4 monitors on SX280's Help!

jessy

Hello

I currently have several Dell SX280’s, I need to connect 4 monitors to each of them, and each monitor must display a different application i.e. the image is not just amplified to the 4 monitors.



The SX280’s do not have any expansion slots so no chance of putting a quad head graphics card in them.

Unfortunately I do not have the option of buying in different computers.

I've been looking into VGA to USB but they only amplify the image to the different screen, i need an extended desktop.



Any suggestion will be appreciated.

RicardoSmith

You can get a USB gfx card
http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=334086

Or use another PC via a network (dunno why you'd do this)
http://www.maxivista.com/how.htm

jessy

thanks Ricardo.
I was looking into that myself but the ones i found only amplified the signal. A slight problem is they only support 1024x768 i should have said i needed 1240x1024,(4x21"monitors).
Also from what I read you can only use one of them.

Nukem

Something along the lines of this maybe?

jessy

Thanks Nukem but from what i can see this only splits the signal so you have 4 monitors displaying the same thing. I need to display for example
M1 = MS word
M2 = Excel
M3 = Access
M4 = PowerPoint

I think I’m in the right direction looking for VGA to USB. But still haven’t found a suitable device.

Nukem

Ok sorry man - if i come across something i will let you know.

EDIT: have a look here http://www.jaguarcompsys.ie/components/index.htm#network might be worth a phone call to see is it what you want

RicardoSmith

Nukem wrote:

Something along the lines of this maybe?

Thats the same desktop on each monitor. From my understanding I think that what he doesn't want. You could run something like remote desktop on the sx280's and then have another machine with several PCI cards in it showing a remote desktop of each of the apps on each of the sx280's. But thats just a means of avoiding the obvious. The sx280's are simply the wrong tool for the job. End of story.

This is what you really want. http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/products/qidlp.cfm
Buy you could buy 4 cheap 2D PCI cards (anything would do) and stick them in a cheap PC (once it has 4xPCI slots) for the price of one of those matrox cards. You can pick up a bunch of old ATI 2 or 4mb cards that would be all you need for about €10-20 each.

Incidentally use the tool multimon if you do this. Makes life a lot easier with multiple displays. Love to see it working if you do get it running.

jessy

yep the sx280's are the wrong choice for the job but the decision to use them was completely out of my hands I’m only trying to work with what I got.

RicardoSmith

jessy wrote:

yep the sx280's are the wrong choice for the job but the decision to use them was completely out of my hands I’m only trying to work with what I got.

Tell them they need 4 sx280's each LOL

jessy

Any more suggestions?

Capt'n Midnight

you aren't going to like it..

on the display say 1600x1200 you tile the four windows.

then on each monitor you adjust the position and zoom so only a 1/4 screen shows on each - you are seeing 800x600 - but the monitors are still being driven at 1600x1200 so they will have a shorter life - a standard VGA splitter would work

TBH I doubt you'll find monitors that would zoom and pan that much. - cardboard to hide the bits you don't want to show ?

Alternatively get 4 PII or PIII's, each connected to a monitor you then run terminal software to the dell - only problem is that for licencing reasons you would have to use openoffice and unix or buy 5 licenses


Reckon you should bounce the problem back up the line ..

jessy

That’s a clever answer but unfortunately it won’t give me the Resolution that I need, (thinking outside the box though I like it). Seems as though the problem has been solved as I will be allowed to use IBM thinkcenters instead, thanks for all your replies.

RicardoSmith

jessy wrote:

That’s a clever answer but unfortunately it won’t give me the Resolution that I need, (thinking outside the box though I like it). Seems as though the problem has been solved as I will be allowed to use IBM thinkcenters instead, thanks for all your replies.

That was always the only solution..