New Rig

[Aesthier]

So here is the old setup that came to a crashing halt in Dalaran...and any city when Cataclysm came out.

The two computers running multiple accounts had AGP slots and I had upgraded them the best I could.

Original Motherboards were over 8 years old yet they were still kicking.

http://www.reckoning-guildportal.com/Custom/Array.jpg


I was thinking about stripping the two old one and upgrading them as cheaply as I could but after much advice from the helpful folks here at Dual-Boxing I decided to just say to hell with it and go for one massive rig.

So I happily present my new significant other...

http://www.reckoning-guildportal.com/Custom/Array1.jpg

http://www.reckoning-guildportal.com/Custom/Array2.jpg

http://www.reckoning-guildportal.com/Custom/Array3.jpg

[Littleburst]

AWESOME :D

Nice man, Have fun enjoying that. Should be no problem ;)

[Gaul]

Specs on the new rig?

[Aesthier]

Case: SILVERSTONE RV02B-EW (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163173) x1

Motherboard: ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646) x1

Chipset: Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849) x1

Ram: G.SKILL F3-10666CL9 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311)-8GBRDL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311) x2 (4x4GB slices so 16 GB total)

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100290SR Radeon HD 5870 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102888) x1

DVD Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204) x2

SSD: Corsair CSSD-F240GB2-BRKT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233126) x1

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD10EALX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136767)1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136767) x1

Power Supply: Cooler Master RSA00-80GAD3-US (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171056) x1

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758) x1

Monitor Stand: Super Hex Monitor Stand (http://www.tykesupply.com/Products_Super_Hex_Monitor_Stand.html) x1

Cables: 6ft 32AWG DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort Cable (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024606&p_id=6007&seq=1&format=2) x6

Monitors: DellTM UltraSharpTM U2211H 21.5”W Monitor (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-9271&%7Eck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=7&baynote_irrank=0) x6


And of course the Steel Series WoW Mouse, Lycosa Keyboard and Creative 5.1 Speakers.


I know its not an I7 chip which would have been much better for the gaming aspect but gaming is not the only thing I have to do.

One note is I sorta skimped on the monitor stand and looking back I should have just paid the extra $200-$300. Due to the weight of the monitors the extend-able arms seem to droop a bit. Also I really would have enjoyed a wrap around that keeps my bezels neatly aligned.

I was pleasantly pleased with the DisplayPort cables I ordered through monoprice. There was a lot of trash talk about the dell cables, adapters, how to get diplayport to work, and the very monitors I purchased crashing all the time.

At the price Monoprice offered the cables I ordered extras and was still WAY WAY WAY below the cost of ordering them from Dell, New Egg, Best Buy, Tiger direct or anywhere else I looked.

$5.00 per cable.....or up to $60.00 a cable PLUS adapters for each.

I got them from monoprice and hooked them right up no problems. :)

[Multibocks]

Very cool!

[mikekim]

Very Nice... mmm, six screen goodness :cool:

[confusedtx5]

lookin good.
Those AMD cpus run quite cool, fairly easy to overclock to around 4GHz..

[ebony]

i like AMD there hell loads cheeper then just wiating on my new setup and to be fair i can not wait!! though i got about 6 months before i can save up the silly money i need if i do not go down the AMD road

[heyaz]

Man that's sick.. 6 monitors on a stand. love it, thanks for the pics

How do you like the stand? I noticed it does up to 26" displays, could you squeeze 27"s onto it?
My current setup is 3x 27" LEDs, eyefinity. not mounted. eventually I wanna dd 3 more on top :)
haven't found a mount for 6 27s though

Did you need active displayport adapters? I had to pay $110 for a single active display port adapter (the usb powered ones). This was at Fry's, the only place I could find one that wasn't online.
Such a rip off but I was already getting all the monitors + ATI 5870 (or whatever) there and wanted to finish the setup. So stupid that you can't use 2x dvi + hdmi.. with eyefinity your only option is one monitor comes out of the display port.

[defactoman]

I like the setup very cool monitors! But it lacks all the cool stuff in rig pics.

cans of beer, Cheetos and other items of interest.

[d0z3rr]

Dude that printer is SICK!!!!!!!

[Aesthier]

Man that's sick.. 6 monitors on a stand. love it, thanks for the pics

How do you like the stand? I noticed it does up to 26" displays, could you squeeze 27"s onto it?
My current setup is 3x 27" LEDs, eyefinity. not mounted. eventually I wanna dd 3 more on top :)
haven't found a mount for 6 27s though

The stand we skimped on. The issues I have with it are that one its not angled correctly. Meaning there is no wrap around function for it and being flat it is sometimes harder to read things out on the far edges of the screens. The second issue is weight. I find that the monitors on the end droop quite a bit so I had to prop up the bottom outer ones then prop the upper outer ones up off the bottom ones. (used old VHS tapes for this).


Did you need active displayport adapters? I had to pay $110 for a single active display port adapter (the usb powered ones). This was at Fry's, the only place I could find one that wasn't online.
Such a rip off but I was already getting all the monitors + ATI 5870 (or whatever) there and wanted to finish the setup. So stupid that you can't use 2x dvi + hdmi.. with eyefinity your only option is one monitor comes out of the display port.Due to the fact I am using the eyeinfinity 6 version of the 5780 no I did not have to use active displayport adapters.
The trick was finding monitors that worked without the active adapters (mainly having an active displayport "port" on them and then the real trick was finding the cables that had mini displayport on one end and normal displayport on the other.




Works like a dream. However after long term use there is "something" I have noticed. These monitors do have some form of firmware issue that seems to cause a slight annoyance. If I leave the power on the computer to long without remaining active on it it will go into a sort of hidden hibernation period. I can move the mouse but that will not seem to wake the computer up. Eventually the mouse will stop movement on the screen.

It will eventually wake up out of this but I have found it is much easier reset it than to wait for it to wake up. This doesn't seem to happen much while it is in active use so I get around it by simply powering my computer down when I am done with it.



I have yet to unlock the cores or set them up and I really haven't noticed any cooling issues or even lag that is not network/cable induced. This machine will certainly work for me for quite some time to come.

WinAmp visualizations are amazing on this thing lol.

[Jeremiah]

How did you set up your monitors (physical setup)? I'm suprised at how cheap it is for 6 of those dell monitors and I think I might upgrade my screens to the same setup. How much did your stand cost?

Also, I think this video is quite appropriate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgoXUzIwXk0

[sp0000n]

You've been playing on this new powerhouse for awhile now. Mind telling us how the one card is holding up running all those monitors? I'd also appreciate knowing what graphics settings you have your toons set at.

Also, from the same cable vendor you linked, those of us who want more flexibility with monitor choices can get these:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246&cs_id=1024603&p_id=5995&seq=1&format=2

[Aesthier]

The card is holding up quite well. It is after all only 5 instances f wow. The main has full settings on everything and I edited my max camera distance so I can pan very far out to see everything around them. The slaves on either side are all set on max low settings except bi linear texture filtering and the resolution... all instances have 1920 x 1080 resolution.

I almost always have my browser open in the upper center screen as well as IS boxer for quick changes if needed.

The only time I notice any real lag is if I have to set a single slave on max view distance to complete a solo quest and forget to change it when I switch back to the main.

I have yet to assign or "unlock" the chip cores yet as I haven't taken the time to research how to do it properly so there is still a substantial amount of untapped power I could gain if I took the time to simply tweak things a bit.

Still I am very happy with this setup.

I do not think it will work as smoothly with RIFT as it has with wow as it seems opening multiple instances have given some others slight latency issues. Won't know until I get back from deployment for that one as I am not going to get a subscription till I am back and can enjoy it.

There are a few games I have noticed some issues with when running them in full screen mode (all 6 screens as one big screen) and AA all the way up.

Venetica - beautiful but practically unplayable at max settings.
Prince of Persia
Assassins Creed

And some other game I can't remember.

For those I usually turn AA down to the lowest setting and everything else at max and they run perfectly fine.

Mass Effect II however was awe inspiring at max settings.




As far as asking about how the monitor's are "physically" set up what did you mean? The stand itself or how are they connected to the computer?

[Emo?]

Aka, do you use a screenmount to have them all physicaly standing on top of each other etc :)

[Aesthier]

Yes there is a screen-mount that we purchased.

Like I said before I should have paid a bit more for a sturdier one but its still working ok so..

Monitor Stand: Super Hex Monitor Stand (http://www.tykesupply.com/Products_Super_Hex_Monitor_Stand.html) x1

[death]

see you use a razer lycosa, do you have problems with buttons not registering or getting "stuck"

[Multibocks]

Your Dell monitors dont support VESA, how did you mount them?

[Aesthier]

see you use a razer lycosa, do you have problems with buttons not registering or getting "stuck"


There is an issue sometimes swapping between screens where all my toons will run off into the horizon in different directions and get locked into this motion. This is very rare however and I have narrowed it down to pressing the forward key + cntrl or alt and swapping screens at the same time.

It seems that the few times I have done this I was not aware I was holding cntrl or alt during the heat of the moment.


Your Dell monitors dont support VESA, how did you mount them?


Actually they do support it. One just has to remove the little plastic square from the back and can then mount it straight to the metal under the removable plastic square.

I only know this because that's how I mounted them.
:D

[Mercbeast]

I upgraded my system.

Not to bore with spec's but I run 5 clients at ultra settings background clients at 12 FPS, main client at 120 FPS.

It's a hog!

[Umbaalo]

I upgraded my system.

Not to bore with spec's but I run 5 clients at ultra settings background clients at 12 FPS, main client at 120 FPS.

It's a hog!

So out of curiosity, did you get the GTX 580 with 3gb of vram? That IS quite a beast to get numbers like that!

[drarkan]

I just upgraded my rig myself, but I'll bore you all with my specs in another thread, and the pictures I took as I was installing it! I felt like a kid with the latest GI-Joe series back in the 80's!