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Chat => Entertainment & Technology => Topic started by: shofty on November 23, 2007, 00:01:55 AM

Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: shofty on November 23, 2007, 00:01:55 AM
call me a geek, but im sorely tempted by a 3 monitor setup, so i can watch movies and do web dev at the same time. anyone know how to achieve this. ive got 2 at the moment through my x1950 dooberry.

Matt
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: Pete on November 23, 2007, 00:04:19 AM
I think you need to buy a 3rd monitor to get it working.



/Im mildly interested as well. We tried at work with 2x off a PCI-E card and one off the onboard graffix. It didnt work :(
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: shofty on November 23, 2007, 00:07:49 AM
ah, theres always one with the obvious answer. nice for it not to be me for once.

im guessing there is no such thing as a tri-head card then?

Matt
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: Pete on November 23, 2007, 00:13:18 AM
Matrox used to make them iirc (pihriaarrana or something).

Im guessing you need a 2x PCI-E (or AGP) card and a dedicated PCI card to make it work otherwise.

3 screens is excessive though; 2 for developing ya but if you want a third just for telly and movies Id get a proper telly.
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: Shakey on November 23, 2007, 00:32:05 AM
If you have an SLI or Crossfire setup each card will (usually) have to monitor ports. I know for a fact that you can set up a quad monitor system with an SLI setup, so you probably can with crossfire too.

With 2 completely separate gfx cards, I have no idea. Although using 2 cards might work better than 1+ onboard.
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: Maldonado on November 23, 2007, 09:07:54 AM
yes, its easy. put another graphics card in and connect it up.
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on November 23, 2007, 12:33:12 PM
mate does it with 2 pci-e cards.

Disadvantage, you obviously cannot use SLI when doing triple head. :)
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: SteveF on November 23, 2007, 13:21:41 PM
I have a 4 panel setup at the moment but Im cheating lol.

24" Dell and 20" Dell LCDs to main PC, ?24"? CRT connected to an UltraSparc and a 50" plasma connected to both machines through a processing box.

3 screens is very useful.  a widescreen as main window and two normal ones really helps for heavy development work.  Its overkill for home use but if youre actually working on them then 3 panels really helps in a lot of situations.

If you only want the third monitor to watch movies while doing work I wouldnt bother.  Just turn on a laptop or your tv
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: knighty on November 23, 2007, 20:59:45 PM
like everyone said... just need an extra gfx card...

but on a side note... you cant use SLI with more than one screen.... you can still use 2 cards... just they dont work in "SLI" mode :(
Title: Re:3 monitor setup
Post by: cornet on November 23, 2007, 22:11:19 PM
Just a quick note on this - most motherboards disable the on board gfx completely if you stick another gfx card in.... and there is no way round this :(


(Same goes for on board sound)
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: cornet on November 23, 2007, 22:13:03 PM
Oh and a note about using workstation + laptop.

check out Synergy (http://synergy2.sf.net/) its basically a K(v)M but done over the network.

Obviously cant drag windows between computers but copyy and paste works fine.. Keyboard input is on which ever computer the mouse is on.


There is GUI for windows which makes things real easy to setup :)
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: M3ta7h3ad on November 24, 2007, 00:37:12 AM
Quote from: cornetOh and a note about using workstation + laptop.

check out Synergy its basically a K(v)M but done over the network.

Obviously cant drag windows between computers but copyy and paste works fine.. Keyboard input is on which ever computer the mouse is on.


There is GUI for windows which makes things real easy to setup :)

Didnt realise there was a free one out there. Ive been using Maxivision for several years to do the same.

Does KvM, and expands desktop across up to 4 networked machines.
Title: 3 monitor setup
Post by: Poison_UK on November 24, 2007, 01:29:22 AM
Currently my set-up is

1x 19" CRT DVI
1x 19" Flatscreen DVI
1x 32" TV S-Video

Thats from a GeForce 7950 GT OC.

Runs fine with all 3 monitors, except for the dodgy res and refresh rates from the TV, but all I use that for is watching movies :)