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!

Quote from 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),
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.

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.

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.

Quote from 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.

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*

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...

Quote from 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...

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).

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

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?

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.

Quote from Jakg :

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

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...

Quote from 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...

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.

Quote from 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...

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.

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

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?

Quote from Jakg :

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.

Quote from Jakg :

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

Not necessarily.

Wahey, 6600GT here!

Going to install it a bit later.

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

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.

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

I don't pay the electricty bill :P

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

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.

Triple monitors is definitly worth the money and the effort.

Welcome aboard !