Five LCD Monitor Setup

[MangoTBG]

First off, yes I will SURELY post pictures when this is completed.

I just had my friend call me up and he needs help setting up a five monitor setup.

Why? - Because he is a day trader.

Now here is where he is at, he has purchased a dell *i don't know which model just yet; I'm waiting for him to email me all the specs* desktop, supposedly a higher end model.

Along with the dell came a 20" LCD monitor *I'm sure a 2005 or something of the sort...also awaiting specs*. He also purchased 4x 17" LCD *You guessed...not sure what the specs are just yet*.

So here are my two questions: Assuming that all monitors are to be run off of VGA connections,

1. How many videocards are required?
2. Which videocards do you suggest to use?

Yes, I have searched these topics. I'm assuming that Matrox will be brought up, etc. etc. but I haven't found any topics concerning 5 monitors...so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks for your help.

 

[ballmode]

How do you hook up 5?

 

[Farmer]

I am not too sure if it was wise of him to purchase the 4 additional monitors before knowing how to integrate them?

Quick google:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/home.cfm

That is four. I dont know about 5. You could pair a quad and a double one together for 6, I guess, since these cards run on PCI. This is fine for running Telemet or running office apps, but these are 2-D cards, not 3-D cards.

Or, if you have a PCI-E model:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/products/qidlp.cfm

In either case, your dad at least should have done a little research before spending some $1500 on moniters?

 

[MangoTBG]

Originally posted by: Farmer
This would be... difficult? Lets see, an AGP or 16x PCI-E graphics card can support two displays.

I am not sure about this, but if you purchase a SLI PCI-E setup and install 2 Geforces not in SLI, it could support 4 monitors, but I don't know if that would actually work.

As for 5 monitors, well, I have never tried that, or heard of how to do it. You could install 3 PCI graphics cards and 1 AGP card with dual output; I have little experience with Matrox cards.

I am not too sure if it was wise of him to purchase the 4 additional monitors before knowing how to integrate them?

Quick google:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/home.cfm

That is four. I dont know about 5.

I won't argue about whether he was smart or not...the fact is, I'm getting paid either way . I know it is possible. And I know I've read a thread or two about 4+ videocards...especially one that had a picture of some dude's setup w/ something like 7 monitors playing a flight simulator.

Anyways...I hope someone can chime in with some kind of experiance! Thanks for your replies thus far.

 

[Farmer]

Well this (http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/products/qidlp.cfm) looks pretty promising.

Kind of steep (hell, you could buy a computer for that price), but Matrox is high quality stuff. We run two of their older cards here in the office; no multi-monitor though, so we've switched over to integrated Intel graphics. Our guys usually get their Telemet windows on one screen.

If your dad's office uses CDW as a source, here is their catalog:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=775873

 

[MangoTBG]

I'm going with 2x ATi 9250 PCI cards... He also just called and said he wants to drop it down to 4 monitors and use the 5 one for another computer...so that just makes my life a little easier. I'm heading out to his place *just got the ATi cards from compusa* after I install HL2 that I purchased for $.99+shipping!

 

[TankGuys]

Well, one thing to consider is that if you're going pure VGA, and if he's just doing day trading and thus nothing too graphically intensive, then he can use some low-end PCI video cards even. We run 3-4 monitors in some of our offices, and I drive many of them using some ancient Matrox GX200 (or something like that) that we salvaged from 8 year old Dell machines. Clearly, it wouldn't work well for 3D apps and such, but for watching streaming quotes/news, it would be fine.

A good combination of a dual-head video card in your AGP/PCIE slot, with a few old PCI video cards to round it out would be just fine.

 

[LED]

ATI and Matrox play nice together...1 ofmy Rig has had 5 plus TV before LCDs were even popular with Window 98SE