three-headed Core 2 Duo build

euphxenos · Post by **euphxenos** » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:25 pm

I'm planning my next build. It's a pc that will mostly be used for software development. I want something that will give me lots of screen space, so I'm planning on using a couple of dual-dvi video cards connected to three LCD monitors. I'm concerned mainly with 2D image quality. I don't play video games (so I'm not worried about 3D video performance, and am uninterested in SLI), and I will not be overclocking. Of course I want it to be as quiet as possible. The big question marks at this point are the power supply and the CPU heatsink. I'm not sure how small a power supply I can get away with, and what would match well with the P180's design. I haven't seen much at all about what cpu heatsinks are best for the Core 2 Duo chips. If you've got comments about where I could improve it in other areas, I'd be interested in hearing that as well, but I think I've got the rest of it sorted out. After I get it built, I'll probably reevaluate whether the stock fans in the P180 are quiet enough, and see if I need to add anything to dampen noise from the hard drive.

The specs so far:
case: Antec P180
motherboard: Asus P5B
processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
memory: 2 gigs of DDR2 800
video: a pair of Matrox G550 PCIe x1 cards (dual DVI cards which will be
driving three LCD monitors, probably Samsung 204b)
disk: western digital caviar SE16 WD5000KS (500 gig sata)
dvd drive: Plextor 716SA (sata)

Thanks for any advice and comments.

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 4:26 am

I would say for the power supply you could get away with the Seasonic S12 380. And as for the Core duo processors i dont know what Heatsinks fit them.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 5:10 am

Why not make one of the vidcards a P650-PCIe16x-128? Dual DVI, more memory. Besides, those Samsungs are biggies with 1600x1200 res, right? IIRC, the 550s are limited to 1280x1024 in dual dvi mode. (I used to have one...)

I've been a Matrox dual-head user for >10 years & I think they still have the best multi-display control software around, but the traditional Matrox superiority in 2D image quality is not so clear with DVI. I haven't done any serious comparisons, but with DVI outputs, it seems like most decent cards offer excellent 2D quality, and so many of them have dual DVI outputs. And once you get the setup the way you want it, the better control offered by Matrox may not be much of an issue.

Simple price comparison: A P650-128mb-dualdvi-PCIe is ~$250. I'm sure there are umpteen dual DVI cards from ATI & nVidia that have 256mb or even 512mb memory for well under $200. (Not that all that vidcard memory is necessarily useful in 2D...)

Just thoughts...

Agreed with Dave re: PSU. Just close off the extra venting around PSU on back panel of the P180 to ensure all the intake is through the front, esp. if you're going to mount the HDD at the bottom.

Also, for a relatively modest system (thermally speaking) like yours, a P150 would probably do as well, and give you the added option of built-in HDD elastic suspension: This is a very nice feature.

As for HSF, almost all the ones SPCR has reviewed in the past couple years have 775 socket compatibility, so it's just a matter of choosing something available & affordable from our recommendations. It's hard to push the E6600 much beyond its rated 65W TDP, so given that the giant cooling champs (Ninja, Ultra-120, Zalman 9500, etc) were developed with 130W TDP Prescotts & Pentium Ds in mind, it's not hard to get very quiet cooling with any number of HSF combos.

euphxenos · Post by **euphxenos** » Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:26 pm

Whoops. I misread the specs for the G550 PCIe, and mistakenly thought it could drive a pair of digital monitors at 1600x1200 (I must've been reading the column with the analog resolutions). I'll need to select new video cards that can do 1600x1200 dual dvi (and probably a new motherboard, if the new cards are PCIe x16).

I've also been using Matrox cards in dual head systems for a long time, so part of this is that they're just the first company I turn to for a video card. I suspect you're right about their edge in 2D quality dwindling with the advent of DVI. My main reason for considering the G550 PCIe was the passive heatsink and presumed low heat dissipation. I looked at the likely candidates higher up the matrox line, but didn't see anything passively cooled (the P650-PCIe16x-128 looks like it has a fan). I'm willing to give Nvidia and ATI a try, but I just looked through everything on Newegg, and only saw a few cards that were both dual-dvi and passively cooled. Looks like I need to do a bit more research.

Thanks for the suggestions on the power supply and heatsink. I'm now planning on the scythe ninja and the seasonic s12 380 (though I'll need to revisit that when I sort out my video cards). I think I'm going to stick with the P180, though. I'll post again when I get the video card sorted out.

Pgh · Post by **Pgh** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 8:57 am

euphxenos, did yousee this card at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814127211

Dual DVI, passive cooling, low power consumption. The DVI ports are both dual-link in case you ever want (or can afford) to upgrade to the Dell or Apple 30" displays.

Power consumption numbers for the Nvidia 7600 are here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... noise.html

euphxenos · Post by **euphxenos** » Sun Aug 20, 2006 5:44 pm

Yup, I saw that one. That and these two XFX cards seem like the most likely candidates:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150162
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150170

So the choices are a pair of Nvidia Geforce 7600GS cards, and one 7300GT. For my intended use, do you see anything that I lose by going with the 7300GT? It seems like the power consumption (and heat dissipation) should be a touch lower. I don't have a good feel for the differences between the various Nvidia chipsets. Frankly, I haven't even been able to find something that plainly states the maximum digital resolution for any of these cards when used in a multi-head configuration (the closest I could find was the maximum resolution when used in dual-link). Does anyone know where they hide this information? Will a pair of these cards instead of the Matrox cards in the original plan require a larger power supply than the Seasonic S12 380?

Since everything I found is PCIe x16, I'll need a different motherboard; right now I think it'll be an Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe.

The 30" displays don't really appeal to me; it seems awfully expensive for what you get. With three 20" LCDs, I'm getting more screen space for half the price of Apple's 30" display. Also, I notice that the xbitlabs didn't actually measure a 7600GS in their article (they underclocked a 7600GT). I doubt it made a substantial difference.

Thanks for the suggestions -- I think I'm almost there.

euphxenos · Post by **euphxenos** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:09 pm

Here's what I'm now planning:
motherboard: Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
memory: 2 gigs (2x1gig) of Corsair XMS2-6400 (DDR2 800)
video: a pair of XFX PVT73EUDJ3 Geforce 7300GT 256mb GDDR2
disk: western digital caviar SE16 WD5000KS (500 gig sata)
power supply: seasonic s12 380
cpu heatsink: scythe ninja with a 120mm nexus fan
monitors: Samsung 204b (three of them)
case: Antec P180
dvd drive: Plextor 716SA SATA DVD/RW

Since the video cards in the original plan couldn't drive the monitors in native resolution (1600x1200), they've been replaced. Since the new cards are x16 instead of x1, I needed an additional x16 slot so the motherboard has been replaced. Does anybody see any flaws in this plan? The only doubt I have at the moment is about the power supply. Does a Seasonic S12 380 still seem sufficient?

Thanks again.

stromgald · Post by **stromgald** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:26 am

euphxenos wrote:Here's what I'm now planning:The only doubt I have at the moment is about the power supply. Does a Seasonic S12 380 still seem sufficient?

Thanks again.

I think the 380W PSU should be sufficient even though you're running two graphics cards because the cards are fairly low powered. Normally I'd suggest at least 430W or 500W for SLI, but usually when people do SLI, they get the 7600 and 7900 series cards.