Four monitor question

Quote from Tums:

http://matrox.com/graphics/media/en/finent/th2go/digital/setup-ordi_finance.jpg


http://matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php
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"Flexible device supports both dual-monitor configurations at a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1200 (2x 1920x1200)1 and triple-monitor configurations with a maximum resolution of up to 3840 x 1024 (3x 1280x1024)1 with digital or analog"

Incredibly out-dated.

Each of my trading computers has DUAL 24" LG L246GW running off a $70 stock video card...
Giving me a perfect 3840x1200 desktop that is 48" wide.

Since I have 2 PCs with this setup...
Giving me TWO 3840x1200 desktops = 96" wide.
And two PCs is better than one... double the processing power.

All simple off-the-shelf parts.

The only thing that exotic widget accomplishes...
Is allowing 3 low-end monitors to be used to simulate 2 high-end monitors.
 
Quote from QuantPlus:

I trade with 3 PCs... and 5 monitors.

After a quick Google...
Configuring 2 dual head cards seems unusual.

How does Windows view this?
How are the 4 monitors rendered as one desktop?
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Not unusual at all. Windows lets you make one Extended Desktop over the 4 monitors. You could run 2 x quads and run 8 monitors, if desired.

In the W98 days, I ran 4 monitors with 4, single head cards... or 1 dual and 2x single heads.
 
Quote from my7tvette:

That is awesome! You are my hero Tums. BTW, have anyone tried that device? Does it work well?
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Easier and much less expensive with proper video cards. The only time the TripleHead2Go is appropriate is when you have no other choice because of lack of PCI slots.
 
Quote from my7tvette:

I'm interested in building a cheap box that can handle four monitors as a backup/supplement to the current computer I'm using.
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Any modern computer with PCIE slot will handle that. Suggest avoiding ones with "onboard video" chip... That's my preference, but they can usually be made to work as well.
 
Quote from gnome:

Not unusual at all. Windows lets you make one Extended Desktop over the 4 monitors. You could run 2 x quads and run 8 monitors, if desired.

In the W98 days, I ran 4 monitors with 4, single head cards... or 1 dual and 2x single heads.
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I don't mean to badger you...
But something is wrong with this picture.

But if two $50 dual head cards work so great to create a quad desktop...
There would be NO MARKET for $400 quad cards that do the same thing.
 
Quote from QuantPlus:

I don't mean to badger you...
But something is wrong with this picture.

But if two $50 dual head cards work so great to create a quad desktop...
There would be NO MARKET for $400 quad cards that do the same thing.
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You're not badgering :>) It's hard to believe someone would buy a quad when 2x dualheads cost so much less...

1. 2X dualheads works ABSOLUTELY GREAT! I have them in this rig currently.

2. The original concept behind a quad was to market them as a "business" class card, knowing businesses would overpay. (Also, if the computer has only one slot but needs to run 4 monitors, the quad applies.) They are WAAAYYYY overpriced. At the most, they should be slightly less than 2x the price of a dualhead. So, with new NVS dualheads running $170... a quad should be about $320. MSRP on those is $599 or $699... maybe $450 best street price.

You can get 2x dualhead Quadro NVSs used on eBay for $60-$90. A used quad usually runs about $125.
 
Quote from gnome:

You're not badgering :>) It's hard to believe someone would buy a quad when 2x dualheads cost so much less...

1. 2X dualheads works ABSOLUTELY GREAT! I have them in this rig currently.

You can get 2x dualhead Quadro NVSs used on eBay for $60-$90. A used quad usually runs about $125.
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gnome, I think I asked you about this in a thread a while back but I am actually getting it together, slowly but surely. I have a WTB thread up at Anandtech looking for 1 more Dell 2005FPW. I also put a thread up there asking about configuring my rig for dual cards

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=2092226&highlight_key=y

I just wonder if you have a comment about PCIe 16x slots vs. PCIe 4x slots.

Are you putting your two identical cards into these two slots or does your rig have two 16x slots? Maybe 2 4x slots? The question the guys at Anandtech brought up was this - will my mobo (Asus A8N-E) 'see' two cards if they are plugged into i.e. the PCIe 16x and the PCIe 4x slots. Are all PCIe slots potentially 'video' slots and will they run two cards simultaneously?

Evidently they do on your rig, gnome.

Here's the comment I got at AT

if you get companion card, get a pci-e 1x card. since it will fit in either of the 1x slots and the 4x slot, your chances are better. (i remember an article where they taped up a x16 card to cut the bus lanes from 16 to 8 to 4 to 1. no major issues with reducing the pathways.) at least if both are on the pci-e bus, there should be less conflicts with dueling drivers fighting for primary.

Comments?
 
Been using 512 MB duel head cards for years and did waste alot of money on the Matrix quad cards for my office back in 2003.

Do not handle the office technology anymore but for our systems/servers and trading machines you can get a nice 512 duel card for 65 -70 bucks. So 140 for that four screen set up. You need to get some good memory to avoid fast market bottlenecks on the screen refresh.

http://www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/radeon_x1650_512mb.htm
 
Quote from traderNik:

"... Are you putting your two identical cards into these two slots or does your rig have two 16x slots? Maybe 2 4x slots? The question the guys at Anandtech brought up was this - will my mobo (Asus A8N-E) 'see' two cards if they are plugged into i.e. the PCIe 16x and the PCIe 4x slots. Are all PCIe slots potentially 'video' slots and will they run two cards simultaneously?
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I'm still using an AGP board with the 2nd card mounted in a PCI slot. (I'll be getting my first PCIE rig soon. Initially, I'll mount a PCI dualhead with the PCIEx16 card while I await NVS 285 x1 card to come up on eBay).... there's no reason to pay new prices for video cards.

I think 2 video cards will work any place you can get them plugged in. The "Extended Desktop" is a Windows function and it has worked very well since W98.

I've had as many as 4 separate video cards mounted with no problem.

As for bandwidth.... x1 is faster than PCI, so no problems anywhere.

BTW... you want to avoid "dueling drivers". Any time you have more than one video card driver installed the potential for system trouble goes way up. WinXP has a good library of "stock" drivers. I run my Nvidia Quadro NVS cards with no driver installed... relying only on the XP library ones. I'm missing a few "features", but I think that's a good trade for having no video drivers to potentially cause problems.
 
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