Need a 3 monitor system

[ellinj]

I need to get a three monitor system for my dad. He needs to drive a standard monitor and 2 Planar Dome E3s.

I haven't bought a system like this before. The pair of Dome's came with a dual dvi video card. My conundrum is how to drive the standard monitor. It was recommended that I buy a Dell precision. Is it possible to put two non match NVIDIA video cards in the same PC? The Dell Precision T3500 has two PCIe x 16 slots.

Here is the specs for the two domes.

http://www.ndssi.com/products/dome/ex-grayscale/e3.php

and

video card compatibility matrix.

http://www.ndssi.com/products/dome/Dome-Video-Board-Compatibility-Matrix.pdf

 

[joelmartinez]

What was the card that came with it, I recommend buying another of that card running SLI (google it) so on the precision you replace the stock card (sell it on ebay)

 

[ellinj]

Its some sort of nvidia card but I can't easily identify it.

 

[joelmartinez]

Call the company where you bought the monitor from and ask for the specs

 

[ellinj]

Isn't SLI meant to increase GPU performance via a single output? I really don't need much GPU performance for this application.

 

[4745454b]

It used to be that way. Ever since AMD came out with Eyefinity Nvidia has changed it so that all the plugs can be used. AFAIK however it only works with the GTX2xx series and above. If your current card is any of the G92 or lower based chips, it won't work.

Each of those monitors needs a dual link (DL) DVI cable. Two Nvidia cards in surround SLI should do this, or a single AMD 5 series card or better. I seem to remember something about one or the DVI ports on the cards will go to single link once you use DP port which you'd need to do to set up Eyefinity. This is why we have those cheap adapters now. I think there are some on the 6 series however that can do 2 DL DVI ports and the DP port at the same time.

I'd start by running GPUz. That should tell you what you have in there.

 

[joelmartinez]

I know but you can't run 3 monitors from one nvidia card

 

[joelmartinez]

GPU-Z download link: http://download.cnet.com/GPU-Z/3000-2094_4-10788513.html

 

[ellinj]

I'd start by running GPUz. That should tell you what you have in there.

I gotta get the pc first. Guess I should buy the Dell with the cheapest video card option, replace it with the one that came with the monitors and see what I can figure out for the third monitor. Since the third monitor will be used for basic functions as email and other text display, I am thinking a display link (USB adapter) might be easiest. I use one on my laptop now so I can have two screens it works much better then I ever expected.

 

[ellinj]

it seems the card is a Planar DX2.

According to this

http://www.ndssi.com/products/dome/Dome-Video-Board-Compatibility-Matrix.pdf

Which means XP only. Might need to invest in a pair of new cards. I am assuming that the support matrix implies that any card with the supported chipset will work, since NVIDIA doesn't actually make cards.