Need suggestions for a quad LCD project

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Kasher_Khan

Limp Gawd
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Nov 18, 2005
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I need to build a quad LCD setup for my home office. The screens will be used to in conjunction with remote desktop support software to monitor different applications simultaneously.

I need a quad LCD setup for this. The pre-build setups are very expensive with the stand and four 17" monitors costing up to $1500.

The LCDs will be primarily used to display text and graphs so screen quality, refresh rate and resolution etc are not a big deal. Larger size is preffered 19" perhaps. What would be my best cost option.

Also I need to know what is the most efficient way of outputting to 4 moniters using a single machine. I currently have 2 moniters hooked up to an 8800GT and that is a piece of cake. back in the day you could add another PCI card for a third monitor. But would you need 2 PCI express cards to display to four monitors? How would that work within windows.. is there a cheap quadcore card to achive this? also aren't there like little external boxes that also do this.. are they more expensive?

my budget for this is about $1000. I was thinking average 19" monitors cost about $150 or so...so that times four is $600. plus another couple of hundered bucks to get my own stands a a card.. I know the stands can be pretty expensive so I might make something on my own.

I'd appericiate the help.
 
It's so cheap and easy to do this now. I have a quad and cinq LCD setup since 2001, and back in the day, each 19" LCD cost me over 1.2K lol, oh man talk about depreciation.

Here is what you do. First, figure out what resolution you want. 19" will are usually 1280x1024 or now they have wide editions like 1440x900. The next step up 20" actually gives you more resolution, the regular non wide are 1600x1200. Multiply X times Y you get the number or MP resolutions. For the size 20" 1600x1200 is good for displaying max resolution/size.

Now consider how you want to physically display it. Do you want two on the bottom and two on top? It would require you to look up and down, you may or may not like that. Or you can display it horizontally on your desk and make a arc. I did that, and have my screen rotated 90 degrees so I can see all of them from the same distance. You don't need any special stand if you want to do that, but if you insist, you can get a stand that will lift them, 3 on one stand or 4 on two stand. I recommend you check out ergotron for mointor stands, they are comprehensive, and if you want it cheap, you can try hunting ebay.

As for the video card, don't bother with quad output cards. They exist, I have tried many of them, and they cost a lot of money back then, over 500-600 for PCI versions! There is a company now that makes a quad PCIe x16 DVI output card, Ge Cube, I think the Gemini line. But, I can't find a reseller anywhere online that sells them. They are about 200-250. You can just go cheaper and it will depend on what motherboard you have. Does your MB have 2 PCIex 16 slot? Basically, you can just add additional video cards and it will drive your monitor. If you are driving 1920x1200 or less, they all basically can do it, even lowly ATI 7000 PCI cards that I have can do it. If each card has two outputs, you can drive two monitors from each card. Of course, best is to get 2 PCIe x16 cards doing 4 dvi. Next best,, PCIe X1, then PCI. I assume you've graduated from AGP.

Now an important note. If you want to run Vista with Glass Aero effect, you need to run the same brand on all your video cards. Meaning either ATI or Nvidia etc. And you need WDDM (or whatever they call it) driver compatibility and I think the min ram per monitor is 64 or 128mb (? not sure). So any modern card will do it. If not, you can still run Vista, but no Aero Glass eye candy.
 
Thanks for going to the trouble of explaining all this to me.

I would like to mount these monitors on a wall. here is what I came up after a little research

Matrox G450 Multi Monitor Series Quad Card ( G45X4QUAD-B ) $394 new at ebay.

I have only 1 PCI express slot. If I add a dual head PCI express card and one dual pci card I doubt I'd be saving more than a 100$ and there is a lot more complication to deal with in terms of drivers and hardware.

For monitors the following looks like a good deal.

22” Acer Monitor for $229.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094

For wall mount I was thinking

for around $25 like the one below.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1388741&CatId=574


What do you guys think about this setup.
 
That mount is quite basic. You really need to think about where you're going to mount them on the wall and where you're going to sit. If the monitors are to be placed 2 by 2 top and bottom, you're going to need to tilt the top ones no? If you mount all of them side by side, you're going to cry, your eyes will not be able to see that extreme width.

Come to think of it, I suggest you count the mega pixel resolution you're going to want to have. And think maybe it's easier to get two 24" at 1920x1200 or 2.3MP each. Two of them will give you 4.6MP, and you won't need do add any vid cards. Or a single 30" at 4MP. I've seen setups with 3 montiors, like a24" flanked by 2 19" rotated on each side, or the 30" with 2 20" on each side rotated. They look good, and distance to eye is right, which is why they rotate the side screens and angle them inward.

Back when I did my configuration, the 19" were already at $1.2K, and they didn't make 24" WUXGA screens or higher. To do it over again.... oh wait a minute, I did do it over again. Now I run two screens at over 11MP total LOL. If you can guess what it is, you're good.
 
well.. maybe I should give you a little more detail

The purpose of the screens is for show as well. I am trying to mimic a (Network Operations Center NOC) so the mutiple screens are as much for effect as they are for practicality.

So I need to have four screens of the same size. These screens will be mounted on one wall spaced apart by 6-12".

I don't need to monitor these screens all the time so no strain on the eyes. They will actually be mounted above my head behind my desk almost like the stock exchange. I hope your getting the idea!

Thanks for your reponses exe.
 
Couldn't you run something like a 52 inch 1080p LCD and make 4 640x480 screens out of it? Or whatever the 4 way split would be.

You never said what resolution you need each screen at. So that would help :)
 
Sunin said:
Couldn't you run something like a 52 inch 1080p LCD and make 4 640x480 screens out of it? Or whatever the 4 way split would be.

You never said what resolution you need each screen at. So that would help :)
Click to expand...

I would prefer 19" W at 1440x900 res. Again I do want to have four separate screens.

Thanks
 
having wall mountable displays kinda reduces the options.
Lenovo 6920AB1
and
Samsung 941BW
are the only ones that come to mind right now.

search for a VESA 75 / 100 mm wall mount on ebay there should be some for less than 5$.

if picture quality isn't too important (analog connection ok) and you are not running anything fancy (vista aero),
I 2nd the suggestion of going with two cheap cards one running PCIe and one PCI (or two PCI cards) both using a chipset of the same company for driver simplicity,
the unified drivers should work even when using different cards using only ATI or nvidia chipsets,
even if one has an asus and the other msi sticker and one is 8800 and the other geforce 5200 for example.

It shouldn't be hard to find two ATI 7000 or 9200/9250 series cards for less than ~70$ combined,
couldn't find a nvidia (GeForce FX 5200) pci card as cheap but still not more than 100$ for two cards.
(but never had a problem of even using ati and nvidia on one system when only using simple 2d output.)

If you still got some old stuff lying around try putting a few pci cards into your system to check how easy it is to get them to work.
(I once forgot to change the drivers when putting a nvidia card into a system that used ATI.. didn't notice it until I saw the nvidia card in the ATI tray icon menu.. ^^; )
 
Yeah I was thinking of using two PCI cards as well. The single card seems too expensive now that i think about it.

The cheapest 19" LCD I can find is the acer for $169. Any one who of a better price. I am fine with a no name brand product. As long as there is a screen and it can display txt I am good. No fancy stuff needed. I will be using analog VGA ouput anyways.

No graphics...

Thanks for the replies peoples
 
We've been running quad packs for years at work, doing network operations of all things.

For the past two or three years (ever since we upgraded to P4 Optiplex desktops), we've been using Matrox G550 AGP and G450 PCI cards, each driving two 1280x1024 18" LCDs (circa 1999-2002. These mothers are OLD). This is under XP. The card drivers are configured so that each pair of 1280x1024 monitors looks like one 2560x1024 display. That allows you to stretch the Start bar across two displays without using Ultramon.

Our monitor stands are something like this. Ours use hex bolts to adjust the arms up and down on the pole (loosen, move, then re-tighten. Friction mounts). The LCDs are attached via double-jointed extensions that use a twist-on knob in the back and standard VESA mounting on the front. One joint allows for up/down movement, the second left-right movement. Each one is held in place with friction and has a bolt that lets you adjust how tight the joints are. The bolts require socket wrenches to adjust. The whole assembly, with monitors, is self-supporting, so you can put it anywhere you have the space for it.

If you're comfortable mounting things to the wall (read: studs, 2x4's, or some sort of solid wall finishing), monoprice has these which are significantly cheaper.

As for the cards... If you're doing AGP, it's pretty easy. Get a G550 AGP and a G550 or G450 PCI. Probably cost about $150 total - $35 for the AGP card, $80-115 for the PCI card. If you don't mind going PCI-only, there's a Quadro4 NVS at Compuvest for $220. For what you're doing, PCI is fine. I can never tell if I'm on the AGP or the PCI card at work. You could also go with two PCI G550 cards.

Based on experience, I would strongly recommend using Matrox cards. They've been doing the multi-monitor thing for years, even before it was properly supported by Microsoft in W2K. Their drivers are stable and they have just enough multi-monitor enhancements that you can avoid using Ultramon.
 
THANKS for all the advise guys

I actually setup my system today... will try to post pictures if I get the chance

It was much easier than I anticipated. I ended up getting four acer 19" lcd from micro center and wall mounts for $9. I also got two pci cards for $30 a pop and they worked beautifully.

I am surprised why I never did this before.

THanks folks
 
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