New PC build + best way to get a three monitor setup?

**Sonsey** · 15-11-2007, 18:45

I looking into building a new PC most likely just after Christmas when I find out just how hard the old finances have been hit by the holiday season, unfortunately as much as I'd like to have a dedicated photo editing PC due to costs this one is going to have to do several jobs for me.

The two main areas that I want to concentrate on is photo editing and HTPC (home theatre), as such my ideal solution would be to have the ability to run three monitors, a dual monitor setup for the main computing duties and a third to be connected to my 50" plazma to watch movies stored on the hard drive.

I've seen a graphics card with 4 x DVI outputs and also motherboards that support the use of two graphics cards, my question is does anyone know the best way to go about this?

P-E · 15-11-2007, 18:54

Not 100% sure but I believe Matrox do a graphic card to run 3 monitors.

***Dave*** · 15-11-2007, 19:02

3 monitors .... you greedy ba&^$%d

Note you can get USB monitors now

**Sonsey** · 15-11-2007, 19:21

Thanks P-E, I've had a look at the Matrox stuff but I think it's a bit overpriced and also a bit limiting for what I want to do, so while it would be fine for having the multi monitor setup it falls down on the HTPC features that the latest nVidia and Ati cards have these days e.g. Hi-Def acceleration etc. so I think I'd rather stick to them... then I could also enjoy the odd game aswell.

**Sonsey** · 15-11-2007, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave

3 monitors .... you greedy ba&^$%d

Note you can get USB monitors now

It's gotta be done!

I havn't seen anything on these, what's the benefits... and what's the damage?!

IanHoughton · 15-11-2007, 20:33

You might need this as well

Ultramon

**Sonsey** · 15-11-2007, 20:38

Looks good, thanks Ian.

j sotelo · 15-11-2007, 22:33

You might want to take a look at this WEBSITE it has info on what you want to do and it has the MultiMon taskbar and its free. !!
hope it helps.

***Steve*** · 16-11-2007, 06:34

Use Ultramon rather than Multimon, as its Multimon's big brother and does far more. Its what I use here to control my two monitor setup.

As for the best way to go for three, my advice would be to run your two main 'pc work screens from one Graphics card, preferably from DVI connectors (to identical monitors for the best results) and then grab a second GC to run your plasma, if its mainly for movies. Again Ultramon will handle that with no issues and setup is a breeze while keeping costs down and allowing you to stay with main stream equipment and makes.

Depending on screen resolutions and if you play games or not you may not even need to spend much money...my current GC was around £35, had dual DVI outputs and will happily run dual screens at fairly high resolutions...its not brilliant for the latest games though so that may be an issue.

orangepeel · 16-11-2007, 18:14

I've got 3 screens. I do it with dual vid cards. One screen is connected to a 1996! pci matrox - it doesn't have to be fast for what I do with it.

The other two are connected to the dual outputs on my main, agp, card.

**Sonsey** · 20-11-2007, 22:29

Thanks guys, I'll certainly look into Multimon/Ultramon when I go ahead with the build as it looks like a really handy tool.

As for which way to go to get the 3 monitor setup I'm still not completely sure, I think Steve's method will probably be best to achieve what I want at a reasonable price... now to just work out what components will be best!

p.s. sorry for the late reply!

orangepeel · 20-11-2007, 23:00

Shoulda said, Windows can actually handle multi-monitors itself quite easily - made even easier with modern drivers that are multimonitor aware.

I only started using multimon in the last couple of months so I could fit some of my panoramas over the three screens. Other than that it doesn't do much that I found particularly useful.