6-Monitor w/P4 motherboard - ideas?

K

Ken_DTU

Hi - anyone have any insight into success using a P4 motherboard to drive 6 monitors?

My standard setup for years on my PIII system has been a matrox g400 agp card w/4 other pci cards to get my current 6-monitor setup. Works great.

However, after trying two different new P4 motherboards, neither seems to be able to handle this. They won't read additional pci video cards - seems it won't detect them, will just read the agp card.

Talking w/the intel tech support rep, he said that the intel chipset used in most p4 m/bs has this as a known issue, eg not enough resources left on the pci bus to support additional vid cards w/the new p4 chipsets. Grr.

there's a few quad-head agps out there, but that would still leave me 2 short, given inability of the m/b to run both agp + pci's simultaneously ..

Hmm suggestions for how to get a P4 system w/6 monitor support? Maybe have to go pci video only... anyone have luck running multiple g450 pci's, or other solution?


appreciate it, traders -

ken
 
I don't know enough about this to know if this will be any help, but I have P4 with whatever motherboard Gateway uses. I have the AGP card that came with it (it has dvi and analogue out). I then put in a cheap PCI video card I had in an old computer, and it works fine. I can run a digital monitor on the AGP and an analogue also if I want. In addition to this, I can run a monitor off the PCI video card for a total of three. I have never tried another PCI video card, but one works fine.

This is with WinXP. I know that other versions of windows have to have certain video cards in order to use more than one. Perhaps XP does too. The PCI card I used was compatible with WIN95/98, so I suppose it would be compatible with XP even if some other cards aren't (for multiple cards).
 
Welcome to Intels world (nightmare?). Had the same problem when I P4 first came out (coming from AMD chip ) and quickly went back to AMD. Data integrity is no different and performance is better when coupled with the N-Force mb (Hypertransport bus with streamthrough network function and 128 bit memory).Cost is cheaper (both AMD and N-Force about the same as P4 chip) and no problems with Matrox video cards. PS... anyone who says intel is quality doesn't know hardware as Dell would have AMD chips if it weren't for Intels huge discount incentives to not use Intel chips, but that will change with Hammer and Clawhammer.
 
thanks... appreciate it ... looks like the p4 will be dedicated for non-trading purposes then, eg a/v multimedia etc, will need to stick w/the p3 and non-intel m/b chipset for 6-monitor trading platform... the intel cpu chip is fine, just the 850e chipset on the m/b's that is incompatible w/multimonitor/pci card use.

fwiw, I just installed a pinnacle tv/mpeg recorder pci pctv card fine in it, it detects that.. just none of my pci video cards will get detected, tried em all... first time I've even had m/b's not take multi pci video cards .. both of the m/bs.. using that intel chipset.

so, that's a word of caution, seems you can't add multi pci cards in a new p4 m/b that uses the intel 850e chipset...

here's an earlier thread, from the first m/b I tried:
http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8657&highlight=intel+chipset

let me know if anyone has a workaround, much appreciated.. it's a hassle to be running 3 different pc's via router etc.. since keyboards clutter the place


ken
 
Quote from Ken_DTU:

thanks... appreciate it ... looks like the p4 will be dedicated for non-trading purposes then, eg a/v multimedia etc, will need to stick w/the p3 and non-intel m/b chipset for 6-monitor trading platform... the intel cpu chip is fine, just the 850e chipset on the m/b's that is incompatible w/multimonitor/pci card use.

fwiw, I just installed a pinnacle tv/mpeg recorder pci pctv card fine in it, it detects that.. just none of my pci video cards will get detected, tried em all... first time I've even had m/b's not take multi pci video cards .. both of the m/bs.. using that intel chipset.

so, that's a word of caution, seems you can't add multi pci cards in a new p4 m/b that uses the intel 850e chipset...

here's an earlier thread, from the first m/b I tried:
http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8657&highlight=intel+chipset

let me know if anyone has a workaround, much appreciated.. it's a hassle to be running 3 different pc's via router etc.. since keyboards clutter the place

ken
More...

As a solutions oriented tech I'd say, you haven't given me enough info to give you a competent answer. Without knowing what your overall configuration uses are makes it difficult for me to try to help make things click for you. Is this your dedicated trading platform? Does this setup have enough real estate in its present configuration? What is the end goal here (to say a working setup is not acceptable)? Do the family/friends/associates share the resources i.e. system, printer(s), fax, etc. To you this might sound dumb, but humor me with some patience.

Multiple PC's run from a single keyboard is simple so let's not sweat that for now. Was the old setup operating fine? What prompted the need for P4 power? Personal desire for computer deity status is usually a culprit in many ill advised upgrades. No destination planned sometimes makes for poorly packed and upgraded towers/desktops.

Just as a guess, I would have probably tried to have you divide up your power demands. This would make for an overall better setup anyway. The operation that seemingly needed horsepower, shift it to the P4. Leave the rest of the setup as is (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and combine/set up the overall control functions more efficiently so as to operate everything. Also, think wireless!

Take a step back, breathe. Think about the overall needs now and near term and let's see if you can solve, and avoid, some undesired bottlenecks before you create them. :)
 
I have 2 intel p4 1.8ghz, with 5 monitors each and they run fine.
1 agp card and 4 pci cards each.

The board's model is an Intel D850MV.
Runs like a dream.

Hope this helps,

SubEtha
 
Anyone out there running a system with 2 Matrox G200 MMS Quad boards. Would appreciate any info on motherboard, memory and/or monitor selections...

Thanks
 
excellent posts, all ... thx canyonman, others... good to hear it..

right re starting from end goal and working back... need for speed, p4, is for multimedia (mpeg/dvd) work... w/ dual raid wd 120 gig hd's etc..

for trading platform, right, the p3 works fine ... likely good idea to simply keep that pc separate.. and right re wireless... my wife's a fan now that I have her laptop hooked up via wireless router to the highspeed 'net modem .. good approach ..just got that done this last week..

interesting re how to run multiple pc's off a single keyboard, easily? didn't know you could do that.. how? eg software Fn key etc switch in place w/a splitter or something?

subetha, thx too re other info on intel m/b, i believe that's what I have too, that intel m/b..what agp card + pci's are you running?

thx jperl for the rts url..

agree slvtomy.. re let's hear it, if others have multiple matrox cards together, + configs, they work ok?

appreciate it, all...have a good wkend too

ken
 
I am running 2 G200MMS on my system. I only have 5 DVI monitors up at the moment, but that all run fine. 4 Samsung 191T and 1 Viewsonic VG191B. P4 1.6gig on Abit IT7 (Intel845chipset) 512DDR ram.
 
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