GeForce 310 + ? = 3 monitors?

[maudjuly]

I'm about to buy a dell "deal" Inspiron 570 Quad Core Processor, 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM, 640GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, nVidia GeForce 310 512M GDDR3.

I would like to run three monitors on the machine (as an extended desktop mode, not having the monitors show the exact same thing). It is my understanding that I need to buy an addition graphics card to make this work. (that is I can run two monitors on the GeForce 310 but need a new card to get up to three monitors).

I do not play games and mostly use the monitors for spreadsheets, word documents, mail, internet, etc. Although I watch a movie every now and then.

What are my options?

 

[builderbobftw]

Don't/

Build it you'reself.

 

[maudjuly]

Thanks. Will I be able to use this in addition to the GeForce 310?

That is, I understand that ATI 5450 should support 3 monitors on its own. However, my monitors don't have a display port -- so I can't hook three of them into just the ATI 5450 card.

thanks!

 

[notty22]

You can always add a usb-vga adapter like this, for additional monitors. You can add up to 6 of these (according to them) , read the first user review, helpful. http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-BVU195-Display-Adapter-included/dp/B002GHBW4S/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1270938287&sr=8-7

 

[maudjuly]

@ct1615,

thanks again. If I understand it correctly (I'm just reading up on this today) I would need an active display port adapter to get three monitors without a displayport working on a ATI 5xxx. I can do this, but these tend to run around $100, and I didn't know if there was a better card option for that $100.

Notty -- I wasn't aware of the USB adapters thanks! Do you know if I'll be able to hook two monitors into my Geforce and then only need one USB adapter, or if I'll need to use two usb adapters.

In general I guess I would slightly prefer a card option without adapters if this can be done at roughly the same price (I assume I'll get slightly better quality this way) -- but I'm not willing to pay too much over the other options for this.

 

[notty22]

If anyone is going to try 3 monitors/using eyefinity or just using 3 monitors, read this thread. Theres a couple of inexpensive display port to vga adapters that DO work, listed in there. There are many that don't work, just read reviews at newegg. lot of frustration over the display port. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/279498-33-displayport-adapter-eyefinity