Running 3 Monitors with set of PCI and PCI-E cards??

[trioxin1308]

Hello all!

I was reccomended to ask my question here by a co-worker who said if this was the best group of knowlege among forums.

Let me introduce myself, i am Trioxin, a relative newbie to the hardware end of computers!

I really want to run three monitors at my home, and looking for a bit of advice on how to do it. My current setup is a Dell XPS 400 with an Nvidia 7600GS card in the PCI-E x16 slot. 1 gb ram, 2.8 Ghz Pentium D, 375W powersupply and plenty of harddrive space. I do have a 1x PCI-e Slot (cant use it do to location) and a 4x PCI-e slot (cant find a pci-e card that fits this slot in newegg) and 1 open PCI slot ( I can have two if take my modem out that i never use).

I've googled the heck out of this topic, seen y connectors, motherboards with dual PCIe slots, etc, but not a lot on my specific 3 monitor setup ideas.

Can I just add another card, a PCI one and hook my monitor up to that? The Nvidia 7600GS i have does have two ports out the back, and I am currently running dual monitors. Some one at work told me I should pick another Nvidia card, since thats what I already have running on my system.

I was looking at Newegg and saw a Nvidia Fx5200 PCI card, would this work for me? I would like a DVI output on the 2nd card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130188

Absolutely any reccomendations and suggestions are apprecatied!

Thanks,
Trioxin

[thideras]

Hello all!

I was reccomended to ask my question here by a co-worker who said if this was the best group of knowlege among forums.

Let me introduce myself, i am Trioxin, a relative newbie to the hardware end of computers!

Can I just add another card, a PCI one and hook my monitor up to that? The Nvidia 7600GS i have does have two ports out the back, and I am currently running dual monitors. Some one at work told me I should pick another Nvidia card, since thats what I already have running on my system.

I was looking at Newegg and saw a Nvidia Fx5200 PCI card, would this work for me? I would like a DVI output on the 2nd card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130188

Absolutely any reccomendations and suggestions are apprecatied!

Thanks,
Trioxin:welcome: to the forums!!

To answer your question, yes, all you need to do is get a second video card. But make sure it is the same "brand" (nvidia + nvidia, ati + ati) otherwise you might run into issues.

You can also use something call TripleHead2Go:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Image:DTH2G.jpg