Dual to single monitors?

BoomAM · 17 Feb 2007 at 17:51

Hi.
I currently have 2x Samsung 172X TFTs. Im considering selling them and either getting one large display or two 22"/24" displays.
At the moment, im running them off a X800XL.
I would like the ability to have my telly as a 3rd screen for media playback, unfortunatelly, a PCI card i bought a while back made Windows go all jerky and i had video playback issues (a cheap 9250 card), which im fairly sure was due to the PCI card sharing the same IRQ as the PCI-E card.

Basically, the ideal setup would be 1 high performance video card running my main computer monitor and the HDTV, and a second card to run my secondary monitor. That would allow me to game on either my main monitor or on the HDTV, and allow my second monitor to still do 2D work, and watch the occasional video on it.

Any suggestions on how i could achieve this setup/recomendations?

-What monitors would you suggest, must be HDCP compatible though.
-Would it be likely that a different PCI card would get rid of my previous issues?

Thanks in advance all.

Grumbledook · 17 Feb 2007 at 18:06

i've ordered a 2407 dell to run off my 7800gtx which currently has 2x 172x on

i was going to sell them but its not worth it for the money I am likely to get, so i'm going to keep them and have 3 screens

got a second hand 6800gt to run the samsungs off, thats going in my second pci-e slot (knew i bought a sli board for a reason)

as for running a tv not sure about that :/

BoomAM · 17 Feb 2007 at 18:27

Grumbledook said:
i've ordered a 2407 dell to run off my 7800gtx which currently has 2x 172x on

i was going to sell them but its not worth it for the money I am likely to get, so i'm going to keep them and have 3 screens

got a second hand 6800gt to run the samsungs off, thats going in my second pci-e slot (knew i bought a sli board for a reason)

as for running a tv not sure about that :/

Thats the problem for me, i dont have a SLI board. Im usually quite good with planning potential future uses for my computer, but i dropped a right clanger by not getting a SLI board.

The TV is DSUB/HDMI so it'll function as another monitor.
Im considering dual 1680x1050 monitors atm. Then getting a PCI card of either nVidia or ATI depending on what my next main card is going to be.

bomber456 · 18 Feb 2007 at 00:15

i had a similar problem with my pci 9250 pci card, it was down to the fact that the newest ATI drivers didnt cover the 9250 card anymore, so i had to install older drivers aswell, then it worked better.

BoomAM · 18 Feb 2007 at 12:45

bomber456 said:
i had a similar problem with my pci 9250 pci card, it was down to the fact that the newest ATI drivers didnt cover the 9250 card anymore, so i had to install older drivers aswell, then it worked better.

Ah.
Now i didnt know that. Where were you a year ago!? lol.

So if i was to install the latest ATIs now, then sourced some older ones, then unzipped them, installed the 9250, and then pointed them at the old ones all would be well? Hmm. Interesting.
Do the latest nVidias support their PCI range?, as im considering moving to a nVidia card for my main card.

Thanks.

.

Andelusion · 18 Feb 2007 at 12:48

Get 2 Dell 2007WFPs, I have done and couldn't imagine going back to a single display now, no matter how big.

The size is just right for me aswell, I can sit back around 3 metres and watch DVDs (and read subtitles on anime) without feeling they're too small.

BoomAM · 18 Feb 2007 at 15:37

Andelusion said:
Get 2 Dell 2007WFPs, I have done and couldn't imagine going back to a single display now, no matter how big.

The size is just right for me aswell, I can sit back around 3 metres and watch DVDs (and read subtitles on anime) without feeling they're too small.

Those seem good. But a 20" Widescreen isnt really much of a boost over a 17" 5:4 imo. I was looking more at either 22" & 24".