Hey guys, first post here.. I'm not new to PC's, I built a few in my time and thinking about building a new one soon. It seems like if you turn your head away from technology for 2 secs, everything becomes so advance and different. Well I'm looking to build-up a heavy gamer PC (actually for the upcomming games "Huxley" and "C&C 3") and kind-of confused on somethings.. Well first off, I figured out motherboards can now hold 2 processors (it's been awhile since i built one haha), but is making a multi-core PC the best? (instead of going for a upper end Motherboard and Processor) Also, I want to make it a triple-screen http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/04/12/matrox_triplehead_2_go/1.html - but getting kind-of confused on the setup.. people are saying you need SLI for the trips-heads but I really want to get the Radeon X1950XTX "or" just kind-of want a top of the line video-card that will handle the resolution and graphics. (people were also saying matroc triplehead needs two graphics cards???..) I know we are probably talking big-bucks on a computer like this, but i'm looking for some specs like this as a computer. If you have any kind of suggestions, it would be awesome.. i'm not going to start the PC intill after x-mas, so kind-of just going to research a bit (maybe make a spiffy case). thanks you in advance -Jesse
Welcome! Dont even bother thinking about it now then. If you're not gonna buy anything for 3 months at least come back to it in 3 months. Planning is good but in a quarter of a year everything changes completely. A mutli cored PC is the REQUIREMENT for future upgrading, whether that's two or four depends on the price at the time and your budget. As for uber wide screen gaming the basic rule of thumb is: lots of pixels = lots of grunt. To power 3 monitors you're going to require something near the top of the top range multi GPU and if you want an ATI card you're looking at CrossFire.
Yeah, I wish I could buy one right now but i'll taking a bullet bike over a computer anyday haha. (well except orac3) Yeah i figured 3 months, maybe 4 is a long time. But still couldnt figure out the quad-core specs. Went to althon's site for multi-cores and they were saying it was used to designers and servers - plus tom's hardware was showing chester quad (was it?) comparing to other processors in games, that it would only beat it by a couple more FPS's. So my question was just revolving around there. Also about the triple screens, i figured it would take alot of power - but I actually saw one in action and it really felt like you were in the game (except for the seams) so when i saw matrox's, i just thought back to Chris with his system. Also, my dad loves to do stocks-market in the morning - and wishes he could get a triple-screen setup, so i think i can make a deal with him later in the year. but thanks for the responses bindibadgi -Jesse
IMHO the jump to quad-core isn't as significant as the jump from single to dual-core, for ordinary consumers that is and especially where gaming is concerned. As Bindibadgi says it will really depend upon your budget and needs at the time you're ready to purchase. As for the gfx card; for triple head Matrox is the ideal candidate but gaming performance and capabities are well below even the first generation of DX9 cards let alone what we have now. AFAIK you can run 3 screens with 2 cards installed (AGP+PCI, PCI-E+PCI or dual PCI-E) but it's not really practical for gaming (very little support, lots of patching and of course performance concerns). It gets even harder for SLI/Crossfire as I believe even dual-screens are disabled when running in multi-GPU modes. It merits further investigation but I'd suggest running TWO GeForce cards which should give you 3 screens in 2D but allow you to enable SLI in 3D for maximum gaming (on a single screen). Again by the time you're ready to buy things could be very different, and it's most likely they will be too.
Austin: check the link, he's not talking about a Matrox card. Other than that I'll second (/3rd) Bindi's advice: familiarize yourself with what's out there but don't actually pick parts until you are ready to buy - as you said yourself - it changes real fast.
Also, as a suggestion, forget the Matrox Triple Head for three monitors. The monitors can't support resolution above 1280 x 1024 (that's the max the Triple Head can support per monitor), and you can't use DVI. You're losing a lot of quality that way. Instead, go for a single (or if you can afford it, double) 30" screen. I had wanted the same setup you're thinking of, but after getting my 30" Dell, I wouldn't think twice about making the same decision again. The picture is amazing, and beautiful.
yeah maybe dual might be alittle bit better.. I know it wont be intill Late Jan. or early Feb. before I build one. I just think triples give you more of a realistic feel. Seeing how your parafoveal vision is almost 180 degrees, the screens will take up more of your vision inside the game. Also will give me a greater chance for eye damage haha (jking). (and jared, the matrox trips are only suppose dot be 1280x1024 - times 3, which makes 3840x1024, also my terms are rusty. what's DVI?) I'm still determining on it tho, I'm going to see what custom resolution Huxley will be and try to fit the PC best to it. and back to dual's and quad's - isn't a quad just a motherboard that has two processor bays? (which you put a dual processor in each). thanks guys for all the info too -Jesse
dvi is digital video interface, where the signal is kept digital keeping quality. VGA is the standard blue 15 pin connector which converts digital video into analouge for the cable then back to digital again in the TFT, loosing quality. Motherboards are listed in sockets. Processors are listed in cores. A quad motherboard is 4 sockets, up to 8 cores. A quad core is a single socket.
wait, i never seen a "quad motherboard" before - the most i've seen is a dual motherboard (2 sockets).. example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813121276 usually called "Server motherboards".. -Jesse
You could have up to four monitors running off two pci-e gfx cards, one on each of the two dvi ports on each card. However, as soon as you run something in SLi (be it a DirectX game, etc) you'll only get the display on one monitor. There is a magic box of tricks from Matrox called 'Triple Head to Go'. While it sounds like a top shelf film, it's actually a rather good video splitter that shares the incoming signal over three monitors. The resolution on each monitor is 'limited' to 1280x1024, but there's few cards actually out that would handle gaming in the 3840x1024 resolution of the three screens. I say 'limited' because while the above is true for Nvidia cards, ATi cards are limited to 800x600 x 3 for x1x00 series of cards and earlier Radeon cards only offer 640x480 x 3. Crossfire isn't compatible, but apparently SLi is. Clicky Link <- review of the Triple Head to Go, makes for interesting reading.
haha - yeah, i was like "oh god, i really dont want to read another review" - seems like gamers trying to split-screen is like being in a pickle.. i might look at dual screening.. hey one more thing about server motherboards, what's the con's for them? like you can get dual,quad sockets for them but is there a lack of something else? less bus slots or something
The problem with dual screening is that your focus is on the partition between the two screens when gaming. It makes it even worse in fps.
That's my belief too. Vermino although I haven't looked into it I believe you'll find server mobos are simply designed for the business rather than consumer sector and as such carry a hefty price tag (just like the server class CPUs) and may miss off a few nicities consumers are used to (inc o/c'ing). AMD are pushing dual CPU mobos with dual-core (effectively 4 CPU cores) in a desperate attempt to compete with Intel's non-native quad-core which will be with us real soon. IMHO people are better off nabbing dual-core and upgrading later to quad-core (if desired) rather than going to all the hassle and limitations imposed by server style mobos.
