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3 monitor's on a music studio. Best cheap configeration?

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  • 3 monitor's on a music studio. Best cheap configeration?

    Hi,

    I am running a recording studio and am upgrading to 3 x analog TFT monitors. Will I encounter problems if I use the G550 with a cheaper PCI matrox card? Since my sound card is PCI based, will I get problems with the bandwidth??

    many thanks,
    Steve

  • #2
    Unless you have a VIA chipset, which is notorious for PCI latency and conflicts, no.

    I was running G400 SH and Millennium PCI with soundcard and NIC on PII 350@467 and didn't have any problems.

    Consider that PCI card needs at least 8MB of RAM in order to power 1600x1200@32bit, so old Millennium, Mistique or Millennium II should do it, provided it has enough RAM.

    If you don't need colour depth (do mostly text work, such as e-mail on 3d monitor), 2 or 4MB card should do it.

    If you want hardware overlay, you'll need G200 PCI or G450 PCI.

    The latter will also give you DVI and you'll be able to run 4-head.

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    • #3
      first off what kind of HW do you have... especialy for the sound parts....

      filling up your PCI with a VGA card may cause u some problems with the sound HW on the PCIs... OTH you could always get a P650 with the upgrade for 3 monitors (if you want to keep your rig silent) or you could go with a p750 if you are not so woried about the onboard fan.... with a good case and some sound supressors you could also reduce the sound from the box... but IMHO i would not go with the aproch of using an AGP card and a PCI card especialy if you have one of the better HiQuality sound cards with Multi I/O it could cause some latency problems when using it with profetional progarms from cubase and others....

      /speculation mode on
      if you are in no hury i would sugest you wait for the new mbds with PCI-Ex ... get an M card 16x (when and if they come out) or use the onboard VGA (which IIRC will suport dual out on the grantsdale chipset) and then you can add PCI M card and have all the extra oupts with no wories and i am sure by then we will be seeing the pro sound cards migrating to the PCI-Ex standard....
      /speculation mode off
      "They say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

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      • #4
        Or you could get an ATI IGP motherboard coupled with ATI 9600 and use their "magical" SURROUNDVIEW" technology...
        _____________________________
        BOINC stats

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        • #5
          Thanks,

          I have a pro sound card running lots of audio ins/outs so I want to keep the PCI bus free as poss.

          Does the Matrox P650 run 3 x monitors? I was under the impression it was only capable of dual head operation.

          Thanks,
          Steve

          Comment


          • #6
            There is an upgrade kit for P650 to allow it to run triple displays:
            Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

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            • #7
              Originally posted by electrodaddy
              Thanks,

              I have a pro sound card running lots of audio ins/outs so I want to keep the PCI bus free as poss
              let me guse.. RME?
              "They say that dreams are real only as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

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