Hi,

I wanna run 4 montiors, which of these video cards would be best, don't know much about this so thx for the help.


512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX1700, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX3700, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX570, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

Dual 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX570, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

Dual 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor DVI Capable

Dual 512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX1700, Quad Monitor DVI Capable

4 monitors is pretty specialized, you might have better luck googling around for reviews.

Do you absolutely HAVE to go with a Quadro? I mean, aren't those things ridic expensive? Also, do you have to have Nvidia?

There is only ONE video card that I am aware of that has 4 monitor outs (that isn't a sOOper expensive workstation graphics card) and that is the 4850 X2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102809

It seems the BIOS has improved considerably on this guy, because initially it was rough. This particular card is produced by ONLY one manufacturer too, which is why support was so shoddy initially, but yeah, it seems on the up and up now.

Would have the option of just running two seperate video-cards? This would work much more cheaply if your board has a couple of pci-e x16 slots.

I'm building the desktop on dell and those are the ONLY options that I have avaliable. Would all those cards work for 4 monitors?
I don't mind getting 2 card but would I have to install them at all cause I have no clue how to do any of that stuff.

Only the last three options would work since you would be getting two graphics cards each of which has two DVI outs.

Dude, I have to ask, what are you building this for? These are workstation graphics cards, not desktop, and they are thusly VERY expensive for standard use. If you are using them for specialized work in industry, they might be fine (and even then, I would just hack up a different card with Quadro firmware), but honestly, they are so expensive that, if I were you, I would learn how to install the graphics cards myself (PLENTY of online tutorials on this stuff). Getting two of some of these would run you close to $1k if you bought them individually, while comparable desktop solutions might run you as light as $100 together.

Poker and day trading mostly. The desktop is actualy a workstation it's the Precsion T3400 from Dell.

I'm actually thinking of picking this up from the Dell outlet store, your htoughts would be appreciated.

System Price : $1,059.00

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Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
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Memory
8 GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM 800MHz Dual Ranked (4 DIMMs)
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Hard Disk Drive
80 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
80 GB SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ and 8MB DataBurst Cache 2nd Drive
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Video
Dual 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor DVI Capable
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Media Bay
16X DVD ROM Drive
16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
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Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base
Precision Workstation T3400 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz/1333MHz/6MB L2) 375W
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Upgrade
Mini-Tower Chassis Configuration
Internal Speaker
USB Keyboard
USB Optical two button mouse
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Software Upgrade
Windows Live
64BIT Operating System CD
64BIT Operating System CD

Yeah installing a graphics card is very simple. I just put one in my PC.

Here's a couple youtube videos showing just how easy it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ILrq7lMe-0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BopjXneo8e4

Listen to this guy

My honest thoughts are that you should stop trying to build a workstation as your components are priced overly high for your needs. It would be so much cheaper to build a comparable desktop that would completely satisfy your computing needs.

To be specific, 8GB of RAM is a TON and you probably wouldn't tax 4GB. Next, these video-cards are costing a bundle more than they are worth to you for your needs (hence my saying move AWAY from building workstations, it doesn't sound much like you would need it). Those hard-drives are VERY small in terms of capacity, particularly if you are going to be using Vista. I would get something with at least more space, and possible more speed (though I don't consider that necessary, others might recommend a velociraptor or even a SSD).

Imo, try and build a comparable desktop and see what happens.

Seems like a pretty bizarre configuration from dell.

if you want to run 4 monitors all you need is an SLI (nvidia cards) or Cross Fire (ATI cards) enabled mother board. These boards have 2-3 PCIe slots and if you don't intend any serious games you can pick up two of the cheapest video cards with two monitor outs (most are now 2xDVI, but some are still 1xAnolog + 1xDVI, either way they come with the necessary adapters to hook up whatever kind of monitor you have).

I've seen these cards for as little was 35 bucks a piece.

when do u plan on having this up and running id like to see what it looks like

Why does he need sli or crossfire? Just put 2 cards in there as long as his motherboard can support that. If I remember correctly you cant even use all 4 outputs if you put the cards in crossfire.

This is correct. If you have Crossfire or SLI enabled, you can only use a maximum of 2 monitors (unless you are using something like TripleHead2Go).

That said, the number of motherboards that have two pcie x16 slots and do NOT run either Crossfire/SLI is relatively small, so OP wouldn't be going too wrong to select one of the cheaper Crossfire/SLI mobos and then not enabling it, particularly if one considers that OP might decide to occasionally use the extra features built into his mobo. But you are correct, it isn't strictly required if all one could possible want is to run four monitors.