I just put together a trading computer. I've built nearly all of the PCs I've owned since the very early 80's when Dos first came out. This was no exception. The board is an Asus M4N75TD with a triple core processor. Way more power than I need, but it was pretty reasonable. It has 2GB or ram, and is running two EVGA video cards, which are navidia based, and are capable of two monitors each. Each one occupies it's own PCI Express slot on the board.... which I of course purchased because it had two slots. This is a very conservative computer.... total cost was not much over $500, and I am running it on Windows Vista (an OS I hate with a passion!!) The Navidia based cards came with excellent software to allow you to configure a monitor array. I've set up 3 monitors on it so far.... but not the forth yet. All are Samsung Syncmaster P2770 27" 1080P resolution. Here's the problem: I want to set the monitors up in a square array, and the software will not let me do it. I cannot drag a monitor up above or down below the others. There is no explanation of why I cannot do this. Under Linux Suse 11.2 which I have on the other partition, if I try to array monitors vertically, I am warned that there is a pixel limit that I am exceeding. SUSE will not recognize more than the two monitors on the single card, though it sees both cards....... Another issue to resolve. The Linux warning, probably is telling me why it won't work in Windows.... That 2 1080P monitors exceed the vertical pixel capacity for some reason. How do I overcome this? Howard
Are you running some version of Windows OS? If so... did you use the Windows' software to stack the monitors? Do you see all 3 monitors (or 4) in Windows' "Adjust Screen Resolution" utility?
uh, with the cost of the Core i3's they would probably blow away your compute power from your salvage heap, take a few bucks, catch a November/December sale upgrade to a core i7 and just get with the program your trading account will thank you later
I am running Vista, and using the supplied Nvidia utility that allows you to see and arrange monitors. It allows any horizontal array I want, with any master and slave arrangement. But it will NOT allow me to stack two monitors. All the connected monitors show up and work. It of course only boots from one. Howard
What this supposed to mean??? I'm not a gamer..... I'm a trader!!! The systems I currently use are more than adequate in power for the job, and are far below the one I just built. I need reliability NOT high performance. And I always run AMD processors. This system is modeled as a "low end gaming system", and I selected exactly the components I wanted for the job. It handles the multiple monitors fine...... The cards and Nvidia bios on the Asus board were designed specifically for the job. It just will not allow me to array them vertically for some reason. A high powered hotrod computer will not make me any more successful at day trading than a Corvette would make me a better driver, or a skin tight swimsuit a faster swimmer, or fancy shoes a better runner, or an expensive rifle a better hunter!! Howard
Not knowing the card models, its tuf to advise. See the specs of the card and see what is the max resollution supported and how many monitors on each. Running out of pixels is common on weak cards.
My replies are not getting through....... There is no problem about the video cards supporting the monitors at full resolution and color depth. They all work and work in a panorama as they are intended to. I designed this computer for the job, and selected the components to work. The problem is that I cannot display them in a vertical array. I can place all the monitors in a line, but I cannot place two up and two down. The Navidia utility that allows you to place the monitors where you want them, choose which is the master, and how the mouse navigates between them refuses to allow me to put two up and two down......that's all. Here's the description of the cards: EVGA 512-P3-1242-LR GeForce GT 240 Superclocked Video Card - 512MB DDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, DVI, HDMI, VGA (E145-0244) They are not cheap wimpy cards......they are cards specifically intended for the job, and they DO run two monitors each quite easily at 1080P and full color depth with no problem in a panorama (horizontal) array. 1080P is native to these monitors, and I haven't tried going to a lower resolution to see if they would stack at lower res. I can't imagine why it would make a difference...... But as I mentioned under Linux they mentioned a pixel limit for vertically stacking monitors..... not horizontal. The cards are Navidia Geforce cards made by EVGA......... and the motherboard as a Navidia graphics bios which is specifically compatible with these cards. There should be no problem at all. Howard Howard
Pardon my asking.... but what kind of gibberish is this???? None of this is bottom of the barrel, cheap stuff........not of it is top dollar expensive stuff either. It's solid middle of the road reliable stuff, and my experience of many years is that this is the most reliable. Your mileage may be different. I'm NOT a gamer.... I'm a trader, and that does NOT call for monster horsepower. The stuff I am using is fine except for the lack of screen real estate. I personally prefer AMD processors by the way! Howard
There is frequently issues with the NVidia software (not drivers) when you try to go beyond three monitors. Don't recall why. Use the Nvidia software for bright/contrast (not your on-monitor controls), colour adjustments and rotating the monitors if necessary. DO NOT use the NVidia software or their multi-monitor setup feature to arrange your monitor array. If you have to, uninstall all NVidia software, hopefully losing their setup. Then reinstall latest NVidia drivers & SW. Then setup your monitor array positions from the windows Display Properties>Settings screen. I had to reboot a few times before I got my six monitors on three NVidia cards where and how I wanted them. Sometimes (in XP at least) the Identity number appearing in Display Properties>Settings is different than the number assigned to the monitor in the NVidia Software, so under the NVidia SW quickly move the brightness control to confirm you'll be adjusting the correct monitor or you may end up going nuts. No idea on the Linux issue, but I've seen posts elsewhere requiring custom settings for very high resolution monitors or a larger number of monitors to ensure there's enough memory/buffer/??? assigned to handle them. Good Luck if you haven't found a solution already.