A friend of a friend has asked me for some build advice regarding a multi-display set-up. I have never used more than one monitor so I have no experience here. Anyway, I think ATI/AMD Eyefinity is best for what he wants (using my extremely limited knowledge in this field) He deals with financial markets and needs four displays to show various stocks etc, so not for gaming or anything. Budget is £600. So far I think he should use: Intel Core i5 2500K be quiet! Dark Rock Advanced Quiet CPU Cooler Corsair TX650 V2 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9) Windows 7 64Bit Home Premium Pioneer DVR-S19LBK 24x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive - Black Total so far £400 Any alterations? Also, not sure what motherboard, graphics card or case to get.
Matrox (yea, they still exists) has special card for multiple displays. They have card that you can just add-up that have 2 DVI ports (so you can fill all your PCI-E 8x/16x slots that you have on your motherboard), or you can get single card with 4 inputs, and they have other card too, like card that you can have dedicated GPU's per monitor (not for gaming), and other special options. Matrox graphic cards: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/ Matrox "Display Wall" cards: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/display_wall/ Matrox seams to cater to several niche markets, these days. Sure miss my Matrix Mystique with all it's glorious 8MB of video memory. Hey if you want a Blast From The Past... AnandTech still have their review on it: http://www.anandtech.com/show/181/1
I'd change the TX650 down to a CX430/500. You don't need that much power given you're not gaming/overclocking. I'd also probably change down to an i3, but then it's his money and if he can afford it, it's always nice to have a quad. And I had a quick look through the Matrox cards and whilst obviously very good for multi monitors, the first quad monitor one I found retails at £300 which is exorbitant to say the least. There's an AMD 6870 which outputs to 4 monitors. Let me have a Google. Edit: Seems any 6870 supports 4 monitors natively, or 6 with some DisplayPort chaining. Since you seem to be using Aria, have a link You'll have to run 1 DVI, 1 HDMI and 2 DisplayPort's converted to whatever you need. Don't forget you can get HDMI to DVIso you could run them all off DVI Edit: Forgot about onboard and Llano, see Bindi's post
FM1 + any low-end AMD GPU. AMD software will let you use the onboard display outputs as well as the PCIe GPU too. Trivia: They have done all the way back to the Xpress 200 chipset, pre-AMD merger! I did it with a Shuttle and ECS board review in 2002. For example: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A75M_PRO/#specifications http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/EAH6450_SILENTDI1GD3LP/ Use two HDMI and DVI from each. Grab a quad-core CPU with decent MHz and the whole thing will still be very low power and low heat versus a higher power GPU. Or do something more specialist and go mini-ITX: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A75I_DELUXE/ Mind you Scan have 6850s for 90 quid now, but to run 3 or more monitors on an AMD GPU alone one requires DisplayPort (or an adapter from). That's not the case for the 1+1 route I suggested above. From here drop in your 8-16GB of memory (depending on your level of multitasking on 4 monitors and the apps needs), a decent SSD, a quiet 400W PSU, and a mid-sized cooler.
Good thinking Bindi, I was literally about to post a very similar thing having done exactly that with a rig where I work lol But it does depend how much processing power the OP needs, obviously the i5 is far more powerful, but if it is literally just viewing webpages etc then Llano + any low end AMD GPU (5450/6450) would give the required outputs.
Thanks for all the replies Right, the budget increased to £750. Also, he needs outputs in VGA, DVI & HDMI as those are the monitors he has. Plus one more HDMI for connecting to a TV The reason for choosing higher spec items than needed is for longevity and future proofing a reasonable amount. Here is the list so far? What do you think? Still need a graphics card though.
