I also own a T3400 and have 3 video cards installed: a. NVS 290 PCIEx16 b. NVS 285 PCIEx16 c. NVS 280 PCI I have one 24" monitor running at 1920 x 1200, which is flanked by two 20" monitors running 1600 x 1200, I also have three 19" monitors running at their native resolution. So I'm here to tell you that you CAN run higher than 1600x1200 as the NVIDIA Quadro NVS cards (except for the 280 PCI) support resolutions up to 1920 x 1200. Check the link below for the stats. Just a friendly FYI. http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_14605.html
Of course. I knew that... "1600x1200" was a brain cramp.... intended to say, "1920x1200".. I run one of those myself.
i've decided i'm going to get a precision t3400. this will be exclusively trading, no other stuff (i'll have that on another machine). i'm going to have two 24" monitors; not sure if i'll ever need to have 3/4 on there. things i'm looking towards: 4GB memory XP 160GB SATA hard drive NTFS file system Nvidia NVS290 video card i do NOT take on tons of trades, run complex spreadsheets, etc. i usually will have 3-5 positions open when i'm trading normally. my questions: i'm assuming i should stick with the nvs290 card which has 256MB and not the one with 512MB? on the 4GB memory; is it worth the extra money to get it in two DIMMS? core2? dual? quad? and if there's anything i'm missing, please feel free to jump in. thanks for any comments.
I have 3, T3400s... 1. You're unlikely to need more than 2G of RAM. But just in case, get 2x1GB... you can get another equivalent set if necessary. 2. You don't need video cards with even 256MB of VRAM. Overkill already. 4. Higher speed C2D are about the same cost as the "next lower speed quads"... no real significance in performace, as there are few multi-thread apps able to use 4 cores. E8xxx likely plenty of horsepower. Sounds like you're good to go with these choices..