3rd monitor

[Martin1973]

I need to add a third monitor to my PC but not sure if it can be done so before I buy the monitor I thought I'd check here first and hopefully get some advice.

I am currently running 2 monitors, 1 of them is running off the onboard card connected to the motherboard, the other is connected to a 128MB PCI card which I purchased separately. I was told that if I wanted to run a 3rd monitor then I might need to replace my 128MB PCI card with a dual head type card. This question was put to the technical support guy who I purchased my machine from but he did not know for sure whether it would work!

I have 1024MB PC2700 DDR-memory (333MHZ). I take it this is enough to run 3 monitors?

Appreciate any help as I have hit a brick wall on this. I'm sure it can't be that difficult..

Thanks
Martin

 

[ChartMan]

All you need is another PCI card. Memory is not an issue at all. It really is that easy.

 

[RogerM]

Martin - no problem running a 3rd monitor. I do this on a PIII-667 with 576 MB RAM using a Matrox G880 dual head AGP card plus an Appian geronimo dual head PCI card in a spare slot, giving me the capacity to run up to 4 monitors. Not easy to set up, but that's what teenage sons are for! Chartman's your man for specific advice on this subject, and anything he recommends that conflicts with anything I have said should be given precedence.

 

[ChartMan]

No conflicts there. :cheesy:

 

[dc2000]

Hi Martin
2nd PCI card should go in no problem you may have to manually assign PCI IRQ but thats easy to do.

if you want to have a test first PM me your address I can send you an old cirrus logic PCI card

 

[Martin1973]

I did ask the technical guy from Mesh Computers if I could just install another PCI card but he said there is no room for it which is why he suggested maybe replacing the one I have with a dual head card. Is he talking out of his back-side?

 

[Martin1973]

PCI card

if you want to have a test first PM me your address I can send you an old cirrus logic PCI card

That's very kind, thanks. I just need to know first if I have the room for it in my machine. It's not even that my machine is that old, purchased it approx 7 months ago so I am not sure what the guy is talking about.

 

[Bluewave]

I did ask the technical guy from Mesh Computers if I could just install another PCI card but he said there is no room for it which is why he suggested maybe replacing the one I have with a dual head card. Is he talking out of his back-side?

I'm sorry Martin, but I just had to laugh when you mentioned "Mesh" and "technical support" in the same sentence, but I won't divulge here the problems I've had with this nightmare of a company!!

However, I would agree with what your advisor said: sell one of your graphics cards on eBay (preferably the least powerful one), then search the eBay listings for a pre-owned Matrox dual-head card like RogerM uses. Do some research and you'll see you can pick up a powerful 2-3 year old card for under £40 that has 32MB+ of memory and hopefully 2 digital ports for sending a nice stable signal to your LCDs (presuming your LCDs can accept a digital signal!). Drivers are reasily available on the web.

An AGP card would be recommended because it works faster than PCI cards, although unless you're into gaming as well, you probably wouldn't notice any difference. However, check first how many AGP slots you have... some PCs only have 1, but have 4 or 5 PCI slots instead.

Manually assigning PCI IRQ's, as already mentioned by dc2000, is not that hard, but can be a hassle to get every card working properly. Often the best way is to just have 2 graphics cards from the same manufacturer in the one machine.

Oh, and after reading this reply, probably best to remove your address from the boards (Edit: ok, you've done that now ). Then PM (Private Message) your address to dc2000. Best not to be so public with your address on forum pages.

Good luck and let us know how you get on or if you need more help!

 

[JTrader]

Hi Martin
1024 DDR RAM souns like more than enough memory. I have 512 DDR RAM (PC 333) and have run more than 2 monitors. I don't think the PC memory capacity is a major factor influencing running multiple monitors. You just need to concentrate on getting the right combination of graphics cards and having the right number of sockets to plug the monitor into!.
It seems that if you install two cards by the same manufacturer (ATI AGP card & ATI PCI card) you are quite likely to experience problems - because the two cards share the same chipset. If you by individual graphics cards from seperate manufacturers (Matrox, Nvidia etc) things should run OK. Matrox and ATI definately do dual-head cards, some even do quad-head cards - so I believe.

Good luck

jtrader.

 

[RogerM]

So what's happened to the posts from myself and Chartman from last night?

edit.

Ahhh! just reappeared again! :cheesy:

 

[Martin1973]

Okay guys thanks for your help. It looks like the best way is to get a 'dual header'. I will have a look around.

Now to find that third monitor to compliment my twin 17 inchers! I am looking for the largest quality screen I can get for under £1k. Any recommendations?

Cheers

 

[nomish]

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

scroll down to the bottom of that site and click one that suits u. The P750 is sufficent for runnign dual head. get a G450 if u want 4head.

In terms of computer power getting a high quality graphics card will do all the work on its own. The G450 may cost over 400 pounds, but is designed with 4 graphics card on one chipset, so that u can have different resolutions on different screens. Most corporate traders are using Matrox hardware.

www.dabs.co.uk is a great place to buy this kidn of hardware as most of the retailers only sell 50 to 100pic to corporate clients. Dabs.co.uk will sell u one with the lowest price avablilbe on the net.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

RogerM - no posts have disappeared. Martin1973 posted the same question, with different thread titles, in Gen Trading Chat and the other in Techies Corner. You must have responded originally to one thread, then seen this thread which would have prompted you to question where the posts had gone to.

I have now merged both threads into one, and deleted Martin1973's duplicate posting.

 

[Bluewave]

Hi Martin
...It seems that if you install two cards by the same manufacturer (ATI AGP card & ATI PCI card) you are quite likely to experience problems - because the two cards share the same chipset. If you by individual graphics cards from seperate manufacturers (Matrox, Nvidia etc) things should run OK.

I have experienced the opposite, hence why I wrote before about using 2 cards from the same manufacturer. Ok, hardware wise, it probably makes no difference if the AGP card is a Matrox one, and the PCI card is an ATI (or whatever brand) one, but different manufacturer's drivers running on the one PC can cause many weird and wonderful incompatibility problems.

Especially with ATI, who seem to have a knack of producing drivers which are "sticky" and need a good registry cleanout before attempting to installl another graphics card and driver!

For LCD ratings you can try here: http://www.reviewcentre.com/products93.html

I have never found Dabs that cheap when I have compared their prices. You also get stung by their delivery charges, especially if you are not on the mainland.

These people, however, do offer nicely-priced LCDs, and a good range: http://www.monitors-online.co.uk/ but no reviews.

Again, if you know what you want, and are not after the best LCD for graphics work (let's face it, financial information doesn't really require top displays!), then try eBay again. I picked-up a nice second display Iiyama 17" LCD, for all intents and purposes brand new and boxed, for around 25% less than retail. I just can't see the point spending massive amounts on a 3rd monitor which is not going to be your main display and doesn't need super-accurate colour or a fast screen redraw. You might as well buy a mid-range one and use the money saved for trading. But then I am a skin flint

 

[RogerM]

Thanks skim - not very bright this morning after last night!!!

 

[Martin1973]

(Bluewave) I have found by previous experience that graphics cards can and will cause real problems with your PC's settings if things go wrong. I purchased a card from Mesh once, installed it and it did not work. I removed the card and it the damn thing somehow managed to remove nearly all my computers set up drivers. Nightmare.. ! Thank god for XP and system restore. Anyway, not a good thing to happen to me as I am a full time trader and without it I would be stuffed. Luckily I did not loose any data! I had my friend over at the time who is a computer engineer and even he could not understand what had happened. One day I will get round to buying a back up PC!

Okay onto to question I wanted to ask. Forgive my ignorance in this.. Been looking around today and think I have found a nice 23" TFT monitor made by LG at a price I am willing to pay. This will be used as my main display. The only drawback is that the resolution is only 1280 x 760 whereas a slightly cheaper 21" Samsung is available with a res of 1600 x 1200. Do you know whether I would notice much difference in picture quality between the two? Of course my outside preference would lead me toward the larger display but if it's not going to 'cut the mustard' I 'd rather opt for the Samsung.

Regards
Martin

 

[Bluewave]

One day I will get round to buying a back up PC!...

Yeah, my laptop hard disk has been corrupting sectors recently, so I thought it best to invest in an external hard disk and backup everything properly, then make a "ghost copy" of the dodgy HD. So if, more likely when, my laptop HD gives up for good, I can just re-format it (or maybe buy a new one), then copy all my data in its old formatting and folders, back onto the laptop drive. Et voila! As if nothing had happened.

Well, that's the theory anyway!

Martin, onto your question: one day I will be enough of asuccessful trader to allow me to buy such a nice large LCD!1

Ok, so you're looking at the Samsung SM213T (21") and the LG L2320A (23") I presume. I have just checked out their specs, and if someone nice and rich was buying me one (hint, hint!), I would ask for the LG. The extra width would come in handy, but as you pointed out, it's a shame it can't handle 1900 x 1600 in digital mode! I would imagine 1280 x 1024 would just make the icons etc. feel too big... too in your face, although you could always reduce the DPI to 75% in the display settings to compensate.

1600 x 1200 would feel about right (for my eyes) on a 21" screen. I once used a 15" Dell screen that was set at 1600 x 1200, and you almost needed a microscope to see text boxes and icons! Needless to say Dell didn't sell many of them although they were incredibly sharp and vibrant displays.

The brightness of the Samsung and LG are almost the same, and the LG has the quicker response time of 25ms. Also the viewing angles are about the same. But look at the weight: the 21" screen weighs 8.9KG LESS!!

The LG has a few USB ports, but the Samsung site doesn't mention if the SM21 has any. The LG screen would be good for watching DVDs I suppose.

I have a feeling that the actual LG LCD screen is made by Samsung (or is it Sharp?) so I would expect the picture quality to be about the same, as reflected by their specs. Really, you need to go to a shop and see these monitors running Windows and see which you prefer..... play about with the menus (are they easy to use, setup etc.), compare the dot pitches and see if you could live with looking at 1600 x 1200 day in, day out. I suspect if your eyesight is fairly ok, then it wouldn't be a problem on a 21" screen.

Also see how adjustable the stands are, especially for height.

Sorry if I have been rambling... I'm dreaming too much of having such a large display

All the best with whichever one you choose and ultimately set up.

 

[ChartMan]

Seems like that 23" job is a TV spec LCD.... ie lower resolution. I'd stick with the 21....

 

[Martin1973]

Thanks guys for the input. After a bit of thought I bought the Samsung SM213T (21") today and the Matrox G450MMS card. I will be able to run the 21" (main display) through DVI connection, then the other two 17" monitors in the traditional way. The card will be able to take another monitor should I require it in the future. I did have a look at a Philips 26" but the damn thing was massive! I'm so used to having smaller monitors I forget how big these beasts are!

It's interesting to see how much money I have spent recently upgrading etc. Still, fruits of my labour, as they say.

 

[tonie]

hi

Need some help

I have just purchased a new 3ghz Pc with a Radeon graphics card that allows a VGA & DVI connection & allows me to run 2 VGA monitors using an adaptor to convert DVI to VGA which only cost me £6.
However i also have a Nividia g-force 5200 PCI dual card which i am having a great deal of problems with trying to run a 3rd monitor off it. It just keeps coming up with an error message when i log on saying that 'ATI has caused a problem & needs to shut down'. Without shutting it down it may run ok, but sometimes crash or not re-boot properly.
I've just uninstalled the drivers & removed the 3rd monitor.

i've tried everything but to no avail.

tonie