HP H8qe and 4 monitors

Maverick1 · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from ScalperJoe:

Perhaps you can choose a less pricey model as you suggested, the home pavilions, and upgrade the graphics card to either the Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 or the ATI Radeon 6850, as both have 2 DVI inputs. Then you can run two monitors into each DVI slot with a splitter.

Personally, I've found the Nvidia NVS 290 cards are fine for running dual monitors (I use a Dell Workstation with 2 NVS 290's). The newer model is the NVS 295, however I didn't see if HP gives that option.

that sounds interesting Joe, will definitely look into it. My fear is that the power supply might not be enough on one of the home desktops to support a card like that, but will look into it.

How many monitors do you have on that setup?

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

This is my current system: running 4 screens. 2 of those are on an NVDA Quadro PCI E and are connected in the back via a VGA splitter head to 2 dell monitors. And the quality of the image (different image) has been ok for me. The other two are on an NVDA GEforce FX 5200.

So am I misunderstanding your comment re the splitter?

You don't actually have a splitter.. you have a DMS-59 connector which supports 2 ports.

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

This is my current system: running 4 screens. 2 of those are on an NVDA Quadro PCI E and are connected in the back via a VGA splitter head to 2 dell monitors. And the quality of the image (different image) has been ok for me. The other two are on an NVDA GEforce FX 5200.

So am I misunderstanding your comment re the splitter?

I know you mentioned the Quadro NVS 420, but would you recommend any from these cards? The first one is what comes with the machine by default:

1GB AMD Radeon HD 7570 [DVI, HDMI, DP, VGA adapter]

2GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 530 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
3GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]
1GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti [2 DVI, mini-HDMI. VGA adapter]
1GB DDR5 Radeon HD 6850 [2 DVI, 2 mini-DP, HDMI. VGA adapter]

Those are all "gamer" cards... will work for trading, but will draw more power/heat and have fans which may be noisy.

Maverick1 · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Scataphagos:

Those are all "gamer" cards... will work for trading, but will draw more power/heat and have fans which may be noisy.

Thanks for pointing that out. Noise is big problem with my dell workstation... want to avoid it at all costs...

Not sure what to do anymore, it looked like the HP H8qe was only machine that could support two cards (expandable power supply to 600w) but it comes with these gamer cards... does that mean i'm consigned to going Dell again?

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

Thanks for pointing that out. Noise is big problem with my dell workstation... want to avoid it at all costs...

Not sure what to do anymore, it looked like the HP H8qe was only machine that could support two cards (expandable power supply to 600w) but it comes with these gamer cards... does that mean i'm consigned to going Dell again?

That depends.... on whether your mind is set on an i7 CPU. Have you searched HP's website for "workstation"? I think they have the equivalent of Dell's, but the HPs are higher priced.

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

Thanks for pointing that out. Noise is big problem with my dell workstation... want to avoid it at all costs...

Not sure what to do anymore, it looked like the HP H8qe was only machine that could support two cards (expandable power supply to 600w) but it comes with these gamer cards... does that mean i'm consigned to going Dell again?

You can run 4-monitors on any machine with 2 or more PCIEx16 slots. Some mobos today have 6-7 x16 slots.

Is this computer primarily "general computing + trading" or would you include "gaming" for its intended use?

What is your budget limit for the computer alone?

Maverick1 · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Scataphagos:

That depends.... on whether your mind is set on an i7 CPU. Have you searched HP's website for "workstation"? I think they have the equivalent of Dell's, but the HPs are higher priced.

No, I'm not particularly picky on cpu since I've been on this workstation for years and its only a Xeon processor. Looks like the workstations are out of my range...

Joe had suggested GeForce GTX 550 or the ATI Radeon 6850, as both have 2 DVI inputs. Maybe I could run the 4 screens on one of these cards using 2 DMS 59 style connectors?

Are these noisy cards too and do you know of any quiet dual dvi input cards?

Maverick1 · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Scataphagos:

You can run 4-monitors on any machine with 2 or more PCIEx16 slots. Some mobos today have 6-7 x16 slots.

Is this computer primarily "general computing + trading" or would you include "gaming" for its intended use?

What is your budget limit for the computer alone?

Zero gaming. Just want QUIET machine as much as possible, currently its like Ive got a mini truck revving up and down (replaced the heat sink fan, didn't help).

Only for general computing and trading.

Budget, preferably under $1000 if possible.

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

No, I'm not particularly picky on cpu since I've been on this workstation for years and its only a Xeon processor. Looks like the workstations are out of my range...

Joe had suggested GeForce GTX 550 or the ATI Radeon 6850, as both have 2 DVI inputs. Are these noisy cards too and do you know of any quiet dual dvi input cards?

I don't know how noisy those 2 are. However, fans eventually get noisy and break down... need to replace the fan, if possible, or replace the card.

Quiet cards are those without fans.... such as the Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 or 295. Many ETers use these as do I.

The Dell T3500 workstations... are very quiet... they don't even have heat-sink fans. Suggest getting one from Dell's outlet... W3530 or faster CPU.... they sometimes go for <$600. Perfect for trading unless you need LOTS of horsepower because you run lots of tic charts and/or custom indicators. (I bought one last year for $629.)

Scataphagos · Apr 19, 2012

Quote from Maverick1:

"... Joe had suggested GeForce GTX 550 or the ATI Radeon 6850, as both have 2 DVI inputs. Maybe I could run the 4 screens on one of these cards using 2 DMS 59 style connectors?

No. The video card has to be equipped with DMS-59 connector. Those cards don't have that.