Here is The Feedback You asked for on Running 4 Monitors from PCIe x1 slot

Few weeks ago I had a Crazy idea of Running 8 Monitors on my Dell XPS 8300 which has only one PCIe X16 slot which can run 4 monitors using ATI FirePro 2460 Video Card.

But I came up with a crazy idea of using a cheap ( $22.00 ) PCIe X1 to PCIe X16 converter & plug a second Video Card in PCIe X1 slot to Run another 4 monitors, totaling 8.

Monitors were all 24 inch Dell U2412M ( 1920x1200 )

I asked your opinions & you were very helpful & many of you wanted to know the result commenting that : " Many ET Users would like to Run 8 Monitors using a cheap computer "

Here is my original Thread :

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=228038

The Result :

I took out the NVIDIA GT 530 card from X16 slot so now no video cards on MB.

I inserted the conveter in PCIe X1 slot & plugged the FirePro 2460 card & connected 4 Monitors & everything got detected automatically by Win-7 ( Ultimate )

I opened 4 diferent symbols each having 15 studies on them & they were updating in real time. I then added another charting application few word docs & IE windows & it also worked fine. Then I ran 2 Recorded videos using 2 different players on top of those charts & it ran ok for a while but after a while it wasn’t running smooth. May be card got hotter but I am no expert on that but you guys might know the reason.

So yes (1) Converter works (2) I was able to use PCIe X1 slot to run 4 monitors (3) Running video might not be possible on top of charts but it never died on me either.

Then I plugged just the FirePro Video Card in X16 slot & ran 4 monitors with 4 charts & played two videos & it worked just fine.

I didn’t try running 8 monitors using one PCIe X1 & One PCIe X16 slot because of cabling problem & not having big enough desk but I assume it should work if you just run charting applications & not the video with it.

I haven’t tried using 2 PCIe X1 slot to run 8 monitors because I didn’t have the 2nd conveter. I bought only one for experiment.
I might buy a second converter just for the hell of it & try running 8 Monitors from two PCIe X1 slots only OR 12 Monitors using 3rd PCIe X16 empty slot.

So I welcome your comments on this.

OK, this was all for fun but I am now serious about building a 12 Monitor system from scratch & need your help on doing that
.
I am opening a new thread on that to keep two threads clean & focus on each separately.

Please check out that thread & help me build a sturdy & very Reliable system.

Thank You all geniuses again. You guys are great help.

 

wait you don't have enough desk space for an 8monitor setup so you are only running 4 currently??

but you are starting to build a 12mon setup even though you still can't even fit 8mon?


Why?

 

In theory, the converter should have worked.

Perhaps others will try it on their computer and post the results. (It's not a given that it will work on all computers, however. The BIOS has a say in all of this.)

Running 4 monitors from an x1 slot isn't new. There have been quad-port, x1, video cards on the market for years... the 500MB/s bandwidth for an x1 slot is plenty big enough to run 4 monitors with ease.... but some BIOS (mostly cheap computer ones) won't run video cards from both the x16 and x1 slots simultaneously.

 

You are probably right. I have not tried running 8 monitors simultaneously using one card in X1 & another in X16 but I am going to & as you said it might not work.

Before I started it all, I was serious about running 8 to 12 monitors on one system whether this converter would work or not but I didn't have much to lose so I did it just for fun & I still might try running 12 monitors using second converter & another PCIe X1 slot, provided 8 works out now using X16 & X1.

I was more driven by the encouragement I got from many of you ET members otherwise I don't know much about hardware.

You had some great inputs in that thread & I thank you.

 

I did a test of single/multiple video cards.. x16, x1.. all combinations I could try with my cards... on a Gigabyte board with X58 chipset. Every single/combination worked properly.

Can't say for sure that every X58 mobo will handle every possible video card combination, but it looks like X58 has its act together regarding multi-card rigs.