Is there any reason why these cards will not work in a new build? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170287609219&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=007
Generally you can ignore the drivers of the particular brand, such as HP and just use the drivers from the GPU manufacturer, such as Nvidia. Also, I believe the consensus is that it's best to use multiple cards of the same manufacturer, such as multiple Nvidia, OR multiple Matrox, but avoid mixing them in the same box. Also avoid ATi cards for this purpose, as they have a reputation for not being too cooperative in multiple card setups. The same may be said for windows Vista as well - seems there's a greater chance of success with XP. Also, as Gnome mentioned, a motherboard with onboard video can throw a spanner in the works as well.
That's good advice, thanks. I picked out the board and cards plus the other components but now I'm not sure how many watts my power supply should be. Considering that I might expand to eight monitors in the future, what size power should I get?
Unless you're going to run gamer cards, any PSU of 400W and greater should be plenty. Most modern computers generally run at 150-180W without "high performance" video cards. The NVS290 you asked about before only runs about 21W each. Monitors have their own power supply. Regarding video "power", your computer is only concerned with the requirements of the video card(s).
i run a 6 monitor system with 3 vid cards, im using 9800GTXs on an ASUS with 3 PCI-Es. on xp as well, 600 watt powersupply, no problems
not overly - i run the setup in an antec 1200 so any noise i do hear is from the 5 fans but its pretty quiet.
Just make sure your Mobo and Power supply can handle it. If I was you I would get a low bit quad card. JMHO