Maybe I’m ****ing stupid (I know I am)

But most of the motherboards that I’ve seen only have one HDMI input. What do I need to run dual monitors?

You'll be plugging your monitors into the video card.

Graphics card

If you're wanting to run two monitors from the onboard graphics card, buy one HDMI cable that's HDMI>HDMI and a second cable which would be DVI>HDMI.

Great site for research: https://www.tomshardware.com/

If you check out forums there's a sub dedicated to custom builds.

I'm going to assume that with an $800-$1300 budget he's going to take the advice of others and buy AMD, in which case there is no onboard graphics unless you buy an APU.

In more than 22 years of building PC's for my recording studio, I've never built an AMD, nor has any manufacturer recommended that I purchase an AMD (as a matter of fact, it's been blatantly stated to avoid them at all costs), so I'll defer to you.

That said, I'll never purchase or build an AMD based computer. I'm sure they're fine for other applications but not for pro audio.

Intel all the way.

AMD has been shit until recently, so it's no surprise that people have been telling you over 22 years to avoid them.

Ryzen is a different animal and the support of Ryzen from AMD is much better than the support from Intel. Ryzen has used the same socket for 4 years now. Intel will refresh the same shit from 3 years ago and sell it as new by adding 1 extra pin to the CPU so you have to buy a new motherboard too.

a middle of the pack PC will play everything. It just wont play everything in 1440 or 4k thats it.

I just did a whole new AMD set up this time. I went with the Ryzen 7 3800x and a amd Radeon 5700XT. Runs everything i throw at it in 1080 easy peasy.

I’m looking at getting an AMD Ryzen 3700x with a EVGA GeForce® RTX 2070.

Yeah, it was the actual manufacturers telling us to avoid them but I sure wish they worked for pro audio because they're less expensive than a full on Intel box.

:D

Push that to 2070 Super if you can. It's just a much better value. That will be a monster of a PC.

You will not need 32 GB of RAM for anything. 16 GB will not bottleneck. Like ever.

HDMI and DVI are no longer a thing, really. Everything is done through DisplayPort. Your 2070 or 2070 Super will have 2 DisplayPorts for your monitors and 2 HDMI ports for your TVs by default.

If you end up deciding you can spend more and if you are going to go with a 2070 or above, you will probably want to get a 1440p monitor. If you get the Super, I would suggest you get a GSync monitor with at least a 120Hz refresh rate or higher for the buttery smoothness.

Has it really been 22 years since the great Athlon generation? Jesus.

Absolutely this. Small cost difference, notable performance difference.

And lots of Freesync monitors are now G-Sync compatible so you can get variable refresh rate and no screen tear without spending bigger $ on full G-Sync. I’m monitor shopping right now with my son, all but decided on this one which appears to offer a good mix of options at a decent price:
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E1682401...qHhDdxo.0.7tIA

It actually is the Super. It just got cut off.