Power behind 3 monitors?

[thun0r]

Hello all,

I'm currently in the middle of building my system and have been getting some great advice here.

I'd really like to treat myself and go all out with a 3 20inch monitor system so to power this I was thinking of two 2GB Power Color HD4870X2 and a 1000W Akasa Powermax??

Would any widescreen monitor do x3, would it be easy to fit it up ???

Thanks for the advice in advance

[Funkstar]

The monitor itself has nothing to do with being dual or tripple head, it's all about the graphics.

And that setup should easily cope

[jimbouk]

Might be more useful to have a larger central screen and a smaller one (rotated) each side. The pro setups look pretty good like this, eg:
http://www.digitaltigers.com/zenview-powertrioelite.asp

[Funkstar]

thats what I was going to do with a 24" and a 17", but I only just have the space so decided to save myself the ~£250 it would cost me with the 17" monitor and a second nVidia Quadro

[comatose]

Sounds like a mega setup, but I would question your logic over using 2 such powerful GFX cards in a multimonitor environment. The only fathomable benefit would be for games and there are few worthwhile titles available to warrant the expense.

If you're just looking to multitask even whilst playing a game on one, and say MSN/web/music/TV on the others then a much cheaper card would give exactly the same experience. This leans even more heavily in favour of having a larger 'main' screen for gaming etc. attached to the 4870, and the other screens on a lesser card, you could use the money saved to go towards a 24"er.

[thun0r]

well I dont really want a screen higher than 20 inch (widescreen) which is why I thought about having three monitors, It would really only be for gaming.

Does anyone know how easy they are to setup with ATI cards?

[Funkstar]

Only for gaming?

Do many games support multiple monitors? I didn't think so.....

[thun0r]

I didnt know they needed to to be honest ! thought the GPUs would sort that out ???

[Webby]

Why would you not want a single screen larger than 20" but 3 smaller? they are going to take up so much space! Especially 3x 20" that would be a resolution of 5040*1050 and will have a screen size of 50.9" long, 10.6" tall and 52" diagonal (not including bezels). That is an enormous screen! And it will cost you ~£500 you would get a much better gaming experience if you spent that £500 on a single larger monitor (24" most likely, but maybe 26") admittedly the resolution would be lower but how many games are actually going to take advantage of 3 monitors? £850 (the cost of 3 20" monitors and a 4870X2) could buy you a Hazro HZ30W 30" 2560*1600 screen, but personally I would save the money get a decent 24" and then if you feel the need perhaps 2x 17" (1280*1024) to go next to it total approx screen size 42" wide, 13" high (44" diagonal) + bezels with a resolution of 3968*1200, but in games which don't support multi-monitor you will have a single larger display to work with.

[thun0r]

Well, it would look great... as I wanted something like:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/0...08-alienw.html

I can see your point with one big one and then a smaller one, so I will look into that, my current GPU is 8800GTS and a Q6600, would that be ok to game on one monitor and then have my desktop on the smaller screen ????

Which means I wont need to buy the ATI's??

Is something like that easy to set up, then ingame switch between desktop and game (monitor to monitor)... do I need any special programs?

[Webby]

If you were going for multiple monitors with desktop and gaming at the same time you would probably have to run the game in a window, not 100% sure on that but its a distinct possibility.

That alienware screen is only the equivilent of 2x widescreen 19" monitors personally I don't think the extra width is going to gain you as much as an entire larger screen would.

What 8800 GTS is it? 320MB, 640MB or 512MB?

If it is the 512MB it will happily play games at 1920*1200 you would see benefit from an upgrade to a GTX260, HD4870 or above but the upgrade to a 9800GTX or HD4850 would not be worth it.

[thun0r]

Its an ASUS 512 overclocked one...and you have been realy helpfull, am going for the large and small monitor option..... just need to find out how to make it work now !

[Funkstar]

One thing, if you are going to use different graphics hardware to drive the seperate screens, don't try and use from different manufacturers. This includes integrated graphics with addon graphics.

[Powderhound]

Out of interest, would I be able to use an X300 with my 4850, or is the gap between the two cards too great?

[Webby]

as long as both cards are supported in catalyst it shouldn't be a problem how far apart they are in age or performance.

[chilled]

You don't need a 1000W PSU...I'd go for a better quality ~700-800W unit.