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New build - need to run 6 independent monitors at less than $400.

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Building my first (from scratch) system for my office within a week. (tired of dell nonsense) I need to drive up to 6 24” inch independent monitors at 1920x1080.

Video card budget up to 400-500 dollars, less is better but not crucial.

I7-3820 / lga2011 / 16gb ram / SSD

No games, no 3d, mostly charts, streaming tv, database/productivity stuff. A lot of different windows open at the same time.

Which Video Card would you suggest is best suited to do that without breaking the wallet?

and if you can recommend high quality monitors as well that would be great.

thank you so much.

Michael

More about : build run independent monitors 400

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Graphics card Authority

best option is to make sure your motherboard supports dual video cards.

there are limited cards that will run 6 monitors.
but almost all ati cards from the last 2 years will run 3 per card.

these should cost you $100 or less each.

what connections are avaliable to you for monitors (or have they not been purchased yet?)
Graphics card Authority

Something like a XFX 6670 for $74.99 isnt bad,

will give you 1x HDMI, 1x DVI & 1x Display port per video card.

NOTE YOU WILL NEED ATLEAST 2 Display port Native monitors (1 per card)
or 2x Display Port to DVI Active Adapters (1 Per Card) in order to run 3 per card.

HugoStiglitz said:
best option is to make sure your motherboard supports dual video cards.

there are limited cards that will run 6 monitors.
but almost all ati cards from the last 2 years will run 3 per card.

these should cost you $100 or less each.

what connections are avaliable to you for monitors (or have they not been purchased yet?)


i didn't buy anything yet, want to buy by tomorrow night...i was looking at -

XFX Double D HD-695X-CDFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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Graphics card Authority
Monitor Expert

ATI may be the best route to take, but also look at Matrox as this is exactly what their cards are made to do, and you may be able to find them used for very cheap. Also, most of their products are PCI which means you can run multiple cards in a much cheaper system. I believe it is the MMS series you are looking for, but it has been a long time sense I have built a PC with a Matrox card in it, and even then it was for video editing, not for a 6+monitor build.
Graphics card Authority
Monitor Expert

whatever you get, be sure that it supports 3 monitors. SLi xFire does not matter as you will be using these as independant cards, so if you are getting a PCIe16 cards then make sure that the mobo has 2 slots, but it does not need to support xFire or SLi to work for what you are doing. Also, you can mix and match PCIe and PCI cards; Windows really dosn't care so long as you have 9 displays or less.
Graphics card Authority
Monitor Expert

While the SSD and Ram is a must for productivity work, will the software you are using take advantage of the 12 cores of the LGA2011 platform? Depending on the software you are using there may be little/no difference between what you picked out and a quad core i5. But then again, depending on the software used, there could be a world of difference that makes the extra 8 cores quite justifiable... just a word of caution.
Graphics card Authority

that card will support an absolute max of 4 monitors.

as you cannot use the 2x DVI & HDMI at the same time, Max of 2 at the same time.
its also overkill for performance.

Ati cards are limited to 2 NON Display port monitors at any one time. once you have 2 connected the 3rd needs to use display port or an active display port adapter.

CaedenV said:
While the SSD and Ram is a must for productivity work, will the software you are using take advantage of the 12 cores of the LGA2011 platform? Depending on the software you are using there may be little/no difference between what you picked out and a quad core i5. But then again, depending on the software used, there could be a world of difference that makes the extra 8 cores quite justifiable... just a word of caution.


re cpu, does that mean that there will not be any speed increase from more cores (i5-2500 vs i7-3820)? thank you for a great point to consider. i just want everything to open when i click it and load fast. No 3d/games, but a lot of windows. (ie. 10xword, 15xLargeExcelsheets, Trading station, Act database/multiple users, multiple IE tabs, desktop softphone, mmmultiple acrobat, chats, streaming tv, direct video link to my therapist...lol, jk.)

re gpu: what about going with 2 of these? FirePro V4800 1GB GDDR5 PCI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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Graphics card Authority

yup your motherboard supports twin PCIe x16 graphics cards so ur all good there.

With the programs you mentioned i doubt there will be an advantage to the i7 over the i5, however the i7 you have in the build is a 3.6ghz core clock (turbo 3.8) and that clock is likley to make a diff.

also with the programs you are using there would be no diff in performance between the 6670 or the Fire Pro. as your not doing rendering (2d or 3d)

i would consider a Revo drive (PCix mounted Raided SSD's) as your talking about alot of apps open at one time.
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