Hi glenvern. I currently have a three monitor system. You have several options:

• Buy a video card that is specifically designed to support more than 2 monitors (3 or 4)

• Buy a video card that is designed to support 2 monitors and then get a product like this to extend a third monitor.

**The above link will take you to a product that is no longer available from that specific online store. However, I only refer to the product and not the site**

• Buy a video card that is designed for multi-monitors and add this card to your existing system.

Whichever option you choose, you will need to make sure all of your graphic drivers are updated.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

Ah....you never said anything about an onboard card. :? I do not believe you can do a multi-video card setup with an installed and onboard card. There will be conflict. If you do not have an installed card now, for cost effectiveness, I would advise doing the first option.

I believe either would do. I am using an AGP card; however, that is not to say that there are no multi-monitor PCI cards on the market.

This is the best part. 8) Yes, each monitor would work independently of each other. I have a 30" and two 15" monitors. We watch movies and television on the 30". When we just want to use the computer, I can have Firefox open on one screen, Outlook open on another, and watch TV or whatever else I want to do on the third. One thing you must keep in mind is that all three monitors must have the same resolution.

Also, depending on the features of the video card, you can extend screens beyond the boundary of a monitor. For example, I can expand Outlook through all three screens.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

I agree with MPH. I don't believe tha you can make use of on board graphics with an added graphics card, but I could be wrong.

I definitly know that you need to be careful when using multiple graphics cards. Generally, if you are going to use multiple graphics cards, you will want to select cards with the same graphics chip set so that they can both use the same drive. Mixing a NVidia and an ATI card might not work so well, for example. When I wanted to add a second monitor to an older Dell PIII system years ago, I got a second ATI Radeon based card (with a tuner) that worked well with my original ATI Radeon card.

I will note that many decent graphics cards these days will be dual head cards (i.e. allow for at least dual monitors).


Um, not true. You can have different resolutions on different monitors in general. The only reason why you would not be able to do that would be if the drivers somehow prevent it. But, by dual head ATI card in this system will definitely allow me to have two differnt resolutions on my two different monitors. Since they are both 19 in, I don't have a need for different resolutions. I believe that I did run my old system at two different resolutions (I was running a 19" and 17" monitor on that system at the time).[/quote]

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]

Here is a website that appears to give a list of cards that do multiple monitors. I don't know how current it is:

[url]http://9xmedia.com/Pages-products/4000%20-video%20cards.html_

You could also do a search on Google for "tri head graphics cards".

It might be cheaper to just use multiple graphics cards, but this option is potentially more challenging as you have to be careful that you get cards that will "play nice" together.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]

Yep. From what I recall, going to a tri head card tends to ramp the cost up quite a bit. Getting a decently priced dual head card is not that tough.

It does appear that Matrox make a reasonably price tri-head card. It appears the Matrox P750 is about $250 or so.

The next cheapest appears to be an NVidia card at about $450 or so:

[url]http://www.pny.com/products/quadro/nvs/400Nvs.asp_

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]

No problem....now, your other local option would be to look for computer shows in your area. I just went to one in my area today. Do a search for computer shows and sales in your area. If you can find one, you may find a "less than retail but more than wholesale" price on a multi-monitor video card.

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself

Does a switch allow for fluid use of all monitors? For example, will the cursor be able to be dragged from Monitor 1 to Monitor 3?

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This is my personal Dream PC: http://forums.pcworld.com/blogs/mphenterprises/2007/12/21/my-gift-to-myself