Multi-monitor solution?

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roguetrader

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Hi, I am updating my PC for trading and want a four monitor setup. I was talking to the PC engineer at my local shop about the specs, and he suggested using a monitor splitter as opposed to the multi-monitor graphics card. Has anyone heard of this and know the pros and cons for going this route. The splitter is a seperate box, powered or unpowered and can run up to 8 monitors. Any advice on the matter appreciated.
Thanx
 
That will be totally useless for what you want. You will end up with a system that will display the same information on 8 screens.
Go buy yourself 3 cheap PCI video cards and you will have a 4 monitor setup. They don't need to be anything special- 8 meg memory is more than enough. Try to buy cards that have a different chipset to the one on your AGP card.
 
Chartman, with one agp and 3 pci cards would you still be able to stretch a particular application over 4 screens (as with one quad card) or would it be that each monior will have it's own separate toolbar with start menu?
Thank you.
 
I am looking at the Matrox QID (4 screens) or two Radeon9200 128mb (I game also)

d-
 
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www.colorgraphic.net do multimonitor graphics cards in their Xentera GT range that will drive two, four or eight monitors at upto 2048 x 1600 resolution.

They have also just released a brand new 4 monitor card in the latest PCI-Express format.

Not cheap but a much better solution than running multiple assorted cards. Check out their gallery section - they have some sweet images of multi screen setups!
 
Then all you need is a set of monitors to match...... something like 21" LCD's.... Save your money, go the cheap route .
 
Help from the experts, my pc shop has suggested use of two gaphics cards to achieve 4 monitor setup, they have installed a geoforce 5500 dual head agp card and an ati radeon 7000 dual head pci card. OS is win xp. They can get output to each card and indeed each head but only one monitor at a time. Ie they switch picture forom monitor to monitor and cannot find the xp setting to stretch the desktop over all 4 monitors. Any ideas.
 
Right click on your desktop
Properties, under settings tick the box for "Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor".
Choose one primary monitor and the other three as secondary.
Press identify button to make sure the arrangement of your monitors is what you want.
Good luck :p
 
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click start-control panel-appearance and themes-display - then click the second monitor icon and tick the box which says extend my windows desktop onto this monitor.

hope this helps
 
Thanks guys will have them try that. What is the world coming to when you have to go on to the internet and ask people for help so you can explain to your so called expert what he needs to do to solve a problem. LOL. Thanx again guys
 
Thanx to all the people who helped with advice and suggestions, have finally got setup up and running. Nvidia geforce fx5500 dual output and an ati radeon 7000 dual, all seems to be working ok, touch wood
 
roguetrader said:
Thanx to all the people who helped with advice and suggestions, have finally got setup up and running. Nvidia geforce fx5500 dual output and an ati radeon 7000 dual, all seems to be working ok, touch wood
Click to expand...

I must admit, I'm fairly suprised that your shop would have suggested this combination, mostly because I have read of numerous users experiencing difficulties when mixing ATI-based cards with Nvidia-based cards. Both brands are good individually (though my preference lies with Nvidia), but mixing the two can cause issues. That said, glad it's working for you. :)
 
i had heard similar things on the TradeStation forums about conflicts between video cards. Having said that, the computer store in question didnt know how to configure windows to work with multiple screens so it doesnt sound like they knew anything at all about what works and what doesnt.

roguetrader is up and running with no apparent problems regardless so thats all that matters
 
MartinD said:
roguetrader is up and running with no apparent problems regardless so thats all that matters
Click to expand...

Exactly, hopefully it will work out for you.
 
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