Spec Required for 4 monitors

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Hi

I need to build a pc which will power 4 monitors / 3 monitors + tv.

The pc will be mainly used for office work, trading software. Nothing too intensive. Games will never be played on it.

I would like to use a SSD and have a budget of around £500.

What would be necessary? Keyboard / Mouse / Monitors / Software are not necessary.

I am assuming that i have to use SLI / Crossfire to be able to do this?

Thanks!
 
Would something like this work?

Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail
ASUS P8H61 PLUS Intel H61 (REV B3) Socket 1155 DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
4GB Hypertec Hyperam PC3-10666 1333Mhz (2X2GB) DDR3 Dual Channel Kit
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
500GB Samsung HD502HJ F3 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive
Sony Optical DVD Writer, AD-5260S-0B, SATA, Black, OEM
530W Be Quiet! Pure Power BQT L7 ATX2.3 Power Supply
Silverstone Precision PS05B Midi Tower All Black Gaming Case

The monitors i will be using are Dell U2211H so they have DVI and Displayport.

Would the above setup work for 3 monitors / 1 TV (2 monitors on DVI, 1 on Displayport, TV on HDMI)?

And then if i then needed to add more monitors, how could i upgrade?

Also lastly, is that a good processor / mobo combo to go for or should i be looking at an AMD option?

Thanks!
 
I think the sandy bridge stuff is meant to be better performance-wise, but AMD is a lot cheaper. If you have the money, I would say go for Intel.
 
Although that gpu has 4 outputs, only 3 can be used at a time. You'll need to use 2 cards, although they don't need to be crossfired/sli and can be low end for your needs
 
2 x 5830 crossfire

buildj.png
 
danewesley said:
no you can use 6 series cards like 6950 for up to 4 displays.
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You want him to spend £200?

danewesley said:
2 x 5830 crossfire
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Not in Crossfire. If you use Crossfire you can only use the outputs from 1 card.


To the OP - If you're not gaming just buy 2 of the cheapest cards with the connections you need, run each card separately, and run 2 displays from each card.

If you are planning on adding more displays then buy Eyefinity ATI cards which have 2 DVI's, HDMI and DisplayPort. I think you can use 3 connectors off each as long as one is a DisplayPort.
 
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built a system for a mate with very similar requirements a while back, went with a Phenom x2, 2 4350's and 4gb of ram. ran perfectly and cost about £300ish
 
I'm pretty sure with an AMD build you can use the integrated GPU as well as a card with triple monitor support, giving you the 4 required outputs.
 
Atrox Moris said:
Dedicated cards cancel out the onboard. What you're thinking of is hybrid crossfire where the IGP and GPU work together.
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Nope, just tested it with my sis's Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G and my bro's 5670, enabled the IGP in the BIOS and was able to run 1 screen from the 5670 and another from the 880G ;).
 
Orcvader said:
Nope, just tested it with my sis's Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G and my bro's 5670, enabled the IGP in the BIOS and was able to run 1 screen from the 5670 and another from the 880G ;).
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I can do the same with the Foxconn.

TBH OP, I would go Phenom II X4 940 and 2x cheapest cards you can find, combined with 4 or 8GB ram.
 
I must admit im a bit lost here.

Lets assume i want to go with Intel for the superior performance and dont mind paying a bit extra for it, i need at lesat a 64gb SSD, capacity for 3 monitors (with DVI/Displayport), 1 TV (with HDMI) and a potential to add a 4th monitor (doesnt need to be possible right now, but should be able to buy something else and slot it in when the time is here).

What would you guys spec me up in that instance? Do i just add any other card to my previous spec?
 
Cookeh said:
I can do the same with the Foxconn.

TBH OP, I would go Phenom II X4 940 and 2x cheapest cards you can find, combined with 4 or 8GB ram.
Click to expand...

It seems like a lot of the cheap cards though dont have 2x DVI and also dont have HDMI?
 
For your needs, I think an Athlon II X4 is more then enough right now. For office work and trading software anything more then that is probably overkill. The SSD will be overkill as well, and if you want to keep under the £500 budget, it's best to leave it out.

This build comes to about £360, with the money saved if you really want an SSD or a better CPU you can add that in:
360build.png
 
So that would be 1 monitor on DVI, 1 monitor on displayport, 1 monitor on Mobo DVI and the TV on HDMI?

How would i go about expansion on that build if i needed more monitors?

I have noticed there is an XFX Eyefinity 5 card with 5 mini displayports for around £120, would something like that simplify the issue a lot and actually allow for 5 devices? (I think you can get mini displayport to hdmi adapters for the TV right?).

Thanks for your help.
 
Yup, if you want support for more monitors, get a 6000 series GPU, they can allow up to 6 monitors on one card, and I think the mobo can support 2 GPUs (couldn't properly check, sister got moody when she saw I was on her PC :p), so that's 8 monitors in total. The 6400 series should be released soon as well, so that should keep prices down. If not then go for the XFX card you noticed.
 
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