Hey bro, Looks like two of these since there are only two x16 slots: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001RBE7GO/ref=nosim/7240466-rg2304-00-20?s=merchant The thing that scares me is as stated above, if one of these cards goes bad, I'm down 4 monitors. Btw, with this setup, 8 monitors. It's what I use at work, and I found some cheap stands that will work well. The cards, passive cooling, no fan = less noise. I ran into a broker who set up a 12 monitor (22"s) system, and took the elevator down to his floor this afternoon. I liked the setup, but his machine was LOUD! It would drive me insane. He's running cards with fans, and I don't know if it was the combination of the cards, cooling fan, power supply, but that thing was loud! I'm wanting to put together something that isn't going to "lul" me to sleep with that low roar (white noise almost?), or something that's going to be so loud, I can't stand to be in the room with it. Do I have a quandry with this? I'd like to run a power supply that's around 850-1000w, liquid cooling if it's quieter, the i7-2600, 1tb, solid state drive, etc.,
Btw, the broker with the 12 monitor setup isn't really using them for much from what I could tell. He said he liked them as "they impress prospective clients." I had to laugh about that one later.
Or perhaps a loose screw somewhere... LOL Now that really is a "budget" build gone wrong! I think you will be okay with a PS around 700W-800W. Especially with the i7-2600k instead of i7-930/950. Liquid cooling probably is not needed. Remember more components = more potential points of failure. The quad-head cards are not cheap. $500 for 4 heads = $125 per head on average. The video cards that I have been using are about $50 for dual head = $25 per head. Another route is get 2 x dual-head cards for the 2 PCIe X16 slots. Then drive another 2 monitors through 2 x USB-to-DVI set up. Not a preferred route but should work okay. (That's how I drive the 7th and 8th mon on one of mine). $50 + $50 + $80 + $80 instead of $500 x 2.
Yes, that guy spent too much. Plus, the damn thing is so loud, I couldn't handle it myself. And I agree. I'll try the usb to dvi for two monitors vs spending a grand for two cards. Btw, why doesn't newegg have many pre-built gaming/trading computers with more x16 slots? I don't get it.
All a matter of demand. Perhaps trading and extreme gaming are the only apps that would use 6+ monitors on a single computer?
05-18-11 12:34 PM Winston TJ has a dell for sale, just get another card selling a dell precision 690 dual xeon x5140 with 6GB ddr2 RAM and Matrox G450 Quad card (or can substitute NVS290). Windows 7 professional, 64-bit OS Office 2007 Professional Also have XP64 or XP-32 media that you can downgrade to if you so desire. Machine has two dual-core CPUs so it is essentially a single quad-core without hyper threadding. It has two 80GB HDD in a mirror for a boot drive. Machine comes with a 3rd 80GB HDD as a spare. I have tons of HDD so I can add more capacity but HDD are cheap so that may be best for the buyer to do. I am in NYC, do yourself a favor and lookup shipping prices. This thing is big, heavy and you can't insure it without the proper OEM packaging (which I don't have) or unless you pay FedEx/UPS to pack which is expensive. Figure $100 to ship insured, maybe more depending on where you are. Located in 10006 zip code. Its the bigger one - this is a full-sized workstation tower. It may not fit under some desks and it is very heavy. I am no longer using this and I have to pay electricity so it sits idle and collects dust. $350 picked up in NYC (wall st. area) and its yours.
Hey! You watching? Dell Outlet has a T3500 w/Xeon W3530 CPU for $759. They also have THREE with W3690 CPU for $1169-$1219. Then get 3, Nvidia Quadro NVS 295 video cards (no fans)... 2, x16s, and 1, x1 to run from an x8 slot. Powerful. Quiet. Low cost. If you don't want to do that, have ibuypower.com build you one for about $1100. Or, we'll have Boli chime in with his rec.
Oops... one of the W3690s has been sold... better hurry... these are a good deal so shouldn't last long.