P4 and dual monitors

gnome · Jan 27, 2003

Quote from richtrader:

Hi again... Dell has conveniently made it so that most of these third party memory brands will not work with the proprietary "notch" they require on the side of the dimm/simm/whatever it's called these days.

I've heard people say that, but my one experience contradicts. I bought a 256 DDR stick from Crucial and it worked perfectly. One way to know... take the Dell memory out and take it to the store to compare notches?? Would MB manufacturers make a special dimm/simm "holder" specifically for Dell so they could eliminate 3rd party competition for additional Ram? Sounds like a Justice Department issue if true.

Posting late thought... What if Dell's ram board had an extra notch, but there was no corresponding "peg" in the simm? You might look at the board and conclude that you have to buy Dell when the notch was just a decoy to get you to think that way.... would be clever.

stockerup · Jan 27, 2003

I've got an Athelon 1GHz processor with 256MB of memory. I want to add a second monitor. What is the cheapest way to add the monitor. I was told that I have to have 192MB of memory for each monitor. Is that true? Thanks.

gnome · Jan 27, 2003

Quote from stockerup:

I've got an Athelon 1GHz processor with 256MB of memory. I want to add a second monitor. What is the cheapest way to add the monitor. I was told that I have to have 192MB of memory for each monitor. Is that true? Thanks.

Just add a 2nd, single, card that you verify as compatible before you buy. Or, you could replace your present card with one of the popular dualheads. ATI, Matrox, nVidia, others. That's all.

No, you don't need 192 ram/monitor. It will all work with what you've got. (I'm presuming you have W2K or XP OS?)

If you're running short of ram the system will slow down a bit, that's all. Suggest you set the resolution for you monitors at the lowest you find satisfactory. Also, 16 bit color instead of high color (32 bit). You probably won't notice it in a trading PC, and those settings will consume less of the CPU grunt.

gnome · Jan 27, 2003

Quote from gnome:

I've heard people say that, but my one experience contradicts. I bought a 256 DDR stick from Crucial and it worked perfectly. One way to know... take the Dell memory out and take it to the store to compare notches?? Would MB manufacturers make a special dimm/simm "holder" specifically for Dell so they could eliminate 3rd party competition for additional Ram? Sounds like a Justice Department issue if true.

Posting late thought... What if Dell's ram board had an extra notch, but there was no corresponding "peg" in the simm? You might look at the board and conclude that you have to buy Dell when the notch was just a decoy to get you to think that way.... very clever, if true.

stockerup · Jan 27, 2003

Quote from gnome:

Just add a 2nd, single, card that you verify as compatible before you buy. Or, you could replace your present card with one of the popular dualheads. ATI, Matrox, nVidia, others. That's all.

No, you don't need 192 ram/monitor. It will all work with what you've got. (I'm presuming you have W2K or XP OS?)

If you're running short of ram the system will slow down a bit, that's all. Suggest you set the resolution for you monitors at the lowest you find satisfactory. Also, 16 bit color instead of high color (32 bit). You probably won't notice it in a trading PC, and those settings will consume less of the CPU grunt.

Thanks, gnome. That sounds a lot less complicated than what they told me at Gateway.-- a lot less expensive, too.
(I'm running XP.)

gnome · Jan 27, 2003

Quote from stockerup:

Thanks, gnome. That sounds a lot less complicated than what they told me at Gateway.-- a lot less expensive, too.
(I'm running XP.)

With your full trading package of programs running, check Task Manager to see how much of your total memory is being utilized. You can judge from there if you need more physical memory.

gnome · Jan 28, 2003

Quote from Ken_DTU:

gnome, interesting - hey what m/b and vid cards are you using? curious.. I want to get a p4 m/b running w/4+ cards would be great.. it's the intel 850e chipset on some p4 boards that apparently has a hard time w/multiple agp + pci cards..

the matrox parhelia works fine on my intel p/4 m/b for 3 monitors.. fwiw..

thx,

ken

Got a 2nd update on MB from Dell... "Intel DESIGN system board, P4 Northwood 478pin CPU... w/ Intel 845D Brookdale D Chipset...".

So, Dell's having the board made to Intel specs to save money. Looks like the key is the 845D (or any 845?) Chipset.

Dzambo · Jan 28, 2003

Just a bit from the main topic,

I was wondering if anyone has used services of the guys from
www.rightway.com listed at the end of brochure, mentioned in:

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01-27-03 10:01 AM
Take a look at this web site for good recommendations on multimonitor specs:
http://www.paritech.com/us/workstation_guide.pdf

CharlesTrader
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CharlesTrader · Jan 28, 2003

I haven't used RightWay, but I use their recommendations as a guideline. If you would like a list of vendors that specialize in trade stations, take a look at the following:

http://daytradingstocks.com/tradestations.html

CharlesTrader