Alex2142hp and HyperPenguin have suggested:


CPU

Motherboard

RAM Should I get Red or Black?

SSD

ZALMAN CASE

Power Supply

CPU Fan

UPS ~ Amazon Deal of The Day ~ grabbing this one now


Do I have to water cool if I want to overclock the CPU?
 
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I have not found any application, in gaming, where SLI or CrossFire is absolutely necessary.

A 1070 will run everything that is out currently, with no issues.
All newer NVIDIA GPUs can handle three monitors with ease.
 
Welp, since im reappearing because of Pro, and hyper asked me to look into it ill give some tips.

You would not need water to OC as a Dark Rock Pro would keep it nice and cool.

If pretty lights are a VIP then you went right due to asus Aurora software which can control all the lights in a case. As well as that MoBo being amazing with power phases and VRM's as well as adequate cooling.

If youre going 1080p, a gtx 1080 despite its name is overkill. A single EVGA GTX 1070 FTW, Zotac Amp! EXTREME, or MSI Gaming Z would do you just fine for 3 monitors so long as they have display port adaptors

Shoot me a PM if you have anyother questions or want links to products as well if you want a step up from AIO Cooling and want qn open loop i know a guy who can help (An EK employee to be exact)

-Ace,

The friendly Microcenter employee
 
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Idk but if your getting a gpu with a backplate you should do a custom paint job with a ego logo on it

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk
 
Not going to comment on a single 1070 vs a 1080, but if you are comparing SLI'ing 2 1070's vs a single 1080, just get the 1080. I don't think a whole lot of stuff is optimized for SLI.

That cooler is a beast, brings my OC'd i5 6600k to liquid cooled temps. Should be just fine for what you need.
 
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It really depends on if you are looking for 60fps 1080p on three monitors. For example my 970 can run that fine on one, probably wouldn't get it on three.
 
I agree with the others' sentiments fully -- a single GTX 1070 will be enough for triple 1080p monitors while feasibly pumping out ultra/max on damn near any game you throw at it -- and as more-demanding games come out you can just SLI it if you wish. If you want to completely futureproof your build and can afford it, however, there's always the 1080 -- and then you can get into the big leagues with even better displays than triple 1080p

If I may pry, I have a few questions:

1. If your goal is to build a multi-monitor setup, what makes you want to build around a triple display at 1080p instead of going for one really amazing display or two really bad@$$ monitors (say, a couple 144hz 1440p panels)? Is there some kind of budget constraint or maybe you already own the 1080p monitors and you just want to build around them, etc.

2. Your CPU choice is great, no doubt about that -- though I was wondering what made you go for such an expensive motherboard. Are there features exclusive to the mobo that you need that you can't get from a cheaper model like the ASUS Z170-A or alternative brands and models?

3. The RAM looks fine and Crucial is a solid manufacturer but there are cheaper 2133 kits that will not suffer any real time performance and will cost you a lot less. Are you open to alternative suggestions?

4. What makes you want a single massive SSD? I think you would get a lot more performance mileage and save a fair chunk of cash if you pair an SSD with an HDD over a singular massive SSD. I'd consider looking into a powerful SSD -- grab a 256GB Samsung, say an 850/950 -- then that drive can host your operating system and it will absolutely annihilate loading times on your most demanding games while saving you some money when you pair it with a mechanical hard drive such as a Western Digital Caviar Black. If you're feeling spicy, you could try one of Seagate's hybrid drives including, but not limited to, the FireCuda. Go for 1TB or 2TB and forget that storage space limits even exist

Other than that your choice case is pretty good and that's not a bad power supply but I personally feel there are better alternatives, especially depending on your budget/price range. You are definitely overshooting the power requirements though. You'd be safe with a 650w or 750w power supply even if you wanted to maintain that 300 watt 'window' people recommend for overclockers and enthusiasts; theoretically, you could go as low as 500-550w

Finally, you do not have to water cool your CPU to overclock. Water cooling is nice if you intend to overclock it by an absurd amount, but to be honest any processor that yields a base 4.0GHz clock rate is a powerhouse and you won't really even need to overclock to catch up to games for several years

Furthermore, not only are aftermarket CPU coolers necessary with Skylake processors (because Skylake chips generally do not come paired with coolers anymore... thanks, Intel), they pump out more than enough cooling to allow you to overclock that amazing 6700K by a good amount.
 
Its a fairly solid build which i would expect from who advised ya:)

SSD i would look into a scandisk or samsung evo 1 tb as well. There are good deals to be had on all 3 companies and all 3 have extremely good models for 1tb options now.

The 1070 is more then enough iff you are doing 1080p /1440p if your doing 4k you definately should wait for the 1080 ti or the 490x to see what they are capable of.

For ram I usually go with Gskill as they over extremely good ram options and are reasonablly priced though Crucial is by no means a bad choice.
 
You can run 3 monitors on pretty much any card now. If you want to have 3 monitors that are running the game you are playing then yea id bite the bullet and future proof your rig. Id say a 1070 is more than enough to build it and you can get one cheap if you catch the drop on massdrop.

One thing to be careful of is your monitors. You will want to look into 144hz 1ms monitors. Its awesome because it isnt limiting your FPS due to the monitor, so if your card can run a game at 100FPS but your monitor is only 60hz you may benchmark at 100FPS but you are only seeing 60FPS. Thats something you will really want to look at... Also look into G-sync monitors. Yes G-sync is expensive but you can buy 3 Asus VG248QE's and they can be upgraded later on as you save some $$ now.

CPU fan. I have a watercooled build. I love it. Its a Corsair all in one unit. My PC is dead quiet even at max load. The GPU fan is louder than anything and thats nothing. If you OC, you will want to think long and hard about #1... why? What the heck are you doing that you need to OC an i7 running at 4GHz. My i5 is OC'd to 4 GHz and I cant even imagine it going any higher. If you plan to run photoshop or some crazy CAD software that sucks up a ton of processing power, that makes sense, but gaming... id be amazed to see any game coming out in the next 10 years that is going to be bogged down by that beast of a CPU. I dont know Zalman's fans but if you want to go fan vrs. water cooled id go more toward a Noctua. (I may be biased but all in one watercooled builds just look cleaner to me)

Mobo: I have the same one, i love it. If i ever need to reset the bios quick theres an easy button on the back of the case and i dont have to tear it open. I would not downgrade. This is the core of your machine and when someone says "it sucks, i have to replace my mobo" theres a reason why they are really upset. Its a P.I.T.A to pull everything apart and put it allllll back together. Buy a good one thats future proof and setup your machine from scratch once.

Ram: I love gskill but its ram... if it has a good rep its doing the same thing no matter what make.

SSD: If you plan on playing more than a few games, get the bigger SSD. If you are like me and play 1 or 2 core games then casually play some other ones. Cut back on the size of your SSD, get a 1TB HDD and install the games you love on the SSD with your OS and make the HDD your storage for everything else. Your wallet will thank you.

Power Supply: Again I dont know much about zalman to give advice. I use EVGA.

Case: Love it

THE UPS: THANK YOU JOHN. FROM AN IT GUY TO YOU THANK YOU. People dont think that anything will go wrong if you dont have one. Then one day you get a surge and poof. Start all over man.

Toss in some LEDs. I have the NZXT leds and i like them, single color but it works. If you want to have something more you can find RGB programmable ones.

What would really set this build off though. Get the eGO logo CNC milled into the plexi-glass. You could go either drilled through or just carved. That would be a quiet touch that would pop with the lighting. If you wanted to go one step further too. See if you can get one of the electrictroluminecent decals like from http://www.electroluminescent-provider.com/install-sticker. You can drill into the front of the pc and wire in the eGO tag. That would look sharp.
 
Overall it's a fairly good build. I agree with the others as well - a 1070 is more than sufficient. New Nvidia GPU's are excellent for handling multiple monitors no problem, even while gaming. If you budget allows it and you want to future-proof a little, the 1080 is a nice option as well.

I always suggest some form of water cooling if you are intending to overclock a little. While I personally don't think overclocking is necessary (especially not on a rig like this), it can't hurt to cool down a good set of parts like this properly. Corsair makes some killer solutions for this, like the H100 (eliminating your zalman CPU fan there). It's certainly an avenue worth exploring.

I think the 1TB SSD might be a little overkill. I'm also not really sure about WD SSD drives, I haven't experienced much use of them or know anyone using it yet. If you've seen my other posts about SSD's, you'll know I rave about the Samsung 850 Series. Try this one on for size.They offer it in a 1TB option too. It's been reliable for me under very heavy usage for a few years now. Drop yourself in a WD 1TB 7200RPM drive (Caviar Black or Blue drive) for your games. You won't see a difference on too many games with the SSD, aside from a select few.

RAM go red cause it looks cooler for internet points ;) Matches the mobo nicely too.

Other than that, I think you have a good direction with this build. I'm interested to see some reviews of these Zalman parts! Let us know what decision you decide on in the end and get back to us. I also suggest taking Jake's comments on monitor into account for ultimate gaming experience.
 
What about these two monitors?

[ame="https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Ultrawide-34UC79G-B-LED-lit/dp/B01LW5CGIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477370162&sr=8-1&keywords=lg+34UC79G-B"]Amazon.com: LG Electronics Ultrawide 34UC79G-B 34" Screen LED-lit Monitor: Computers & Accessories[/ame]



[ame="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01047I0X2?tag=pcpapi-20&pldnSite=1"]Amazon.com: BenQ XR3501 35-inch Curved Ultra Wide Gaming Monitor: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
 
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Overall build components look fine to me, with a few caveats. I personally prefer Full Tower cases over Mid-Tower as they have more expandable room for additional data storage (and it makes it easier to install/swap), but that's a personal choice.

Storage: I will say that this is the first time I have seen a WD SSD being recommended for a build over a Samsung Evo. And when you're at that price range and size, I wonder if a M.2 PCIe card would be better for the fastest read/write storage available as SATA will become the bottleneck down the road.

Motherboard: Some people swear by Asus, others find fault with them. I'm the one who finds fault. This board has some quality control issues that it's review score on Newegg has definitely taken a hit. I prefer Gigabyte boards, but I would suggest maybe looking at other boards, whether Asus or other, until this board's QC is improved.

Memory: Ballistix has been around for several years; essentially as long as Geil and Crucial has been. Nothing wrong with the choice; I say stick with the red. Brighter colors pop better from within that case. Unless you're looking for a shadow/dark look overall.

CPU: Keep it. Don't change it.

PSU: Zalman has been around for years as well. Good PSU manufacturer, and I always say it's better to have too much power than not enough.

UPS: Yes. That's all I'll say.

CPU Cooler: Alternate suggestion to look at: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. Cooler Master vs Zalman always seem to be the top two brands where CPU coolers are concerned. Just be aware of the installation process as coolers are always a pain in the butt to get installed correctly.

Case: No comment beyond I'm biased towards Full towers over Mid towers. This one seems functional enough and enough room for a 3rd party heatsink/cooler, plus any video card you choose.

Video Card: Best price/performance to get at the enthusiast level is the GTX 1070. If you want the best, however, go with the 1080 or 1080 Ti when that's released. AMD I would suggest looking at for the middle/lower end builds where their performance/price ratio shines over nVidia's. But at the top, nVidia is king.

Monitor: I actually have an LG monitor; love it. Wish I could have bought 2 more for a triple setup as well. The monitor is fine, but at that size, I'd prefer to be looking at a 2560x1440 144Hz IPS monitor or the 4k monitors. Not saying it's a bad monitor; only that there are better monitors available out there for that price.
 
Snipeye said:
Overall build components look fine to me, with a few caveats. I personally prefer Full Tower cases over Mid-Tower as they have more expandable room for additional data storage (and it makes it easier to install/swap), but that's a personal choice.

Storage: I will say that this is the first time I have seen a WD SSD being recommended for a build over a Samsung Evo. And when you're at that price range and size, I wonder if a M.2 PCIe card would be better for the fastest read/write storage available as SATA will become the bottleneck down the road.

Motherboard: Some people swear by Asus, others find fault with them. I'm the one who finds fault. This board has some quality control issues that it's review score on Newegg has definitely taken a hit. I prefer Gigabyte boards, but I would suggest maybe looking at other boards, whether Asus or other, until this board's QC is improved.

Memory: Ballistix has been around for several years; essentially as long as Geil and Crucial has been. Nothing wrong with the choice; I say stick with the red. Brighter colors pop better from within that case. Unless you're looking for a shadow/dark look overall.

CPU: Keep it. Don't change it.

PSU: Zalman has been around for years as well. Good PSU manufacturer, and I always say it's better to have too much power than not enough.

UPS: Yes. That's all I'll say.

CPU Cooler: Alternate suggestion to look at: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. Cooler Master vs Zalman always seem to be the top two brands where CPU coolers are concerned. Just be aware of the installation process as coolers are always a pain in the butt to get installed correctly.

Case: No comment beyond I'm biased towards Full towers over Mid towers. This one seems functional enough and enough room for a 3rd party heatsink/cooler, plus any video card you choose.

Video Card: Best price/performance to get at the enthusiast level is the GTX 1070. If you want the best, however, go with the 1080 or 1080 Ti when that's released. AMD I would suggest looking at for the middle/lower end builds where their performance/price ratio shines over nVidia's. But at the top, nVidia is king.

Monitor: I actually have an LG monitor; love it. Wish I could have bought 2 more for a triple setup as well. The monitor is fine, but at that size, I'd prefer to be looking at a 2560x1440 144Hz IPS monitor or the 4k monitors. Not saying it's a bad monitor; only that there are better monitors available out there for that price.
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i agree with you on the gtx 1070 ive been looking into that one i want it for xmas
i have small tower so it can be hard fitting all these kind of things in there.
 
I wish i could afford this. But it looks like its going to purrr like a cheetah.
 
My two cents:

CPU: This is what I'm running in my current build, and it's been great. It has yet to be a choke point for anything I do.

Mobo: This is the bigger brother of the one that I purchased. The only complaint I had about mine was that the RAID setup wasn't as straightforward as I would have liked.

RAM: 32 GB is the way to go. The only time I've managed to max out all 32 GB was the one time that I tried. That said, if you're looking to overclock the CPU, are you sure you don't also want RAM rated for a higher clock speed? I personally went with faster RAM DDR4 3000 just for grins.

SSD: This is the one part where I actively disagree with the build. For one, I'm much more partial to the Samsung EVO and the Crucial drives. They are the only two brands I really feel comfortable recommending. For two, unless you're looking to install your entire Steam library at once and/or just really don't want to deal with data maintenance, instead of a 1 TB SSD, I'd go with a 500 GB SSD and a multi-TB platter drive for big data storage. I feel like you can get more storage for your money if you split up your storage solution like this. Also, if you can work it into the budget, m.2 is the way to go.

Case: Solid choice. It looks good in white.

PSU: Good choice as well. You definitely want to go modular if you can. Maybe bump it up to 1000W if you decide to go Crossfire or SLI, just to be safe.

CPU Cooler: Good choice. For my current machine I was looking at either that Zalman or the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. I went with the Hyper 212 EVO since I used it in my last build and it was a proven performer for me.

UPS: Yep. 1500 should give you plenty of time to shut stuff down in an emergency.

GPU: Like everybody else, I'd go with the GTX 1070. It's the best bang for your buck right now. And I'm saying this as a guy who has bought nothing but AMD/ATI for his last 3 - 4 GPUs. I don't see any real reason to go with more than one. There still are very few games optimized for multi-GPU processing, unfortunately.

Monitors: I personally am not a fan of these new ultra wide monitors, and instead prefer a multi-monitor setup. This is mostly for a few reasons. For one, 1080p has been the defacto standard for resolution a little while now. Most games for the past 5 years or so are designed and optimized with a 16:9 resolution in mind, whether it's 1080p or something bigger. Yes, you can always play in windowed mode, but some games take a performance hit when doing so. The other reason I prefer multi-monitors is again related to the windowed versus full screen trade off - if I need to play a game in full screen 1080p, I can generally still view open windows on the secondary monitor. This means I can glance at TS and chat clients quickly while never leaving my game. Lastly, from a work standpoint - and this may not apply to your use case - multiple monitors allows me to better segment streams of work. I can remote into multiple machines and have a full 1080p monitor dedicated to a remote computer instead of having to shuffle windows around to see the machine I want to see at the moment.

Hope this helps!
 
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Great additions RESPAWN. I also used a hyper 212 on my machine for air cooling, 0 complaints about it. Glad to see some back up on the hard drive section haha
 
Real question is what what will he be using the system for?
If he is using it for more then gaming (power user/content creation) I would bump it up to an x99 system and throw in a 5800 series or a 6800 series CPU.

If it's just gaming the build is not bad but I would change out the PSU and the storage.

I know you guys have a deal with Zalman and all but their PSU are meh at best. For that price or even just $20 more you can pick up Supernova G2 that will allow overclocking (which I would not advise on the ZM850) and is a much higher rated PSU (rating be component and build quality).

Storage wise you guys are getting ripped for that SSD. WD has been dragging their feet to get into the SSD game (this being the second attempt after acquiring SanDisk) but man did they just flub it with this launch, Speeds are slow and prices are high per Gb. Like others have said you can pick up an Samsung EVO or Crucial MX for cheaper with better R/W speeds.

CPU cooler wise I always recommend Noctua or even a Bequiet. Two of the best air cooler makers on the market.

Side note 32 gigs of ram will always be over kill for just a gaming rig! 16 gigs will be fine for 99.9% of the games out now and in the future (.01% is for the early access games with crap code/memory leaks).
 
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