I need to get a new computer and an thinking of buying Dell 8400. Chartman advised three 17” LCDs
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?p=45012#post45012
and I hoped to buy two with the option of adding a third.
The Dell people here (Ireland) initially told me “ The computer will support 2 monitors, however it will not support two analogue monitors automatically unless you buy a VGA connector and DVI-I to VGA dongle (which unfortunately we do not supply).
The best option is to get one digital and one analogue monitor as this will require no adapter.”
Unenthusiastic about paying extra for digital “DVI is not needed” – Chartman, I pointed out that Dell USA do provide connectors which they now acknowledge “However I have contacted my presales department and you are correct I can supply the adapter - the gforce 4 DVI to VGA adapter cable kit which will cost €12.”
They are still unhelpful about a third monitor “The addition for a third monitor would require you to get a second video card which can be very messy to set up. The only system we make that would be capable of connecting three monitors would be Precision 470 or Precision 670 with the matrix quad graphics card”
A recent post on elitetrader refers to difficulties as a result of the replacement of AGP by PCIe slots.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36008&highlight=dell+8400
"07-28-04 12:10 AM
New PCIe video card connection CAUTION
I was just about to buy a new Dell 8400 computer, and was planning to move my Matrox quad PCI card and dual AGP card into it. But I realized it has a new type of video card connection, a PCIe (PCI express) It has 5 slots: three PCI, one PCIe, and one PCIe x 16 (graphics).
There are no AGP slots. So my dual head card can't be used in it.
I'm told a PCI card will not work in a PCIe slot. I could put my quad card in a PCI slot, but that would use up a valuable accessory slot, with the PCIe slots potentially empty.
I almost didn't catch this, so anyone planning to buy a new computer and move existing video cards into it, may want to double check what connections it has.
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The Dell 8400 comes with an ATI Radeon X300SE card (the only choice) which apparently is dual display capable. One website called this a low end card?
I've read here about potential problems mixing video card manufacturers. Matrox says they won't have a PCIe multi monitor card for many months.
I'm thinking that trying to use my Matrox quad card with this ATI PCIe card to run six monitors might be asking for trouble, maybe even more so with the new PCIe connection. But the higher end, faster Dell's all come with PCIe connections. so I'm thinking maybe I should buy a slightly slower computer (without PCIe slots), to ensure stability and compatability."
The above, including references to Matrox card, are from the elitrtrader post. I’m now well and truly out of my depth and would greatly appreciate advice from Chartman and others about the specifications
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=4234&page=1&pp=15
and, particularly, the monitor problem
RobQ
