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Building (or buying) a rig to push 4 monitors
Hi all, I am somewhere between a noob and ...
Ok, no. Let’s not start that way. I’ve been around computers for a very long time, but I like to keep things simple. I never need the latest gear, never need the shiniest, never need the best. All I need is good enough. So I’ve mostly bought laptops until now, and connected them to an external monitor.
Now, I’ve finally got to the point where I want to buy/build a desktop because I need to run four monitors, and I can’t find a way to run one reliably from a laptop. Also, I occasionally run games, and I’m having trouble running things like Far Cry 4 and Assassins Creed on my current setup.
Open to inputs and insight. Again, I never need the best stuff. I’m never going to see the difference between 1080p stuff and 4K, and even if I did, I wouldn’t care. I don't need to eke out max framerates when I play games.
What I’m looking for is something that will serve me decently now, with potential for upgrade in a couple years. I run the various office suites, and occasionally some graphic and video rendering. You can see my current setup in the My System Specs to the left.
I don’t want to spend more than $600, so I’m going used/refurbished. My plan is to buy a 4th or 5th generation i7 rig cheap off eBay, and upgrade to the Kaby Lake in a couple years.
Please help me with insight as to logistics. Maybe I’m just going about this wrong and need to be educated?
The only thing I absolutely need is that it power 4 monitors reliably. I am going to be taking it out of the country for at least 12 months. All I can do to identify locale is say it is tropical climate, and heat and dust are likely to be an issue. Not a huge issue, but at the out-of-country location, my current rig runs temps in high 40’s to low-50’s during normal operation: Office, and multiple browsers, multiple tabs.
Under load: older games, games + VLC runs in the high-70’s I routinely do the compressed air blowout.
I appreciate any advice no matter how small. I'd hate to buy something that won't run the four monitors. Thank you all.