3 monitor simultaneous display

Helix

just wondering can this be done and what would i need to do it? itd make my life a hell of a lot easier in the studio using audio apps if i had triple display

looking for the cheapest possible way to do it too

if 3 cant be done what would be the cheapest option for 2?

cheers in advance

pete

snappieT

2 is dead easy. Tonnes of graphics cards have dual output. €42 example here

3 is somewhat more complicated. The cards are in low demand and thus low supply, and they are pricey. ST£142 example here (Matrox are the best for multiple monitors in my experience btw. They are cards designed to use 2, and only 2. Not 1.


Do you really need 3?

masteroftherealm

For three ya need a MAtrox Card quite pricey for not too good a spec, as snappy said can ya live with only two?

Helix

yeah i could live with 2 alrite

whats the craic with the dual display card tho

will it cause conflicts with the graphics card already in the machine or what? im not sure what card is in it, if its onboard or whatever. i got a 64bit athlon built on komplett in january and didnt specify i wanted a certain card or anything like that, coz i dont really need super graphics or anything

masteroftherealm

No it'lll replace the existing one and its all plug and play from there. I'm posting from a machine running 2x17" on a ATI9250 128mb nd its grand for me. Took bout 20mins to set up.

Helix

excellent! nice one everyone for the help

shall order one of these in the next few days

as i say i dont need it for games or anything so im sure itll be all fine and dandy

cheers again

maidhc

Can you not get one AGP dual head, and one old PCI adaptor. That should give you three monitors for handy money. I have never done it, but it should work in theory.

Helix

i know bugger all about graphics cards and that end of things to be honest, how would that work and have ye any links to what id need or anythin?

maidhc

Wait a day or two and someone more educated than me might enlighten you, but:

You can get dual head graphics cards cheap, snappie T gave you an example (just make sure your computer is AGP/or PCI-Express before ordering, it is anything like a year or more old its going to be AGP).

You can also get PCI graphics cards. These tend to be old, old models, mostly dating back to the late 90's, although new ones can be bought. For a cheap solution id look out for a secondhand one of these.

Plug in your agp, and the PCI. So one card would have 2x ports and the other 1x.

Again this carries the disclaimer AFAIK

Makaveli

Surely the motherboard/os will only accept one graphics card and thus even with two cards in only one can be used.

cgarvey

maidhc's theory is exactly what I'm running here.

+ nVidia FX 5900 dual head AGP card (drives a 17" center LCD, and right hand side 15", and native resolution @ 32bit)
+ nVidia GeForce2 MX 400 PCI card (drives a 2nd 15" left hand side lcd).

All works just fine on WinXP SP2. I had an ATI PCI card before (which fried within 2 mins of its fan failing on, get this, the 2nd week after warranty ran out!!!), but I did have driver issues. Stuff like the ATI wanting to become the primary monitor for no reason, and changing it's resolution itself, both of which only happened after a restart or coming out of hibernate.

I can say it works just fine, I would advise you double check that the dual head card supports extending the desktop across both heads. Earlier dual heads didn't, and would only output the same display on both heads.. but that may have been a driver issue, I don't know.. just double check!

Also, in my experience, it pays to stick with the same brand .. be that ATi or nVidia. I've found my nVidia cards to have a lot less issues than my ATi setup I had a good while ago (can't remember model numbers).

Nothing stopping you getting a single head AGP card and 2 PCI cards BTW (except maybe performance .. that's a question for the experts, which I'm not!), like maidhc points out.

You'll be glad you did. I'd tried a 21" CRT monitor, and this triple monitor setup (even if they're all smaller) is much better. I'm certainly glad I did. I have a main work area monitor in the center, WinTV, status windows (like IM buddy list, Konfabulator widgets, other stuff that I need quick access to, and tailing logs) to the left, and my work area support monitor to the right (so that might be a few cygwin shells, or compiler output or photoshop palettes, or whatever supports what I'm working on right now in the main window.

I'd recommend it alright!!

quarryman

i wanna see a pic of this!

something i've often though about trying....

Helix

right chaps, me again lol

this here is my pc:

Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL3
Sapphire Radeon 9250, 128MB DDR, 128bit
Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL3
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB S-ATA
MSI K8N NEO Platinum Edition
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2 GHz

will this card work with it?:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=305433&view=detailed

masteroftherealm

Yup will do no probs, bang it into the AGP slot and away ya go. Then keep an eye out for a cheap 5or10euro card here on boards!

Helix

whats the 5 or 10 euro card for? for the 3rd display is it?

or do i need another thing to use 2 monitors with that card?

im really clueless about this end of things lol

masteroftherealm

No that card will give ya 2(its actually the exact card i have) and then the solution mentioned above for 3 monitors requires a third card which ifya look around in FS Computer Hardware ya should find for less than a tenner.

Helix

brilliant!

youre a superstar!

nice one

masteroftherealm

Hhe he *vision of your a star in the helix pops into head*

Helix

lol