I have to build a new computer for my office. My last build was from around 05, and she's done me good.

What I'll be doing is photoediting, maybe some gaming (and I say that knowing I never will play anything unless I go back to some old titles), possible some light videoediting.
Mainly I'll need opengl support for some CAD-ish stuff as related to designing wood projects.
I need at least 5.1 for my music.
I need AT LEAST 3 MONITOR SUPPORT with and option to expand if I so chose, up to six monitors. (Up to six is not even really necessary, but 3 is an absolute. I'd like to add a fourth at minimum).

I would like to use AMD AM3 4 or 6 core on an ASUS AM3 mobo with ATI video cards. (I am an asus/amd fanboi. I've had huge success with their stuff for lots of years.)
I do not need cutting edge screamer anything, but I would like my mobo and cpu to provide a little future flexibility.
I like to have lots of storage capacity, so room for 4 sata hdd's is a must. 6 or more would even be better.
I'd like a HUGE tower that provides tons of room to move air. I like to run two dvd burners, so two large bays is enough, although a few extra would be great.
Oh, I need a good gaggle of usb ports, too.

I can't think of anything else offhand. Anything you guys can suggest will help. It'll get me headed in the right direction and help me start getting a parts list together.
Thanks You!!! :-)
Any suggestions on parts would be awesome,
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For a case you might look into the CM stacker (cooler master) it's a big SoB with 4 usb ports on the front another 4 or so on the back. Very large case, all metal too. http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=14

Speakers Logitech Z-5500 are very nice. I like logitech products. http://reviews.logitech.com/7061/224...ws/reviews.htm

Monitors I'd go samsung with however large you need them to be I like the 16:10 widescreen.

Processor I use a AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, you could go with the 6 core version.

Probably get 8-12 gigs of RAM, that ones up to you

It depends on how much gaming and whatnot you are going to do but right now I run an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT (one of my weaker pieces of hard ware) but it will still run every game that is out now on near MAX - MAX settings. So if you are looking to save some coin this is where I would do it.

I would get a solid state hard drive (the largest you can afford) and then 2 regular 1 TB or 2 TB hard drives for space. Again the SSD will only be your windows drive with all your programs, so don't feel the need to get an insanely large SSD but don't get a 50 gig either. Get whatever will hold everything you need + 25% or so for future expansion.
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Bill, I carted a Coolermaster 840. It meets my needs and it's real expandable, plus it supports dual psu's which is perfect.
Thanks for recommending coolermaster, that's what I'm using right now and never thought of it.
I already have a Denon receiver with Klipsch 5.1 surround speakers, so that's good. I just need decent onboard sound.
I already have 3-19" Samsung monitors. I may add one more. In a land of dreams I'd add three more, but it'll never happen. One more is reasonable and it'd be nice if I can match the other 3.
I had the 965 6-core carted already, this is kinda getting scary now. :-)

I carted the Asus M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 board. I'm not at all sure it'd got enough options, or if it'll handle the 6 cores. If you have any other ASUS recommendations (or anyone else does), I'd love to take a look.

I'd like to go ATI on the video cards, and I sure don't need nearly that much wee-yoo. I'm thinking 4 monitor support in the $150-200 range for each card? I haven't really looked, but you gave me a good starting point.

I need a memory and psu recommendation, too.

SSD HDD's are out of the question. I'm not gaming, and to waste money on the speed is silly. I make every one of my drives redundant. I'm currently running 3TB with 3TB worth of backup. The drives are 1 for 1, each hdd has a backup hdd. I'll continue that.

I may or may not rape my current system. I may let in run and use it for a media server. My mind isn't made up yet. I'll likely just rape it for the parts and toss the rest to save money. I can serve media from my new rig, right?

Thanks for all the help, brother. Talking to you really has the wheels turning. :-)
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I should have said I had the 965 quad core carted. I went and carted the six core now. I'm trying to make my wish list public. I gotta go get Nikki to help me do that, I think.
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I'm no help on the build as my last one was built in 2001.
I used to get teased at work for having two monitors but once people see how nice it is they get jealous.
I do CAD work for integrated circuits and four would be awesome, but it took some convincing just to get two.
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I think I'd snap if I had to use your computer. :-)
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I don't know if this will work, but I made my parts list public so I can show you guys what I picked so far. Some things are duplicates till I decide which part to go with.
Here's the parts list.
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Need some help bump.
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the link leads to newegg, but it asks for log on info.
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I got a new crappy Gateway (yea, they are still around) laptop for super cheap at Best Buy. I didn't know, at the time that the audio system was so crappy. I picked up some Philips SPA7210/17 Multimedia Speakers from Overstock for 43 bucks because they had some decent reviews. Don't know if this is here nor there, but if nothing else, here's another bump! :-)
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I'll try to figure out the link for the public cart. Thanks, Kelly.
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Okay, let's see if this works. Not as sexy, but it may get it.
I carted two of the hdd's, one of everything else. I should have all the other parts available, including 4 extra hdd's and another psu if needed.

Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX

CORSAIR XMS 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model CMP8GX3M4A1333C9

COOLER MASTER ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders
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holy crap, yeah that is sick... that would be a nice gaming machine... wish i lived close enough to help you with the build, i use to love building machines, now i have laptop, i aint going to even try building them...lol

good luck i want to see pics of that up and running...
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Sounds like a pretty massive box there Scott. I guess the bottom line is to get the most for the money in your budget.
Have you checked prices with other places like Tiger Direct?
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I haven't checked Tiger Direct, I never really cared for them. I should check mwave, though. They can usually whip newegg's ass pretty good on some stuff.
The mobo and six core are pretty future-proof, I was thinking. Antec and corsair stuff lasts forever. That case has some sick cooling, so maybe it'll keep that ASUS mobo from frying. It's the weak link, I think. But as far as motherboards go, I have the best luck with them.

What's the deal on the eco green hdd's? Do they just shut off all the time, or something like that?
I wasn't planning to use them as my boot and boot backup, just storage. So it's not an issue, just wondering.

I suppose I wanted to make sure I didn't have something selected that doesn't make sense, ya know? The 5570 was just plain cheap, and I needed a video card to compliment my onboard graphics to give me 4 monitor support.

I'll check some prices. If you guys can think of anything else I should add/replace, please let me know your thoughts.
(I even looked at bluray burning, it isn't ready for prime-time yet. I hate to buy first gen burners, they suck. It might be a good idea though before they get all drm'd.)
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pricewatch.com lists dozens of other site's prices, it can help save some money.

If you're going with Win 7, I would recommend Pro. It offers Windows Virtual PC as a freebie, and gives you a free XP Pro Virtual Machine. It can be handy for legacy apps, or when you need to do testing/etc. Also, Home edition cannot authenticate to a domain, so if you're using this in a work environment, I would highly recommend Pro x64 rather than Home Premium.

The hardware looks pretty nice. I would suggest running your disks in RAID 1. It is faster than a stand alone drive or RAID 5. Plus, it does provide a mirror copy of your data for some level of redundancy. You lose 50% of the total capacity you buy, but it's worth the speed and reliability in the long run. The math of RAID 1 is pretty simple. If you need 2 TB, buy two 2 TB drives.

Just my geeky :-)
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I've also heard (never tried it mind you) that folks are doing clean installs with just the Windows 7 Pro Upgrade disk instead of the full program disk without issue.
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I will go see if anyone has a coa available for pro or ultimate at Anandtech.
I hate to make the move from xp, but at this point, I guess I have no choice.
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You can always do a duel boot to keep an XP partition on the HD. I did that when I loaded 7 Pro on my laptop. But...I've found that I can pull full access programs from the XP partition into 7 Pro 64. I don't mean through the virtual machine (which I found myself never using) either. I'm able to pull the .exe file from the XP partition and pin them to the taskbar in 7 Pro to launch from.
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I dual booted 7 and xp all the way through dev. Did the same with vista.
The lack of drivers made it useless to me, but it sure was purty. :-)
Brilliant idea on pinning the .exe file across partitions, Walt. I'd have never thought of that in a million years, Thank You!!!
I have no idea what virtual machine is, or how I'd use it to my advantage. I'll definately look it up and see why I want it. (That's not entirely true. I recognize it and know I used it, but I'm currently clueless and I need my brain jogged.)
I don't do a lot with my computer anymore since I retired. Not like I did a few years ago, anyhow. Lisa does, and she's excited for me to stay ahead of the curve for her. She's very savvy herself, but she doesn't do as much as she used to, either. She's not going to be doing the IT work for her firm anymore, either. If I'll get off my ass and apply myself, there's no end to what we can do together, so I suppose I should get on the ball.
A decent machine and getting more familiar with 7 is as good a place to start as any, cause I'm REAL rusty. :-)

After this, I want to build, set up and host a server, just for learning's sake. It's a must for Lisa's work, and something I should have learned years ago.
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