Running a 3rd Monitor??

[atkins14]

I have a Dell Xps 720 Quad Core running a Geforce 8800GTX currently have a stretched view across both my 17" monitors. However i wish to run a 3rd independent monitor. Is it possible to do this without spending huge amounts of money. I bought a splitter cable to duplicate the 2nd monitor to my 26" LCD TV and that worked fine however wish to make them all independent? Any help will be appreciated

[MaddAussie]

adding a 2nd pcie video card will allow you to run another monitor (and if its a 8 series or better Nvidia will allow you to use it as a Physx accelerator in games)

Might be an idea to check your PSU can handle it as well

[Webby]

It will all depend on what expansion card slots you have available, if you have a spare PCIe slot (either 16x or 4x with an open back) then all you need is the cheapest nVidia PCIe graphics card you can find. If you only have PCI slots free then you will need a nVidia PCI card

PCIe - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=754613

PCI - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=884977

They are some examples, you need to stick to nVidia so that you don't get driver conflicts from ATi and nVidia drivers both being installed.

Ebay could be your friend if you need to go down the PCI route as the should be plenty of cheap cards available second hand.

[atkins14]

Wouldnt that mean i would need an identical card to the one i have? Think my power supply is a 1000W so should be alright.

[Webby]

No doesn't need to be identical just nvidia you are not putting them in SLI (in which case they would need to be the same) so its not an issue.

[Webby]

Alternatively you could get something like this

http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...&prodID=B72930

which uses USB, you are limited to the resolution that it will display though.

Edit: more here Clicky

[atkins14]

Well i only have 2 slots spare on my motherboard above my 8800GTX a small brown slot which has PRC1 next to it and a larger slot with PRC2 next to it? so not quite sure what can go on them?

[Jay]

May be worth waiting for that USB graphics card thing.

[Webby]

Any chance of a photo?



That is my motherboard you can see it has 4 expansion slots the blue one is a PCIe x16 (your graphics card should be in one of these, not necessarily blue though), next to that we have 2x PCI slots (white) notice how they are closer to the back of the motherboard, finally we have a PCIe x4 slot (orange) this has an open back (see image below for what i mean, see how the slot doesn't stop) so can take a PCIe 16x card. You also get PCIe x1 slots which are shorter than the x4 slot.

[atkins14]

I need 5 posts before i can post pics

[atkins14]

heres number 5

[atkins14]

Heres a pic of the only spaces i have left..

[Will404]

PCI-e X 1 on top (second pic)

PCI-e X16 on bottom (closest GPU), also second pic.

YOu have to love Dell's cable management, it makes even my computer look neat!

[atkins14]

Well whats my current graphics card slot? i thought that was PCI-e x16 but its not in line with the slot above my card? Also would i have enough room then to fit another card?

[Powderhound]

You could also look at the (very expensive) Matrox Triple head 2 go.

[atkins14]

looks alright though if i could put another card on i think that would be better