Monitors Three Monitor Setup - Help

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bheekaran

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Hi there. My first post and it happens to be a cry for help :(

For a film shoot, I need to setup a three monitor display system from a single PC. I have the following basic requirements for the setup. The displays should be independent of each other. It should be able to display videos on one monitor, and OS desktops on the other two, including web browsers on one, sometimes. There won't be any games or other graphics intensive work going on.

I think I have three choices, use one of my existing systems by adding an extra graphics card, go for a new system with a MB that will support both onboard and additional GPU simultaneously or a new system with a MB that has 2 free PCI-E slots and add 2 cards.

At present I have the following with me.

1. AMD Athlon 7750 Dual Core 2700Mhz, Asus M2N68-AM Plus MB, 2GB Ram, Two WD 320GB HDDs, etc.

2. An older AMD Sempron 2800MHz, Asus K8V-VM Ultra MB, 1GB RAM, One WD 160GB HDD, etc.

Both MBs have 1 free PCI-E x16 slot and onboard graphics.

3. Three Samsung 2033s.

Does anyone know whether any of my existing MBs support an extra PCI-E graphics card without disabling the onboard one?

My dealer friend said Asus M4A78-PRO is easily available here (Kerala), and he could try to get Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H. Any idea about these MBs? They both have onboard GPUs and support an additional PCI-E card.

He also said to go for xFx HD 4350 (Rs. 2400) or if I choose an MB with nVidia graphics, buy an xFx or Asus 9400GT (Rs. 3000), as the second graphics card.

Also, would a 600W Power supply be enough to run an extra card?

Any suggestions regarding MBs, graphics cards and the overall setup will be greatly appreciated.
 
Triple graphics is not new or expensive. Most onboard solutions already allow two displays, one analog and one digital, and an add-in card will enable support for another two (or three) displays. Windows is already able to span desktop across multiple screens of various resolutions though panning is the only way to show up all the content if the desktop resolution is higher than that of the smallest monitor.

Virtual desktops are also very easily implemented by nView, a standard utility in nVidia drivers. This allows applications to reside in individual desktop spaces, and retains information on window positions and sizes, pretty useful.

An nVidia GF8300 board like the Asus M3N78-EM goes to 1920x1200, and works fine with either nVidia or ATI add-in cards. Catalyst is able to see and control the desktop run by the onboard chipset as well (surprise!) so you have a choice of what card you want to use - both work just fine...

The AMD chipsets generally offer resolution to 2560x1600, so if you're looking at a real and future-proof editing setup a 785 would be the way to go (but not a Gigabyte, those run only to 1920x1200 due to the port - Asus offers full dual-link capability).

Your current boards (either) should also be fine for something like this, but you'll need a PCI graphics card, not PCI-E. Older boards surrender their graphics when they detect a card in the PCIE slot, but stay enabled even if a PCI graphics adapter is present. It'll be very slow though, so an upgrade is advised
 
@cranky, thanks for the detailed info, mate. And sorry for being late from my side. I was on the phone throughout till now, trying to find out different MBs and prices. And I am confused as hell :S

Asus M3N78-EM is available here in Kerala. It took some time to find it though. Seems they have discontinued it (dealers say so). It costs Rs. 4300.

Also they said M4N78-EM is available, but the Asus site doesn't list any such MB.

I just talked to a service engineer of Gigabyte in Goa. He told me to go for GA-785GM-US2H and use any HD 4350 card. This MB costs Rs. 4500+ (have to negotiate a lot, since nobody stocks it here).

I haven't been able to locate a 785 MB from Asus yet. The ones that are available are M4N78-Pro, M4A78-Pro and M3A78s. Any idea about these?

Also, I just found this review from Toms Hardware.

Code: 
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785.html

It talks about the exact thing I am looking for.

My confusion is this: Should I go in for an ATI board or an nVidia one? And Asus or Gigabyte? And I won't be needing Hybrid CrossFire, right?
 
You don't need hybrid crossfire.

All boards are roughly similar, get the ones with the lowest price and the best warranty terms. For boards in this price class, performance is overrated and reliability is fickle at best. I seem to have had better luck with Asus boards than pretty much anything else, and have not found significant reasons to stray except the terrible service dished out by Rashi Peripherals, the official distributor.

M3A78 is a nice board, I own one of them as well and it's pretty much been on 24x7 for the last one year, with no ill-effects or signs of aging. One would lean towards the AMD chipset for some light gaming, but for desktop and video both work equally well.
 
Thanks again mate. Rashi is the distributor here also :( But people say Asus always honor their warranties fast :)

It seems that M3A78, M4A78-EM, M3N78-EM and M4N78-Pro are available. The first 3 comes to around Rs. 4k and the M4N78s are costlier. Any of these boards will do, right? Also the gigabyte is available for Rs. 4500.

Also, which graphics card should I look for? My h/w friend said to go for a 600w PSU, will that be an overkill?

9400GTs (512 and 1GB) are available from xFx and Asus, and HD4350s and HD4650s from xFx. They will source anything else, but these are readily available over the counter.

Also, is it better not to mis-match onboard GPU and discrete GPU chipset manufacturer?

Finally, I am looking for a quiet and sleek cabinet (max price range around 2k). Any ideas on that? It seems Mercury and iBalls are the ones people prefer over here.
 
HD4350 + M3A78-EM would be what I would buy, as long as someone handles the warranty for you. The M3N78-EM and a 9400/9500GT would be the other option, the nView software is a little more flexible for managing virtual desktops so it might get the nod if this is the permanent (sic) function for this machine.

A Corsair VX450 will power that setup just fine - it may be overkill, but if you're using the setup to make money, put some in for the extra assurance. You'll get lots of pointers to johnny come lately supplies that I don't believe in and wouldn't pay money for, unless I didn't have any in the first place.

Ideally one would like to use the same manufacturer's chips across, but it's OK to not do so if there's no gaming involved, plus a single driver interface will be easier to manage for sure, when it comes to multiple desktops.

For the box, at that price I would look at the CM Elite 334. It's reasonably ventilated and reasonably roomy, and though slightly noisy due to all the open apertures, it's a much better bet than the locally built cabinets.
 
Thanks (again :))... Both the options are available, have to check the final prices tomorrow.

Does the nView software make it really easy to do the triple thingy, should I take that also into serious consideration?

Triple monitor spanning won't be the permanent function, just need it till February. Then it will be a dual monitor setup.

We are shooting in sync sound, so I need a really quiet setup, as quiet as possible. The cabinet should be a good looking one, but nothing too fancy.

Corsairs and CMs might be out of my league. The film we have planned is a small budget one, and I need to squeeze everything inside a 20k budget (excluding the monitors). But I understood the point you made about assurance being important. The system shouldn't break down in between. The place we are shooting is really remote, nearest big town is almost 2.5 hrs from there.
 
If you are doing sync sound, get long cables. Most cheap PSUs and cabinets are loud. Since you're doing live sound and probably indoors, be aware that you may need to move the PC to another room anyway. I am assuming you are shooting indoors - unless your budget is so low that you have to do sync sound with an outdoor shoot. And then fan noise is not going to be your biggest worry.

Fans are also easy (relatively) to take out during the edit, just one low-level hum and some air noise, for a good sound guy with CoolEdit it's a piece of cake, really. I am of course hoping you have a possibility to work on the sound later and independent of the video. The CM cabinet is 2K. A reasonably quiet PSU will be ~3.5-4K anyway you cut it. Trust me, the cheap ones will cause you more issues later so just bite the bullet.

Software is always a killer, nView and Catalyst both work well though I would prefer nView. Not at any money though, so I would still get the cheaper one.

As for breaking down in between, be assured that it is a very real possibility at any point in time. I would keep an old-fashioned system on standby just in case - a couple of those old Sony colour monitors and a black curtain. How are you getting internet access remotely, btw?

This for some kind of documentary? I'd be interested to know whatever you can share. I'm curious to know how filmmakers are using technology nowadays :)
 
Had to go out yesterday. Again, sorry for the late reply.

It is a 90 min English/Hindi feature film, to be set in Kerala. The lead actor is Naseeruddin Shah. About 30% of the film is going to be shot inside a hall, the rest outdoors. Will let you know more details pretty soon.

The humming sound won't be much of a problem I guess. Our sound designer will be tweaking the sound later on anyways. I am against showing the cabinet of the PC setup in the film. But if it need to be shown as a source, then it has to be good looking and a bit thin, not the bulky ones we usually get.

For internet access, we are using Idea NetSetter. We were using the Tata card earlier on a laptop, but found the Idea one to be more stable. BSNL dial-up is also available :)

I will let you know the final prices I am getting for the different MB/GPU combos soon. And I am also looking into better PSUs and cabinets.

Update

I have spent the last two days going around calling/talking to various service engineers/sales people from Goa to Kerala :)

Sadly, Rashi engineers at Cochin and Kottayam are saying that if you put a discrete GPU in a M3A78/M4A78 board, the onboard gets disabled. Anyways, one guy from Rashi Cochin has promised me to check the boards again tomorrow to be sure. But, I am going to trust you, cranky, and the Asus manual more.

Just now I got the info that M3A78-EM is Rs. 4450 and it seems my friend can't seem to locate the M3N78-EM he found yesterday. Also, the M4A78-EMs are available. It is really difficult to source some things here in Kottayam.

The CM Elite series (no idea about the product no) is available for Rs. 2100. And the Corsair VX450 is going to cost Rs. 4k+ and as an option Zebronics Pro 500W is available for Rs. 2500+tax. Should I look into that?
 
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