Multiple Monitors, 4+

[Zumbador]

I've been using dual monitors for a number of years and it's no longer cutting it.

Unfortunately, my Asus P5B-E motherboard only has a single PCI-x16 slot. Is there any way around getting a new mobo? I suppose I could get a PCI video card but how will it perform? I've got a spare 7300GT that I'd rather use...

Browsing new mobos, I see that all the dual x16 slot boards have one "full speed" slot and one "half speed" or x4 slot. What's the deal with these?

Lastly, out of curiosity, what are people using for 6-8 monitor setups? A bunch of PCI cards? I'm thinking about going for a quad 22" setup. I'd step up to larger monitors before getting more than four.

Thanks for the help.

 

[miker75]

You could always run one of these beasties...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814133164

 

[Flammable]

Originally posted by: miker75
You could always run one of these beasties...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814133164

holy....

 

[mpilchfamily]

PCI video cards run quite well as long as you don't try to game through them, but that's what your PCI-e card is for. For a while on my old P4 system i was runing a Geforce 3 AGP and a geforce 4 PCI card so i could run dual monitor since each card only had a single VGA port.

If you get a new motherboard it won't really matter if the 2nd 16x PCI-e slot runs at 4x or 8x since the 7300 won't need all that bandwidth anyway. If you want to avoid getting a new motherboard and still want to use the 7300 then there is an option. You can get the 7300 to work on one of your PCI-e 1x slots. You will just have to file out the front end of the slot so the card can be seated in the slot. I'm not saying this is a good idea but it is an option.