Jakg's Road To Triple Monitors...

[Jakg]

So, i'm finally taking the plunge.

I've been using a dual monitor setup for quite some time now and I love it - and after messing around with LFS on the second screen it became obvious that while it wasn't practical to use such a setup it was something I needed to get...

So far my current setup is...

Intel Xeon Quad Core - 2.13 GHz (Could be overclocked to 2.8 GHz if needed),
8800GTX (Won't overclock anywhere near enough for it to be worth it),
6600GT (Passive - For SoftTH)
Xerox 22" XM3-22wB Widescreen monitor,
Iiyama ProLite E431S 17" monitor.

First step was to get another graphics card for SoftTH - Thanks to eBay i've just picked up a 6600GT for the princely sum of £13.83 delivered. Definately overkill for what i'll be using it for, but passive, no turbocache, and enough power to be used in a proper PC can't be argued with for less than £14. Just hope my 580w PSU can cope, or that I will have enough room for a sound card, a 6600GT and a fooking HUGE (and i mean HUGE) GFX card.

Second step is to find a third monitor - Luckily for me my 17" has virtually 0 resale value so they sell nearly-new on eBay for ~£50 delivered, so it's just a case of waiting for auctions to end on them. Yes, I know it's probably one of the worst 17" TFT's on the market but I would love my monitors to match on either side.

Just hope the Pixel-pitch difference between the 22" and 17"'s isn't too big.

Wish me luck!

Update - All the stuff is here!

[mcintyrej]

So, i'm finally taking the plunge.

I've been using a dual monitor setup for quite some time now and I love it - and after messing around with LFS on the second screen it became obvious that while it wasn't practical to use such a setup it was something I needed to get...

So far my current setup is...

Intel Xeon Quad Core - 2.13 GHz (Could be overclocked to 2.8 GHz if needed),
8800GTX (Won't overclock anywhere near enough for it to be worth it),
Xerox 22" XM3-22wB Widescreen monitor,
Iiyama ProLite E431S 17" monitor.

First step was to get another graphics card for SoftTH - Thanks to eBay i've just picked up a 6600GT for the princely sum of £13.83 delivered. Definately overkill for what i'll be using it for, but passive, no turbocache, and enough power to be used in a proper PC can't be argued with for less than £14. Just hope my 580w PSU can cope, or that I will have enough room for a sound card, a 6600GT and a fooking HUGE (and i mean HUGE) GFX card.

Second step is to find a third monitor - Luckily for me my 17" has virtually 0 resale value so they sell nearly-new on eBay for ~£50 delivered, so it's just a case of waiting for auctions to end on them. Yes, I know it's probably one of the worst 17" TFT's on the market but I would love my monitors to match on either side.

Wish me luck!

Good luck! You'll have quite the Sim-Racing setup there once its all done. Keep us updated on the ebay situation, too.

Just hope the Pixel-pitch difference between the 22" and 17"'s isn't too big.

[wtf im nameless]

Welcome to the club :) I have no experience with triple screen setups using different sized monitors.. I am curious to see how well it works out for you.

Congrats.

[Jakg]

It'll work, I just need to tweak some config files.

I would love to do that, only my PC just gave me a "driver_irq_not_less_than_or_equal" BSOD on boot.

[mcintyrej]

It'll work, I just need to tweak some config files.

I would love to do that, only my PC just gave me a "driver_irq_not_less_than_or_equal" BSOD on boot.

Mine did that once a long time ago, i've since reinstalled windows and i've not BSOD'd yet.

*slaps hand onto nearest wood*

[Jakg]

Even did it in safe mode - I added sticks of RAM as I went and geuss what? ANOTHER stick of Ballistix has died. This is the 5th stick of RAM that's died so far. Back down to 2 GB i go... :(

[mcintyrej]

Even did it in safe mode - I added sticks of RAM as I went and geuss what? ANOTHER stick of Ballistix has died. This is the 5th stick of RAM that's died so far. Back down to 2 GB i go... :(

Should get something else. I've had this OCZ stuff in for a long time, its not the fastest but its damn reliable and OC's fairly well when pushed (3-3-3-9 @ 750 or 5-5-5-15 @ 975).

[Jakg]

I'd love to get something else but if Crucial are happy to keep sending me memory I suppose I can't complain.

[need]

If it's the same motherboard the memory keeps dying in, then it might be something to do with the motherboard that's killing them.
Is it the same slot on the board that the memory keeps dying in?

[Jakg]

No, it's not. I actually think it's the PSU that's killing stuff, but I can't narrow it down and so I just keep sending stuff back.

[Shotglass]

I'd love to get something else but if Crucial are happy to keep sending me memory I suppose I can't complain.

you remind me of a friend of mine who killed 15 ibm dtlas before he finally got tired of sending them back every few months

[Jakg]

Another Question - SoftTH has a "Multihead" option.

The site says this...

"For Direct3D 9 games, set useMultihead to 1. This can take advantage of multihead cards to copy frames faster if one of the seconday monitors is located on the same card as the primary one."

Which sounds great.

But is LFS a Direct3D 9 Game? I know it's DX8...

[wtf im nameless]

Another Question - SoftTH has a "Multihead" option.

The site says this...

"For Direct3D 9 games, set useMultihead to 1. This can take advantage of multihead cards to copy frames faster if one of the seconday monitors is located on the same card as the primary one."

Which sounds great.

But is LFS a Direct3D 9 Game? I know it's DX8...

I saw that option my thoughts were that I wanted both side monitors in sync.. I dunno, when I load up SoftTH it says DX8 in the corners anyways so I don't think that option does anything. You can see lag on the side monitors if you really look for it, but i've never noticed it in a race yet and its very minimal anyways.

I dunno, not a lot of info on SoftTH, small community but its such a great program.

[jibber]

Even did it in safe mode - I added sticks of RAM as I went and geuss what? ANOTHER stick of Ballistix has died. This is the 5th stick of RAM that's died so far. Back down to 2 GB i go... :(

I dunno if it would help in your case... i never use it, but you might want to try an anti-static wristband the next time you "touch" your hardware. :shrug:

[Jakg]

If that was the issue, then surely they would have died when I installed them?

Currently waiting for my GFX card to turn up - the monitor still has 5 days left on auction on eBay :(

[Crashgate3]

Is the 9800GX2 likely to work properly with SoftTH? I know SoftTH can't use both cards in an SLI setup, but what about a single GX2 card?

[Bob Smith]

Another Question - SoftTH has a "Multihead" option.
I'm pretty sure that I've got Multihead set to 1 with LFS. I've not tried any benchmarking to see what performance difference there might have been.

[jibber]

If that was the issue, then surely they would have died when I installed them?


Not necessarily.

[Jakg]

Wahey, 6600GT here!

Going to install it a bit later.

[pb32000]

A passivley cooled GT eh? Interesting, nice not to have another fan spinning, especially as their stock fans were incredibly loud.

[Jakg]

My old 6600GT's were quiet, but frankly I don't need much power - Seeing as I now sleep in the same room as my uber-1337 PC I am now going for quietness, and so have also ripped several fans, too.

[pb32000]

Mmm quieter is definately nicer. Can't leave mine on overnight though, electricity bill would go through the roof :(

[Jakg]

I don't pay the electricty bill :P

I only leave it on overnight when i'm torrenting for my sanity anyway.

[Jakg]

Well, after staying up 'till 3 AM the other day doing wire management for good airflow my RAID array died - after totally ruining my wiring I found out that a SATA Power lead had come a little bit loose at a molex connector. Now I have to go out in an hour and don't have time to fix my cables. GRRRRRRR.

[Ricou]

Triple monitors is definitly worth the money and the effort.

Welcome aboard !

[Jakg]

I gave in and bought a silver monitor (rather than a black one) of my current monitor. Won't look that pretty, but these things are so rare.

So from one monitor to three for the total cost of £114. Not bad!

[Jakg]

Wahey - It's here! Time to set it up and go and re-arrange / tidy up my desk and then you'll see loads of pictures. Not sure what i'm more excited about playing, LFS or BF2!

[Tisza]

Yeah!! post much pictures, so we can see what you've been up to! :)

[Jakg]

It's all setup - games to come!

[Tisza]

really nice:D
Post some pics whit lfs on screen:)

[Bob Smith]

You know having a pint of beer there doesn't make you more manlier. We can still see the pop by the PC. ;)

[Jakg]

It's Lager, and I really can't afford to drink Carlsberg every time I'm thirsty!

[Jakg]

....

(The images line up fine in-game)

[mcintyrej]

Maybe its the Monitor Bezel compensation? Shifts the images slightly to make it look like the image flows and a bit is hidden by the bezel?

Also, that FPS isn't nice! Are you overclocked at all?

[Jakg]

Yeah it's the bezel compensation that i'm using but i doesn't bother me.

That screenshot was taken at stock with 8xAA, 16xAF with 19 Ai's in front of me. That is the "FPS Killer" test I run, and even at the back of a full grid of "normal" Ai's I get around 30 FPS. I've now mildly overclocked (2.13 -> 2.4 GHz, more RAM bandwidth and boosted up my Core/Memory/Shaders on the GFX card) and will try to have a little play (and make a quick video) later on.

[Scrabby]

just buy 3 Eizo 24" monitors lol

[evilgenius]

Pretty cool... Bit offtopic... What speakers are those ? x-540 ? If yes, rate them.. I want a ~50pounds 5.1 speaker set.

[Jakg]

They are X540's, and while they are ok they aren't exceptional. They sound about as good as my old cheap Creative P380's with more Bass and 2 extra speakers.

[evilgenius]

How is the 5.1 anyway ? Ive got 2.1 chepass speakers.. And wanted to upgrade... The logitech x-540 seemed ok, until i saw those small plastic things in a store, i lost all belief, that they sound good :D
http://www.eacan.com.cn/e1100_introduction.htm These are the same price... E-1100A 5.1 but i couldnt find a SINGLE review on the i-net xD

[Jakg]

5.1 is great in games that support it (ie BF2 - to FEEL a grenade behind you, to hear the bullets from your team mates behind you is immersive as hell) it's great, but LFS, for example, doesn't :(

I don't know enough about speakers to recommend you any different ones, but I was told these are great for the price.

I'd say try to listen to them first.

[Stang70Fastback]

I'd just stick with a Logitech sound system. They sound fantastic, and are well built... AND they are designed to be used with computer sound cards - so you don't end up with RCA connections that need converters or something. Either what Jakg has, or if you want a 5.1 system, any of those too. I can guarantee though that if you want to rock the house, a z5300 or z5500 setup with blow your mind.

[Jakg]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gcw7jhbhrY#GU5U2spHI_4

I gave in and linked to this video - it's very VERY big and so very VERY slow on YouTube, but it shows 3 monitors in action.

[mcintyrej]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gcw7jhbhrY#GU5U2spHI_4

I gave in and linked to this video - it's very VERY big and so very VERY slow on YouTube, but it shows 3 monitors in action.

Looks brilliant! Can't wait until I get my dual monitors, now.

[Dru]

nice setup Jak - the AI can be quite hard to beat foer the novice :schwitz:

[wtf im nameless]

I'd just stick with a Logitech sound system. They sound fantastic, and are well built... AND they are designed to be used with computer sound cards - so you don't end up with RCA connections that need converters or something. Either what Jakg has, or if you want a 5.1 system, any of those too. I can guarantee though that if you want to rock the house, a z5300 or z5500 setup with blow your mind.

z5500's are good for the price... but the down side is 10% THD. I'm running them in my cockpit with the sub firing into the back of the seat... i'm quite pleased but am installing a seperate car audio deck for music.

[Riders Motion]

Jack looks... cute. :D

[Jakg]

go away.

EDIT - This post is endorsed by Lidl - bringing you cheap Vodka & Ouzo since 2007 when they opened in my area.

[Riders Motion]

That face seems a bit young to be legal for an alchool trip Jackie! :razz:

[The General Lee]

Look at your little arms! Awwwww :D

[P5YcHoM4N]

Jack is 16, so his mummy and daddy only let him have one pint a month. XD

[spacedskunk]

How is the 5.1 anyway ? Ive got 2.1 chepass speakers.. And wanted to upgrade... The logitech x-540 seemed ok, until i saw those small plastic things in a store, i lost all belief, that they sound good :D
http://www.eacan.com.cn/e1100_introduction.htm These are the same price... E-1100A 5.1 but i couldnt find a SINGLE review on the i-net xD

Quite good, but tbh 2.1, a decent set is just as good and not to say 'decent' means expensive. Even better is some very good headphones I guess, like Sennheisers.

I have a Logitech 2.1 X-230 system running through an X-Fi Fatality Pro card, they sound f**king amazing tbh, I've had them for a few years now and the ONLY upgrade I have been thinking about is these speakers but from 2.1 to 5.1 setup.

The X-fi card too, as I am sure with some slightly older soundblasters have CMSS-3D, which ups 2.1 games to 5.1 with good results, and even ups sound quality through the Crystalizer option...which actually works :thumb:

Basically though my point is, the sound from these speakers is only as good as what your computer outputs. You'd be surprised just how much difference there is from onboard sound (even high def) to a decent sound card such as x-fi. I was amazed :)

[pb32000]

Quite good, but tbh 2.1, a decent set is just as good and not to say 'decent' means expensive. Even better is some very good headphones I guess, like Sennheisers.

I have a Logitech 2.1 X-230 system running through an X-Fi Fatality Pro card, they sound f**king amazing tbh, I've had them for a few years now and the ONLY upgrade I have been thinking about is these speakers but from 2.1 to 5.1 setup.

The X-fi card too, as I am sure with some slightly older soundblasters have CMSS-3D, which ups 2.1 games to 5.1 with good results, and even ups sound quality through the Crystalizer option...which actually works :thumb:

Basically though my point is, the sound from these speakers is only as good as what your computer outputs. You'd be surprised just how much difference there is from onboard sound (even high def) to a decent sound card such as x-fi. I was amazed :)

Placebo effect FTW.

[Jakg]

Actually I could hear a genuine difference between my X-Fi and the onboard sound - I wasn't expecting to hear one, but I could.

Crystaliser etc sound crap though.

[pb32000]

Don't get me wrong, I have non-onboard sound too but making such claims as those, with those speakers is a bit much.

[P5YcHoM4N]

The best way to notice is to get decent headphones, with speakers (Creative Megaworks) I don't really notice the difference between my onboard and the X-Fi.

[ATHome]

Placebo effect FTW.

Regarding the X-Fi ?

Definately no. The difference really is there.

[Jakg]

Don't get me wrong, I have non-onboard sound too but making such claims as those, with those speakers is a bit much.
Meh - Using my P380's, which cost £30, I could tell the difference. Not necessarily a £50 difference (the cost of the car), but I was suprised by the difference it made.

Bad points are that it makes everything else (like my phone or sometimes my MP3 player) sound crap even through the same headphones.

I have no idea what your setup is, but I could tell the difference between onboard and an SB Live! (barely - possibly placebo), and from the SB Live! to the X-Fi (i've got an un-modded XtremeMusic) was a much much bigger jump.

[gp4racer]

NICE RIG, BEER AND MONITORS!

Congrats

[Bob Smith]

When I upgraded from onboard to my M-Audio card, I think there was a small improvement to sound quality, mostly seemed smoother on the highs. I should emphasise this was small though (although I haven't bothered ABX testing seeing as it would take 5 mins to change between the two), and I mostly attribute this to being able to use a high quality audio interconnect rather than cable with a 3.5mm jack at one end.

The largest difference I've recently had to my sound quality was in fact not buying a ludicrously expensive amplifier, but moving house. The room I'm in now is very echoey and it made my hifi sound very different, and sadly for the worse. I'm moving out in a few months so hopefully the new room will be more sonically dead. TBH I attribute the room as to why when I did ABX test between my old amp and my new one, they sounded surprisingly close.

[spacedskunk]

Don't get me wrong, I have non-onboard sound too but making such claims as those, with those speakers is a bit much.

Nope :) trust me, difference is there and its clear.

Its a mixture of all the settings put together that you dont normally get; crystizer/svm/EAX/CMSS, also X-230 speakers sound amazing, forget the price these are some of the best speakers I have ever had and thats including hi-fi systems, I am just hoping someone can hold me to that statement :scratchch

Also regarding the crystalizer, there is a difference but its not really that big and you cant really tell in games. Listen to some more instrumental pieces of music on entertainment mode with crystalizer on and there is a difference, it just depends if your listening to the bits it generally enhances, mainly the drums, you wont really tell the difference with electronic music.

And when you say, I have non-onboard sound....is your soundcard an X-fi?

[pb32000]

It's an Audigy 2 ZS, with rather better speakers than those (but still piss poor on the whole as they are PC speakers). I didn't buy it to get an increase in sound 'quality', I bought it for its ASIO capabilities back in the day when real time input processing was more difficult on standard home PCs.

I don't know what those effects do, they sound a lot like marketing terms to me, and I'm pretty sure card will do them. I expect a lot of them could be acheived with some careful equaliser setup (and can be having just quickly read about this Crystalizer).

I'm sorry but I'm not going to take the claims of someone who says the X-230s are amazing speakers very seriously.

[Jakg]

X-Fi crystalliser makes the sound a bit better to start off with but any higher than 65% and things start to sound all shiny and horrible.

[spacedskunk]

It's an Audigy 2 ZS, with rather better speakers than those (but still piss poor on the whole as they are PC speakers). I didn't buy it to get an increase in sound 'quality', I bought it for its ASIO capabilities back in the day when real time input processing was more difficult on standard home PCs.

I don't know what those effects do, they sound a lot like marketing terms to me, and I'm pretty sure card will do them. I expect a lot of them could be acheived with some careful equaliser setup (and can be having just quickly read about this Crystalizer).

I'm sorry but I'm not going to take the claims of someone who says the X-230s are amazing speakers very seriously.

EAX = Environmental audio extensions - Simulates real world environments, such as underwater etc.

SVM - Smart Volume Management - Dynamtically changes the volumes of certain objects/entities to emphasize some. I have tried these settings on a few previous soundblasters but they arent as good. To give you an example of how it works, I turned it on when playing COD4, I actually looked through the settings after my original post on this thread and realised it wasnt on. In contrast to it on and off, when on it was easier to tell if there was a grenade landing close to me, easier to tell if there was someone running up to me etc, simply because it increased the volume of these. This obviously only applies to games.

Crystalizer - http://www.behardware.com/articles/586-6/creative-labs-x-fi.html
Like the review says though, it doesnt really effect much, but it doesnt degrade sound at all unless like Jakg said...you have the setting too high where it then creates distortion of high frequency sounds.

CMSS - Tries to simulate either surround sound on stereo speakers (this is though, I admit, trickery of the mind; sometimes works, sometimes doesnt work, but it IS better when its on).

The better feature of CMSS is that it will upscale stereo games to 5.1 or 7.1. It only takes the faint/quiet/far back sounds on the left and right speakers and then sends them to the back, simulating this. Using this on 2/2.1 speakers and the SVM setting together on games that dont support surround does work very very well.

They arent marketing gimmicks, they work even if they do need improving.

On the X-230 note, the subwoofer is overpowering, but simply change the mixer on whatever soundcard to compensate, although I like my bass loud for music but luckily the soundcard comes with entertainment and game modes :). The 2 med/high speakers produce very good, clear mid and high tones and dont break up on high volume. I guess some speakers that cost a mere £20-30, you wont be impressed till you hear them, all I can say is they are very gooood :thumb:

Back onto topic though, thats a nice setup, looks too expensive for me but would love to have a triple screen load out. Just out of curiousity, do you think the extra money and effort was worth it?

[Jakg]

For immersion, yes, but atm i'm considering selling it as i dont have time for gaming and I want a car.

I only paid ~£60 for monitor 3 and the 6600GT, the second monitor costed around £100 new but was a gift, you can pick 'em up for £50 used, and I really can't cope that well with a single screen and multi-tasking now anyway.

[Stang70Fastback]

Well, let me just say that a few months ago I splurged and bought a $200 Asus Xonar Sound card for my computer. Previously I was using the small PCI 1x 7.1 sound card that came with my Crosshair Mobo.

I have never, EVER been happier with a single upgrade in my life. I was skeptical that I would hear a difference, but the sound difference was absolutely incredible. I really can't even begin to describe it. Maybe I noticed it more with my z5300e setup, but it was absolutely amazing. I had just watched Transformers (we use this computer as a media center) and I watched the battle scenes again and it was completely different. Even regular music sounds much better. What this card did was help me discover the new higher-frequency sounds in movies and music. But everything else ALSO sounds a lot... crisper? I absolutely recommend a good sound card to anyone who wants good sound. These speakers are "THX certified..." and I was never that impressed (I've had them for two years.) I finally understand what this sound system is capable of with this card now.

Also, I used to not be able to go above 75% on the speaker controls without hissing (as with any computer speakers usually.) I assumed that was just normal. Not anymore! 100% and absolutely no hissing or background noise at all.

All in all, I have to say, I would never have expected it, but these things make a phenomenal difference.

[spacedskunk]

Well, let me just say that a few months ago I splurged and bought a $200 Asus Xonar Sound card for my computer. Previously I was using the small PCI 1x 7.1 sound card that came with my Crosshair Mobo.

I have never, EVER been happier with a single upgrade in my life. I was skeptical that I would hear a difference, but the sound difference was absolutely incredible. I really can't even begin to describe it. Maybe I noticed it more with my z5300e setup, but it was absolutely amazing. I had just watched Transformers (we use this computer as a media center) and I watched the battle scenes again and it was completely different. Even regular music sounds much better. What this card did was help me discover the new higher-frequency sounds in movies and music. But everything else ALSO sounds a lot... crisper? I absolutely recommend a good sound card to anyone who wants good sound. These speakers are "THX certified..." and I was never that impressed (I've had them for two years.) I finally understand what this sound system is capable of with this card now.

Also, I used to not be able to go above 75% on the speaker controls without hissing (as with any computer speakers usually.) I assumed that was just normal. Not anymore! 100% and absolutely no hissing or background noise at all.

All in all, I have to say, I would never have expected it, but these things make a phenomenal difference.

Yea, see I thought it was my speakers that were crap until I got the x-fi, in your case the asus one.

I am currently looking into getting 5.1 or 7.1 system now, as I am turning my computer into a media centre too. Buying a nice new larger monitor, a blue-ray player for the machine, and some comfort items for the room. Got the TV card/remote all sorted out etc

Cant wait till its done :D