Anyone run more than 2 displays?

[Chaotic42]

With LCD prices as low as they are, I've toyed around with the idea of having 3 monitors (I have 2 now). My second monitor is rarely empty, and I've found myself wishing I had a third display from time to time. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[Anubis]

ive done it brifely just because i could
its fairly easy, all you need is a PCI video card,
just go into display properties like you would to enable dual mon and enable the 3rd

i found it easier if teh PCI card and the AGP card were the same, useing a ATI AGP card and Nvidia PCI card was annoying

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Anubis
ive done it brifely just because i could
its fairly easy, all you need is a PCI video card,
just go into display properties like you would to enable dual mon and enable the 3rd

i found it easier if teh PCI card and the AGP card were the same, useing a ATI AGP card and Nvidia PCI card was annoying

Yeah, I was thinking about that.

The thing is that I only have one slot open and it's a 64/66 slot. It would slow down my SCSI card, but I don't think it pushes that much anyway.

 

[sunase]

I have 3 running back at my family home. 2 21" CRT (Nokia 445Xi & ViewSonic 21PS) via HD15 and 1 23" LCD TV (Dell W2300) via DVI. Cards are an AGP NVIDIA FX5900 and a PCI Creative Savage 4 3D Blaster (lol).

It hasn't been completely painless. The PCI card won't work unless it gets booted first (meaning the NVIDIA driven displays are dark until Windows comes up) which is annoying. It's the slowest display (even for simple stuff like desktop translucency) so I keep it more out of the way than the others.

Also I had to change Chessmaster 10 to OpenGL because it would die in DirectX mode more often than usual. That's pretty much the only game I play, so can't report on others. I bet a more modern card, maybe another NVIDIA so they match, would clear up some things, though. Still it works fine almost all of the time. ^^

 

[Chaotic42]

Thanks for the post.

I was thinking about adding a very simple ATI card or maybe a Matrox. I don't think that any of my games do multi-monitors, so that's not a big deal.

 

[Funyuns101]

Originally posted by: Anubis
i found it easier if teh PCI card and the AGP card were the same, useing a ATI AGP card and Nvidia PCI card was annoying

I tried doing that with a 9600 pro (agp) and an aiw rage II+ (pci) ... then my computer went nuts and started restarting over & over...

any clues as to why?

 

[Anubis]

driver conflict

 

[Funyuns101]

any way to fix it?
or am i just out of luck?

 

[sunase]

You can try swapping what slot the PCI one is in or playing with the IRQ assignments directly. Although from my setup a problem there just meant one of the cards wouldn't work, no continuos restarting. At least something you can do about it, though.

 

[lmccrary]

go to 3, you'll love it!

 

[RichPLS]

I have two 21" CRT's powered by my ATI X800XT PE and it's awesome!

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: lmccrary
go to 3, you'll love it!

That's what I'm afraid of.

I'm already running dual processors which is hard to go back from. Dual displays are impossible to back from.

If I add a third, I may need drugs to get by if I ever don't have room for all of them.

 

[erub]

i actually ran 3 displays but i didnt like it..too much turning, at least for my desk, hehe..i had a 19" LCD and two 17" CRTs on both sides..now I'm gonna hve two 19" LCDs, cant wait till i get it all seutp and running

 

[bhanson]

Going back sucks, I had to do it, heh.

 

[sunase]

I actually have the slower monitor under my (glass) desk, so not that much more turning for me. ^^ A glance down gives all progress read outs, volume, equalizer, etc. stuff. All side by side is probably better for 3 full use monitors, though.

 

[0roo0roo]

well, as long as u use lcd. why not crt would burn too much power

 

[ponyo]

I find two to be optimal for me.

 

[SlingXShot]

I had a 19inch and 17inch next to each other. Was great, lots of desktop space. Then i got 20 inch LCD, thought it would be enough, i was wrong. Nothing beats dual screen unless u have a huge widescreen LCD may be 2005 Dell LCD does it well enough.

 

[Vegito]

Using Matrox Parhelia with triple head, dual 2001 fp and a single dell 19" lcd tv

http://www.thefesteringcyforce...humbnails.php?album=32

The third isn't used all the time but its there when i need it