1. G450 DH AGP 2. Intel P III 3. Via for the installation of the Matrox card just open your PC and put the card in the place it fits in ... no computer science diploma needed my PC is a simple 2 year old discount mass product made (compiled) by www.medion.com - Germany regards wild
Our experience shows, that a configuration with Intelchip and Intelprocessor is a very stable system. Particularly the i815 and i850 chip are very stable and fast. For the i850 chip we recommend the PIV with Northwood core, because these have a particularly big Cache. That´s why they are very fast. For the operating system we recommend at the moment Win2000. As graphics card you can use a Matrox DH 450 - 550 or a Appian Hurrican. Both cards works great. But Appian has the better software. Please pays attention also to the noises. The hard disk and the coolersystem are very quiet, that`s very important. regards omega_ts Trading-PC
I just ran across an interesting article on Win2k multimonitor support. Excerpt is below. Here is the link: http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/faq.asp#TrueMultimon. I'm not sure how current the article is -- could be more cards have true multimonitor support now. Due to a limitation in Windows 2000, dualhead cards that use a single chipset to drive both monitors require special workarounds in the driver to be properly recognized by the system. If these workarounds are not implemented, Windows 2000 sees a single large monitor instead of two. This causes the following problems: 1. using different resolutions for each monitor is not possible 2. windows are maximized to the desktop instead of the monitor they are on, and dialog boxes appear centered on the desktop, split across monitors. Software included with the card may be used to work around these problems though taskbar is extended across both monitors instead of only a single one. Nvidia's desktop manager fixes this problem 3. multi-monitor software will not work properly The latest drivers from Appian and Matrox have full Windows 2000 multi-monitor support for the following dualhead cards: Appian Hurricane Matrox G400/G450/G550 The following cards don't have drivers which implement the necessary workarounds, and so exhibit the problems mentioned above: Appian Gemini ATI RADEON VE cards using Nvidia chipsets with TwinView
Omega_TS Thank you very much for your input. That's exactly the kind of information I've been wanting. I live in Hawaii ( a long way from Germany) or I would consider buying a system from you. I have a few more questions .... hope they're not too dumb. By the way, I've done a little research on the software, and others seem to agree with you that the Hydravision software is the best. However, one question: the Appian doesn't do DVI output. In your opinion, does digital output to digital monitor signficantly outperform analog? I've read that it makes little difference, but would appreciate your two cents. In a separate post you have recommended the Eizo L685 which has both digital and analog inputs. What motherboard do you recommend? Again, I want stability and reliability. You have suggested Intel CPU and IntelChipSets ... does that mean you would favor motherboards manufactured by Intel? How about memory .... Rambus or SRAMM? I want a fast machine, but am not willing to pony up $500 for a processor, so am going to give the PiV Northwood a pass. Am thinking of going with a PIV 1.5Gz, which is a bit more in the pricing sweetspot, and perhaps swapping for a faster CPU in a year or two when they go on sale. Any comments? I'll go with Win2k, though I confess to being intrigued by the improved multimonitor support in WinXP. Regarding noise, I agree with you 100%. Would appreciate your recommendations on chassis/fans/powersupply. Regarding storage, I assume the IBM Deskstar would fit the low noise bill? Again, thanks a bunch for your input. Any other comments would be appreciated.
tom, I'm usually running Win2000 with an ATI Radeon VE + nVidia TNT2 for a 3-monitor setup. This causes the following problems: 1. using different resolutions for each monitor is not possible That's true on the two monitors controlled by the Radeon VE, but frankly it hasn't been the slightest concern. Both of those monitors are 19", both set to 1280x1024, and I can't imagine why I'd want them set to different resolutions. Now if I was driving two different size monitors, then it would make sense to have that capability. 2. windows are maximized to the desktop instead of the monitor they are on True, but it's simple to un-maximize the window and then make it whatever size you want, on whatever monitor you want. And almost all programs "remember" their size when closed, so that next time I open them up they return to it (i.e., are not maximized to the desktop). dialog boxes appear centered on the desktop, split across monitors. Often true depending on the program, and when it happens it's a nuisance. Not a dealbreaker, but a nuisance. taskbar is extended across both monitors instead of only a single one. Funny, I actually like that "feature", in that I've got twice as much room to display minimized programs. The Radeon VE is a very decent dual-head card, definitely has it's quirks, but I've found it to be much more stable than the Matrox G450 (which I also have), and I live with the tradeoffs for the stability.
tomoesterle As Motherboard we recommend, the ASUS P4T-E. IT is very stable and fast. This MB use only RDRAM. We recommend for a two-monitorsystem 512 MB RAM. The PIV Northwood is starting from 1.6GHz. The difference in prices between 1.5 and 1.6 isn´t large. The 1.6 with Northwood is marked by a A (e.g. 1.6A or 1.8A or 2.0A and 2.2GHZ) Chassis are from Germany. We modify the chassis with our low noisesystem. The fans are from verax. Very quietly. Powersupply from Fortron. For the Harddisk we recommend the IBM deskstar IC35L040AVVA07 in the Quiet Seek Mode. A digital card from appian (2 Monitors) comes soon. For 4 monitors is available the AppianX or the Rushmore. Gladly I answer further questions. regards omega_ts
Omega-- Thanks again for the feedback. The guy who builds systems for me speaks highly of the ASUS P4T-E. In addition, lately he has been building on the Tyan Trinity S2090 mainboard with the i845 chipset. He finds it to be a very stable board, and you save a few bucks since you can use SDRAMS. Have you built any trading systems using the i845 chipset? I'd appreciate your comments. Thanks for pointing out that the Northwood comes in 1.6A Gz as well as faster. The price point seems quite good -- $148 -- versus $540 for the 2.2A. I have found a source for quiet powersupplies and fans: http://www.quietpc.ca/products.html. Another site full of useful information on building a quiet PC is: http://home.swipnet.se/tr/solutions.html Thanks again.
We test the i845D chipset for our new DataStation live. This is conceived for an Client-Server environment. The difference between i845 and i845D is that the i845D also supported DDR-RAM. DDR-RAM is faster than SD-RAM. Tyan is a very good manufacturer, we uses Tyanboards with i860 chipset for our flagship DataStation profi. omega_ts
Omega, thanks for your insights. Wish I had them before building my system 6 months ago. I'd like to ask, what's the recommended amount of ram per display? I assume 256? Shouldn't this be a function of the amount of programs you open instead of the number of displays? What's the difference between the Rushmore and X? Do you think the soon to be released Matrox G450 quad's will be better since they use 4 chips for 4 display outputs? FYI I have the Rushmore and will install it this weekend. XP drivers were just e-mailed to me yesterday. However, there is no Hydravision and Extras for XP yet. I have no idea when they will release it, nor do they it seems. This is contrary to what they advertise on their site. Off topic regarding noise, I have a 24x CDRom reader. When I play music under Windows Media Player under WinXP, the drive is spinning at full speed creating the loud spinning noise. How do I make it so that my regular music CD is playing at 1X instead of the max 24x speed? Thanks for the info.
Unfortunately that loud whirring sound is a function of the increased speeds of most CD-ROM readers (there are some that are much quieter, but these things have gotten so cheap that most manufacturers aren't real concerned with noise level). I know this may sound like a step backward, but if you have the slot in your case, and room on an IDE cable, you might consider adding an older 2X or 4X unit (if you can find one), and use that exclusively to play your music CD's.