Nice looking box to drive 2 x 4K TV's

Paul2016 · 20 May 2021 at 12:24

Have been asked to spec a nice looking PC to sit in a board room and drive 2 x 4K TV's.
Haven't gone 4K at home yet so just need to get some opinions of what I would need as a minimum to drive the 2 screens. Won't be playing games on them is just for Teams/Zoom meetings and general office presentations, discussions and that sort of thing.
Have looked at a few of the SSF boxes and can't see any with 2 HDMI outputs (not really surprised about that), so I assume I need to pick one with a HDMI + DisplayPort outputs and just use a DP to HDMI cable to plug the second screen in would that work OK?
The sort of box I'm looking for that I thought looked nice is something like a HP ProDesk 400 G7 SFF
Main Specs:-
Intel Core i3 (10th Gen) 10100 / 3.6 GHz
8GB RAM
256GB M2 SSD
Intel UHD Graphics 630 Dynamic Video Memory Technology
HDMI, DisplayPort

Would this be able to drive the 2 screens OK would I be better looking at an i5?
Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

tonys · 20 May 2021 at 21:25

Would you be looking at 2 separate images or duplicated. If you are duplicating the image you would just use a hdmi splitter I would imagine.

Paul2016 · 21 May 2021 at 08:28

Looking at extending the displays rather than duplicating so they can do different things on them.

StarShock · 21 May 2021 at 08:55

worth noting that a lot of cheaper displayport to HDMI adaptors won't work at higher resolutions. You can get 4k capable ones, but don't assume that any old one will work

tonys · 21 May 2021 at 09:25

I have the Fractal Node 202 case for the living room nice and simple looking can be used in either vertical or horizontal orientation

Donnie Fisher · 21 May 2021 at 09:40

People report the m1 Mac mini can drive 2 4K monitors, 1 connected to the hdmi and the other to a usb c port. Hard pushed to beat a small neat looking pc than a Mac mini

mickyflinn · 21 May 2021 at 10:20

Paul2016 said:
Looking at extending the displays rather than duplicating so they can do different things on them.

As far as im aware you can run 2 x 4k monitors on intel hd630 graphics but tou should contact dell or inel for a definative answer.

Paul2016 · 21 May 2021 at 10:23

Thanks StarShock, so I should avoid any cable that says max 1080p and look for one that says it supports 4k like the StarTech.com 3m DisplayPort to HDMI Cable - 4k - DP to HDMI Adapter Cable for example?

That does look like a nice case Tonys thx

Thanks for the suggestion Donnie, but there is some Windows only software that is used as well but I agree that they do like nice.
An extra side thought would a usb-c to hdmi work better if it even exist?
Note that they are looking at 50-55" Displays so would be TV's rather than Monitors
Thanks.

Bug One · 21 May 2021 at 10:30

Paul2016 said:
Would this be able to drive the 2 screens OK would I be better looking at an i5?

I'd stick with the HP. Perfect for that scenario - although the smaller boxes can make a bit more noise from the their tiny cooling fans. In that respect, the lower TDP i3 might be the better option.

Running two 4k screens is bog standard stuff that shouldn't push any modern APU. Running a 3d game at that resolution is quite a bit different.

My only change would to be to increase it to 16GB, as the integrated graphics will be sharing that - and no doubt whoever uses it will expect to be video conferencing + displaying a massive powerpoint ETC all at the same time.

Mujja · 21 May 2021 at 10:36

Do you need HDMI for audio?

If using a dual display output over HDMI, can audio be sent to both displays, simultaneously or independently. For example, if the displays are on opposite sides of a wall or room and a video is played on one, is the audio directed to that display?

Paul2016 · 21 May 2021 at 12:29

Mujja said:
Do you need HDMI for audio?

Yes, the two displays will be side by side each other on the same wall so will only need audio out of one of them.

Bug One said:
I'd stick with the HP. Perfect for that scenario - although the smaller boxes can make a bit more noise from the their tiny cooling fans. In that respect, the lower TDP i3 might be the better option.

Running two 4k screens is bog standard stuff that shouldn't push any modern APU. Running a 3d game at that resolution is quite a bit different.

Thanks Bug One thats good to know, might have to test it's game playing ability if I get a chance

Bug One said:
My only change would to be to increase it to 16GB, as the integrated graphics will be sharing that - and no doubt whoever uses it will expect to be video conferencing + displaying a massive powerpoint ETC all at the same time.

Yeah that's exactly what I expect them to be doing

Good call on the memory, didn't think about it been shared with the GFX