Cross fire links

[jerry1z]

I purchased a systemax computer with 2 Ge Force 9800GT 512 MB PCI -Express (1DVI/1VGA/1HDMI). The manufacturer cannot answer my question ( I know it's hard to believe) It also came with 2 MSI -GPU Cross Fire Video Link Cards (looks like flexible cables with connectors on each end). The manuf did not know if it was configured with sli. I suspect it was not since I have the 2 cross fire link cards as an accessory. Does it sound from what I've said that I should be able to run 2 monitors using one socket from each row of the 2 sockets installed in the back of the computer if I do not use the cross fire links?
Thanks
Jerry

 

[jyjjy]

You don't need two cards to run two monitors. Any single card these days can handle dual monitors. You would be best off connecting the cards and enabling SLI.

 

[megamanx00]

First of all, nVidia cards need SLI cables, not crossfire cables. Currently, when you play a game with SLI enabled you can only output from one video card. As for normal, non SLI, operation it doesn't really matter, but you can run both of your monitors from the first card.

 

[jerry1z]

You don't need two cards to run two monitors. Any single card these days can handle dual monitors. You would be best off connecting the cards and enabling SLI.

I guess that I did not provide all the details(excuse me). I am using 1 monitor connected to 2 diiferent computers one dvi input the other vga, I turn one computer off and then use the monitor with the other computer. It's the second monitor I'm concened about, that's the one I would need the second row of connectors to connect to the second monitor. To summarize: I Want to run 2 monitors at the same time but one of the monitors is connected to 2 different computersI turn off one computer and use the second computer with that monitor. The second monitor needs to be connected to the computer with 2 rows of connectors.
Thanks for your help
Jerry
PS I hope I made this clear. Why do I need that second computer? To sync my PDA which needs windows XP. The other computer is windows 7 with a I7 cpu and 12 gig of ram.

 

[rhamutap]

Just use a virtual machine image of xp. Why have an entire physical setup just to sync your pda? That will also solve your monitor issues.