Cheapest option for doing multimonitor

[Tudz]

G'day guys,

A friend is looking to build a new computer because his ancient one is dying. He's been running dual monitors all this time, which is all fine and good, but now he's looking at doing 3, 4 or possibly even 5 monitors.

What's the cheapest and most reliable way to do this?

Gaming isn't a concern, he won't be using it for that, mostly he'll be using it for work, so any mid to low range option would be fine if that's all that's needed. I've never had to do more than dual monitor outside of an nvidia surround setup another mate had done. His monitors aren't displayport, so that would have to be factored into the price if they're needed. Given its a home-work computer we want to keep it simple as possible, as he wants to minimise the chance of something going wrong and inevitably I'll be the one wasting my time to try and fix it if it does, so less components and reliable components is a plus.

Could anyone with knowledge be able to offer some options for 3, 4 and 5 monitor setups?

Cheers,
Tudz

 

[DoubleTap]

You can buy single cards with 4-6 monitor connections, but often many of those are display port and DP capable monitors tend to cost more.

Going for the lowest price as your only objective is difficult. Are you willing to consider used? Refurbished?

I think you would be better off defining the monitors you want to use - at least the size or some basic parameters (1080P or "IPS" or whatever)

If you just want a lot of monitors, you can probably find a bunch of 14" LCDs for under $100 - but if you want screen real estate, buying some 24-27" monitors will probably serve you better.

Until you set some basic criteria, it's really just a scavenger hunt for the worst possible equipment.

 

[Dangman]

What motherboard does your friend plan on getting?
What PSU?

For three monitors without having to use a displayport adapter, you can go with this card:
$77 - SAPPHIRE FleX 100322FLEX Radeon HD 6450 1GB PCI-E Video Card

 

[Tudz]

Well currently he's using 2x19" 1280x1024 screens, he has a third one and also a 1680x1050 screen I gave him, so its a mixed bag at the moment. I'm thinking he'll probably buy a few 24" screens to add to it and maybe replace some of his 19 inchers. None of his current monitors are DP friendly.

It's just for extended desktop so I figured the different resolutions shouldn't be a problem.

My thoughts were basically this...
For 3 screens, ATI Eyefinity cards would be cheapest and just get a DP adapter for one of the monitors, but can these do 3 screens in extended desktop, or does it have to be a "single large surface" with all monitors being the same resolution?

For 4 monitors, I was under the impression you could do 2 monitors per video card, so with 2 low to mid ranged cards from either nvidia or ATI you could do 4 screens.

For 5 screens, not really sure, can you do 5 screens with 2 ATI eyefinity cards? I don't think I've heard of anyone doing 5 screen Eyefinity. Could the screens be different resolutions? Could you go 5 or 6 monitors on a mobo that has 3 PCI express slots? Would those slots need to be SLI/crossfire compatible or could it just be any mobo with 3 PCI express slots?

So that's kinda what I'm up to with it. Most the googling I did just comes up with people wanting to game on them in Eyefinity/Surround or old topics from a couple of GPU generations ago, and I know the multi-monitor options have improved since then.

 

[Tudz]

What motherboard does your friend plan on getting?
What PSU?

For three monitors without having to use a displayport adapter, you can go with this card:
$77 - SAPPHIRE FleX 100322FLEX Radeon HD 6450 1GB PCI-E Video Card

Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it. At the moment nothing is set in stone, motherboard or otherwise.

He has been using his current computer for many years and earlier today it started acting up in what seems to be a mobo/CPU/RAM related problem (freezing while booting, sometimes getting into windows, sometimes not, taking an eternity to shut down). So he pretty quickly got on to me asking about getting a new computer, as he uses it for work and works from home he can't afford to have no computer for too long, and I don't really know much about multimonitor setups beyond dualies and eyefinity/surround (I've been telling him for years he needs to learn more about computers so he doesn't have to rely on me or dodgy computer store guys but oh well).

So the options are all very open at the moment. I don't intend to use any components out of his current computer because frankly they're all ancient except the 500GB drive I gave him a couple of years ago when I got too many 1TB drives to fit in my case.

 

[djsb]

For four or more screens, that's the kind of stuff that Matrox builds products for, but they are pricy so you'd be looking at used markets.

 

[Dangman]

My thoughts were basically this...
For 3 screens, ATI Eyefinity cards would be cheapest and just get a DP adapter for one of the monitors, but can these do 3 screens in extended desktop, or does it have to be a "single large surface" with all monitors being the same resolution?

You can do extended desktop and no the monitors do not have to be the resolution. You just won't be able to use the Eyefinity gaming feature.

For 4 monitors, I was under the impression you could do 2 monitors per video card, so with 2 low to mid ranged cards from either nvidia or ATI you could do 4 screens.

You can. However many AMD video cards can support three monitor output via a DP adapter. Also note that you can actually get four monitor output from a single card with a single DP adapter with this option:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102938

For 5 screens, not really sure, can you do 5 screens with 2 ATI eyefinity cards? I don't think I've heard of anyone doing 5 screen Eyefinity. Could the screens be different resolutions? Could you go 5 or 6 monitors on a mobo that has 3 PCI express slots? Would those slots need to be SLI/crossfire compatible or could it just be any mobo with 3 PCI express slots?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Any mobo with 3 PCI-Ex16 slots.

Do note that many mobos come with onboard video capability these days. So if your friend isn't doing any 3D gaming or work or anyhing that 3D capability, you can easily connect two more monitors to the motherboard's onboard video outputs. Add the Sapphire HD 6450 1GB I linked to earlier and you'll get 5 monitor capability for cheap.

Another option is to grab a motherboard with two PCI-Ex16 slots, the Sapphire HD 6450 card + a cheap $30 video card with dual outputs and there's 5 monitor capability as well.

So the options are all very open at the moment. I don't intend to use any components out of his current computer because frankly they're all ancient except the 500GB drive I gave him a couple of years ago when I got too many 1TB drives to fit in my case.

Well when you have figured out what GPU option to go with and if you want help making a full build list for the PC, go ahead and make a thread over in the General Hardware subforum asking for build help. There's a sticky there too that you should answer.

 

[Tudz]

Awesome! Thanks, that helps heaps. So any 3 PCI-e mobo regardless if its not SLI/crossfire compatible or any 2 ATI cards (they don't need to be on a crossfire board, yeah?) will be able to manage up to 6 monitors. That's a huge help, because the dedicated Matrox and ATI professional multi-monitor setups are hugely expensive.

I'll have a look around for some of those Sapphire FLEX cards, but I'm in Australia and it seems they aren't as easy to find out here. If I can't find any of those I might try and grab a cheap-ish 2 or 3 PCI-express mobo (I never like going supercheap on mobos, so I'll probably force him to buy something half decent) and then get him 1 ATI card to test 3 monitors, and if he wants more grab a 2nd ATI card so he's free to do 4 to 6 monitors then. Seems like the most flexible way to go. I did also see a 5870 with 6 mini displayports for $300AUD, but if I can get 2 cheaper cards to do the same thing it'll probably be better, and we'll save on the adapters too.

I'll come up with something tomorrow and post it in General Hardware. Thanks

 

[Tudz]

Its seems the cheapest option is to just go 3 cheap cards rather than 2 Eyefinity cards, the cheapest triple monitor capable cards I could see were $69 each + DP adapters, otherwise can get EVGA G210's $45 each.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1682514

 

[Durinthal]

I don't have one yet so I can't test it, but apparently H61/H67/Z68 motherboards with multiple video outputs (DVI + HDMI) can run two monitors on their own. That with two cards will work if you're getting a new motherboard anyway.

 

[DeathsDeath]

this is the card you are looking for: ( )
XFX HD-677X-Z5F3 Radeon HD 6770 1GB (120$)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150574

We bought ones of these card for a dude here at work, it is wonderful! absolutely great! now the one down side you got to spend 7$-14$ on each cord for what ever output u want the moniture to be running at. Even with that it is great. I am not sure if you are looking to spend this much but it is a great small fit option!

You will need to buy these:

_DVI CORDS_
6Ft Mini DisplayPort to DVI Male Adapter (9$)
http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-A...ef=sr_1_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1332851867&sr=8-1


_HDMI CORDS_
Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter Cable, 6 feet (9$)
http://www.amazon.com/Mini-DisplayP...ef=sr_1_2?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1332851744&sr=8-2
or
10ft. Mini Display Port Male to HDMI Male
http://www.amazon.com/10ft-Mini-Dis...8YFS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1332851744&sr=8-3

 

[Tudz]

I don't have one yet so I can't test it, but apparently H61/H67/Z68 motherboards with multiple video outputs (DVI + HDMI) can run two monitors on their own. That with two cards will work if you're getting a new motherboard anyway.

Ah cool, that's useful. Though it could be a bit of pain if you have to control 4 of them via nvidia drivers and the other 2 via intel drivers, I might try that out before buying the extra card though.

this is the card you are looking for: ( )
XFX HD-677X-Z5F3 Radeon HD 6770 1GB (120$)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150574

Yeah, I've seen a few similar cards, none are easy to get in Australia though The best I could find was some 3 port Sapphire FLEX 6450 cards (not the 2 DVI, 1 HDMI and 1 displayport variety, rather the 2 DVI and 1 HDMI variety, allowing for 3 monitors with no messy DP -> DVI/HDMI adapters). However they were around $65-70 each, plus shipping, bringing them up to the same cost as 3 cheapo dual monitor cards, and frankly the 6450 is a cheapo card anyway so paying $65 for the extra port doesn't seem worthwhile when you can pick them up for as little as $38 anyway.

We bought ones of these card for a dude here at work, it is wonderful! absolutely great! now the one down side you got to spend 7$-14$ on each cord for what ever output u want the moniture to be running at. Even with that it is great. I am not sure if you are looking to spend this much but it is a great small fit option!

You will need to buy these:

_DVI CORDS_
6Ft Mini DisplayPort to DVI Male Adapter (9$)
http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-A...ef=sr_1_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1332851867&sr=8-1


_HDMI CORDS_
Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter Cable, 6 feet (9$)
http://www.amazon.com/Mini-DisplayP...ef=sr_1_2?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1332851744&sr=8-2
or
10ft. Mini Display Port Male to HDMI Male
http://www.amazon.com/10ft-Mini-Dis...8YFS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1332851744&sr=8-3

Do those passive adapters work ok? I thought you had to go active for moderately high resolutions. Still adds up though, it'd be ok if the monitors were displayport, but if not even if the passive ones are ok, you're looking at more than the cost of simply buying a 3rd card in the cost of the adapters alone