Want to get a 6 monitor setup for my Dad...

[Sam Whatley]

Have been kind of going round in circles and can't find a reliable source of knowledge/advice.

Basically he does online betting and doesn't have great eyesight so needs 6+ monitors to get everything sized and spaced.

The PC just needs to run multiple instances of a browser - that's it - so loads of the builds I am seeing feel a little overpowered - whilst I appreciate that getting 6 feeds will require some decent GFx hardware, this thing will never see a game installed. Also he doesn't mind using the VGA out of the MB as his monitors are [3 x HD] and [3 x old 19"ers] - he's upgrading these over time.

In my searching I found some guys who seem to sell themselves as experts on this issue...
..but their build price (£1040 inc) was more than speccing a triple-GTX710 setup (£690)

Anyone on here done this before? I like OC and have bought stuff here before with no fuss, but never bought a whole system.

Bit of a ramble, but any tips appreciated.

Sam

 

[Sam Whatley]

Have fixed the contraband links - apologies and thanks for the heads up

Hmm - On the projector, wouldn't he need a lot of space and a big ol surface - both would be a challenge

 

[Sam Whatley]

OK - so had a chat with my Dad after your feedback - he is down with only 4 and moving to widescreen as the monitors get replaced (great idea that by the way). After reading around a bit he only needs passive cards (only for desktop work) which are super cheap so I think I can do a pretty cheap self build - does the attached look like it would plug together ok? Not done a full build before but I'm patient and can follow instructions ok

Just realised i missed the OS so add £80 to the below

By the way - thanks so much - you guys saved me going down totally the wrong rabbit hole

2 GX-024-PL Palit GeForce GT 730 SILENT 2048MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £49.99 £99.98
1 CA-02C-KK Kolink KL-500M 500W 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply £39.95 £39.95
1 MY-08G-TG Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz £68.99 £68.99
1 HD-101-KS Kingston 120GB SSDNow UV400 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" (7mm height) £35.99 £35.99
1 MB-684-AS Asus H110M-K Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard £47.99 £47.99
1 CP-62Y-IN Intel Core i3-7350K 4.20GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - OEM £89.99 £89.99
1 HS-047-AL Alpenfohn Brocken ECO CPU Cooler - 120 mm £29.99 £29.99
1 CA-222-BX Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99 £26.99

£439.87

 

[Sam Whatley]

he could probably make do with 3, but any 3 port card is still going to me more than £100 I am guessing...

 

[Sam Whatley]

I'll second this. Six monitors and the prerequisite graphics hardware seem like a pricey solution when there are plenty of cheap 4K TVs floating around.

I missed this, sorry - so basically just any old PC and hook it to a 55" HDTV?

Will have a look at prices but feels like that's going to come out more no?

 

[Sam Whatley]

Y'all are fantastic - going to digest all of this and makes a plan. Thanks kindly all.
S

 

[Sam Whatley]

im aware about screen scaling for zoom, the point was it would look terrible on 6 screens if its setup to portray one big screen, if he was to have different things on each monitor then fair enough, but the OP hasnt mentioned such and not all monitors will look right zoomed in,

well i chose the screen because its widescreen and cheap considering lol, i personally dont see the need to get too big of a screen either way unless you sit on the sofa.

this is definitely about having different things on different screens - he has like 8-9 browsers running at once - sorry didn't make that clear

 

[Sam Whatley]

Yeah I got him one of those 3 arm stands and currently has one HD and two older VGA monitors on there - I do like the idea of replacing those two older ones with ultrawides when they pack up - means I can get away with relatively normal GPU

 

[Sam Whatley]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x PNY Nvidia Quadro P600 Low Profile Graphics Card - 2GB GDDR5 - 384 CUDA Core= £199.99
• 1 x Asus H110-Plus Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £59.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G24= £128.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-6300T 3.30GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £139.99
• 1 x Corsair CX-M Series 450W 80 Plus Bronze Semi Modular Power Supply (CP-9020101-UK)= £55.99
• 1 x OcUK Tech Labs - Pre Noise Dampened Case - Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - Black Window= £56.99

Total: £653.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

 

[Sam Whatley]

In a perfect world for anything business related you should not be using Geforce or Radeon cards, the reason is these cards drivers are tied up with gaming releases. Of course in reality you would be perfectly fine using a Geforce or Radeon card, however if you have the option not to then don't.

What you should be doing is copying what pretty much every trading computer in London uses, that's use Nvidia Quadro. Firstly the drivers are super stable, second you get NView and you can split one screen into multiple screens.

And just because I mentioned the world Quadro does not mean you suddenly have the spend thousands of pounds on cards...

On a popular auction site there is loads of Quadro NVS 310's, some are new, some are clean pulls, just make sure you get the 1GB versions. There is a brand new in box 310 at the moment for £30 with postage. I have also spotted a NVS 315 brand new in box £21 with postage no bids. Basically an NVS 310, or NVS 315 can power 2 screens, so if you want 4 screens you buy either 2 NVS 315, or 2 NVS 310's.

If you want to have just 1 card running 4 screens, then go Quadro NVS P600, these are £190 new, there much faster then above, however for 2D work the NVS 310's and NVS 315 are still plenty.

So in summary, you could get 2 NVS 1GB 310's brand new for around £60 from the popular auction site. The cards would be super stable, power 4 monitors, and you get all the Nview goodness below.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/solutions/nview-display/

That's interesting - thank you - I had a crack at costing a build for that - see my prev post - the only thing I would have to deal with is the compatibility of the monitors - ie would need to go DP straight away. I think this is the probably the right way forward for him in the long run tho....