- Jun 8, 2008
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Since I've only gotten one response from my 3 week old thread that I bumped quite a bit, it seems like people are a bit afraid of long posts, so I'll keep this one short. (for reference, here's the link to my old thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/me...d=31&threadid=2203096)
I am going to build a computer that will be running a triple monitor (SyncMaster 245BW 24" 1920x1200 as main, BenQ FP202W 20.1" 1680x1050, and Sceptre 17" 1280x1024) plus an HDTV (Acer 38" 1080p). I have already come to the decision to selecting the Radeon 4870 as a primary video card to handle both the main monitor (SyncMaster) and the HDTV via HDMI (Acer), although the HDTV will only be used when I choose to watch movies.
Here comes the question: what kind of video card should I select to handle the two sub monitors? Since all the 3D work will be done by the 4870, I presume a budget or mainstream card would be plenty. The question is which model? I found a bunch on Canada Computers:
$41 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2 Dual Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$53 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 512MB DDR2 Dual Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$66 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2 Dual DVI PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$74 - Sapphire Radeon HD 3470 256MB DDR3 PCI-E 2XDVI-I TV-OUT DIRECTX10.1 Lite Retail Video Card (No Fans)
All the cards are at a nice price, but it'd be nice to know what is required. The downside with the 4850's is that there is only one DVI and one VGA, while my two sub monitors use DVI. If there are any other fanless options that I can buy from Canada, those would be nice too, since I'd like to keep this computer as quiet as possible.
Thanks to anyone who can answer my questions.
I am going to build a computer that will be running a triple monitor (SyncMaster 245BW 24" 1920x1200 as main, BenQ FP202W 20.1" 1680x1050, and Sceptre 17" 1280x1024) plus an HDTV (Acer 38" 1080p). I have already come to the decision to selecting the Radeon 4870 as a primary video card to handle both the main monitor (SyncMaster) and the HDTV via HDMI (Acer), although the HDTV will only be used when I choose to watch movies.
Here comes the question: what kind of video card should I select to handle the two sub monitors? Since all the 3D work will be done by the 4870, I presume a budget or mainstream card would be plenty. The question is which model? I found a bunch on Canada Computers:
$41 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2 Dual Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$53 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 512MB DDR2 Dual Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$66 - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3650 512MB DDR2 Dual DVI PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
$74 - Sapphire Radeon HD 3470 256MB DDR3 PCI-E 2XDVI-I TV-OUT DIRECTX10.1 Lite Retail Video Card (No Fans)
All the cards are at a nice price, but it'd be nice to know what is required. The downside with the 4850's is that there is only one DVI and one VGA, while my two sub monitors use DVI. If there are any other fanless options that I can buy from Canada, those would be nice too, since I'd like to keep this computer as quiet as possible.
Thanks to anyone who can answer my questions.