Ideal triple display setup?

[MrGrim]

Hi all,

I'm building a new desktop and my top priority is to get the ideal triple display setup. I want all 3 displays to be identical in every sense (brightness, color reproduction, resolution, etc.), which is why I will be getting 3 new 20" LCD screens. I am wondering what the best way is to achieve this in terms of graphics cards.

My current plan is to get 3 identical really cheap PCI cards, such as this one. I have no interested in PC gaming or video playback, so the performance of the video card is irrelevant. My only concern is solid 2D quality (mainly text and picture wise).

Is this really the best way to achieve what I am after? I have ensured that the motherboard I am interested in has 3 PCI slots and everything else I need is on-board, so expansion slots should not be an issue.

Thanks in advance

 

[BolleY2K]

Two cards should be enough. I have a PC which is connected to 4 42 inch plasmas via 2 NVidia 7300 cards. Mainboard is an ASUS P5N-E SLI. Each card is running 2 plasmas quite well.

 

[MrGrim]

Originally posted by: BolleY2K
Two cards should be enough. I have a PC which is connected to 4 42 inch plasmas via 2 NVidia 7300 cards. Mainboard is an ASUS P5N-E SLI. Each card is running 2 plasmas quite well.

So are you suggesting that I buy two identical video cards capable of supporting two monitors each? If so, do you suggest I get a dual PCI-E motherboard and two cheap PCI-E cards?

 

[Dman877]

You could probably get by with just one card (two outputs) and then use the onboard video (provided your mobo has it).

 

[MrGrim]

Originally posted by: Dman877
You could probably get by with just one card (two outputs) and then use the onboard video (provided your mobo has it).

I want all 3 displays to be identical in every sense (brightness, color reproduction, resolution, etc.).

 

[Dman877]

Originally posted by: MrGrim

Originally posted by: Dman877
You could probably get by with just one card (two outputs) and then use the onboard video (provided your mobo has it).

I want all 3 displays to be identical in every sense (brightness, color reproduction, resolution, etc.).

So get a mobo with integrated video and then get the same gpu in a discreet card. Both ATI/AMD and NV have been using there low end discreet products for onboard video for some years now.

 

[Peter]

ATi FireMV 2400 cards are quad-display, using two identical dual-display GPUs on a PCI or PCIE card.

 

[jaqie]

No, the cheapest way to do this with modern tech would be this:
Get a nice inexpensive pcie x16 mobo with an additional x1 slot
get an inexpensive x16 card to run dual outputs on
get one of the x1 cards.

There, all done, virtually guaranteed to work properly, and some x1 cards have dual output as well allowing four monitors.

And if the price of x1 cards is too high, realize that almost any low-end x16 card can be run in an x4 or x2 slot, provided they provide enough power (or the card has external power connector) but this requires a bit of "hacking" on the slot to get the card to physically fit into it. A single PCI card would be another alternative here, but that would saturate the PCI bus with video data, and cause slowdowns in other computer components, depending on the design of the mobo.

 

[IlllI]

http://www.matrox.com/graphics...roducts/th2go/home.php

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: clandren
http://www.matrox.com/graphics...roducts/th2go/home.php

He probably wouldn't want analog

 

[Peter]

If you want to go the multiple card route, definitely do it with PCI Express not legacy PCI. A mainboard with twin PCIEx16 slots, even if they're electrically just x8, and a pair of identical graphics cards will get the job done.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: MrGrim

Originally posted by: BolleY2K
Two cards should be enough. I have a PC which is connected to 4 42 inch plasmas via 2 NVidia 7300 cards. Mainboard is an ASUS P5N-E SLI. Each card is running 2 plasmas quite well.

So are you suggesting that I buy two identical video cards capable of supporting two monitors each? If so, do you suggest I get a dual PCI-E motherboard and two cheap PCI-E cards?

That's what I would do. Two if these would be perfect: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102728

 

[ther00kie16]

Edit: Oops, responded in wrong thread.

Well, I guess I'll add my input. AMD's 780g IGP is based on ATi 2400 so you could conceivably get identical GPUs if you added a 2400 to a 780g board. Otherwise, newegg also has a Sapphire 3450 with 512mb of ram for a similar price to the 3470 with 256mb of ram and no rebate. I don't know the performance of the 3400s too well, but I would think they are plenty for 2D so the extra memory may help in certain cases.

 

[MrGrim]

Many thanks for all your input guys.

I haven't made up my mind yet whether I will go for integrated + PCI-E card vs 2 PCI-E cards, but I have ditched the 3 PCI card idea.