Need Advice on 4 display PC

[Stillwater]

I am putting together a presentation system (ie high end PC, Twin LCDs and two independant projectors) for our new church building. :D And was wondering if anybody has experience/recommendations with a four display system.

I was thinking I may have to use two pci-express dual output graphics card. However I would like to wait until pci-express is a little more established, and reasonable in price.

Is there a viable AGP/PCI solution? I have had mixed results with my 3 Display System. When I add the PCI(TNT2 16MB) card I lose access to the control panel of the AGP card(Geforce4ti) :x . So I have to set everything before I add the PCI card. I don't want to have this problem on the new machine.

Which cards would you suggest. I like nvidia's method of twin view over ATI's (it seems a little clumbsy to me).

Thanks in advance :wink:

[Suhit Gupta]

I would seriously recommend a Matrox Parhelia - http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/parhelia/home.cfm . I have never used one myself but have heard so many good things about them.

They are basically meant for exactly the kind of scenario you are looking for.

Suhit

[Kursplat]

I was just looking at the screenshots for the parhelia and it appears that it presents the 2/3 monitors as one single long desktop (the taskbar stretches across all three monitors). This means if you maximize a window, it will stretch across all 3 monitors. Any dialog box designed to center itself on the screen will appear in the middle monitor on a 3 display system even if the app is in the left or right display or cut in half between both monitors in a 2 display system.

This is why my dual-monitor systems have used 2 graphics cards. When I maximize an app, it maximized into the monitor that contains the majority of the window. When a centered dialog is displayed, it centers itself in the display where the parent window is located. I can also have the different screens running at different resolutions. With web development, it helps to be able to adjust a 2nd monitor's resolution for testing without screwing up the main display with your editor, etc.

Of course, I don't know if these issues apply in this situation.

Don't get me wrong. The card looks awesome and I wish I had the money to set up a triple head system with 20" LCDs (with this card or otherwise).