Three monitor display

[Tahir2]

Hi guys

I have been out of the hardware business for a little while and just getting back into it.

I was wondering if you could give me a hand with a customer request (more of a friend really).

He wants a PC with triple monitor support

2x monitors will display the same output (digital signage/slideshows etc)
One monitor is a large LCD display unit, the other one a simple 15" LCD to keep track of what is being displayed on the larger screen.

1x monitor will be his work area - just a standard 19" LCD.

What is the best, and cheapest, way to go about spec'ing a machine that will do the above?

Parhelia or two graphics cards?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Parhelia is so outdated as to not be worth consideration, IMHO. 2x discrete graphics cards are your best bet. Anything will do, from the sound of it.

 

[Tahir2]

Thanks for the reply ShaidarHaran.

What about the 780G chipset with a 4350 - states in Xbitlabs chipset review that it will support multi monitor output and save me from purchasing a motherboard with 2x PCI-E slots for graphics?

Any limitations that would hamper that set-up?

A graphics card can be installed into PCI Express x16 2.0 slot not only for configurations with up to four monitors (in Surround View mode - to join all monitors into a common desktop), but also to use Hybrid CrossFire. This mode is available, if you install graphics cards on Radeon HD 2400PRO/XT and HD 3450/3470 GPUs (their performance is comparable to the graphics core in the chipset). It allows to pool resources of graphics cores for 3D rendering. Video outputs on the cards can include analog VGA as well as digital DVI, HDMI (which can output not only video, but also audio in the most popular formats: stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1), and even DisplayPort, which support is also integrated into the chipset. However, cards with several digital outputs allow to use only one connector together with the analog output. Theoretically, the AMD 690G chipset allowed to plug two monitors to digital video outs. But this feature was supported only by ASUS M2A-VM HDMI. The other manufacturers installed several digital ports, but they couldn't be used together. The choice which digital port is active at a given moment is given to BIOS in most cases.

 

[Dooby]

Just make 100% sure that the onboard gfx dont get disabled the instant you put something into the PCIE slot. This happens on my (not that old) Athlon X2 shuttle system.

Remember, if you simply want triple display, you dont have to bother with XFire / SLI stuff. I used to use a X1900XTX and a X300SE (the best and worse ATi cards at the time) in a NV SLI board. Its best to stay with the same company chips, I only needed to install one set of drivers.

The obligatory image:

20", 24" portrait, 30". Yes, I like Dell.

 

[Davros]

JIts best to stay with the same company chips, I only needed to install one set of drivers.

In vista you cant use board from 2 different makers (ati, nvidia not evga,bfg ect)