Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm building a new computer from the ground up, pretty much literally. I'll be purchasing the system, the monitors, and the mounts all at around the same time. What I'd like to do is have a 3x1 Eyefinity group on three 22" widescreen monitors in landscape view as my primary displays, above these I'd like to setup 2 additional monitors in either a 2x1 extended configuration if possible, or have these monitors extended above the 2 outside monitors in my 3x1 array. My idea was to be able to play games in the 3x1 array and still have webpages / videos / word processing ect. in the top 2 monitors. I've put several systems together and multi-monitor systems aren't to strange to me, but I've never done somthing on this scale before.

These are my top questions I've come up with while doing my research to build this beast.

1) Is setting up 2 extended desktop monitors above the primary 3x1 array possible / feasible?

2) What would be the best mounting options? This question comes with some qualifiers. Ideally I'd like to use desk mounts with an articulating arm. I've already had some experience with mounts almost identical to these http://www.vesamount.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=227 and I feel that they meet almost all my needs except that I don't believe their tall enough to clear the 22" monitors. The purpose of this is so that I could pull the top monitors forward and down to be infront of the bottom 3x1 array to make the switch from which monitors I'm primarily working on easier if needed.

3) Will I need 2 video cards in a Crossfire setup to achive 5 monitors? If so, What would be the best suggestions? I do know there is the Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition card, but would it not be better to have a second card run video on the top monitors so all the primary cards resources are dedicated to whatever game is running?

4) What Monitors would be best in the 3x1 array? I've been looking around for any topics about "good monitors for Eyefinity gaming" but haven't found any so far. A list of some sort would be awsome.

4.2) Would it be worth it to buy at least 1 Monitor with a Display Port input to avoid having the buy the (relatively) expensive Active Display Port adaptor?

4.3) If I understand how an Eyefinity configuration is put together, once I have 1 Active Display Port sending to 1 of my monitors, can I then connect the rest of my monitors with DVI or VGA (thus allowing me to buy cheaper monitors).

I'll leave the questions at that for now, but I'm sure I'll have more as this project gets going. I'll also note that while I will be laying out some cash for this system, I don't unfortunately have $10k just lying around to get whatever I want, so i'm doing my best to find ways to cut costs for this Beastly Machine.

As someone who has setup a number of eyefinity and surround systems since eyefinity first came out, i would recommend nvidia surround over ati eyefinity as i have had many issues with ati but none with nvidia. however, the ati issues were nearly all driver related which should hopefully be sorted with time.
But nvidia will only support 3x1 so if you really insist on having 5 monitors then ati is the only option.
I'd recommend eyefinity 6 4gb card as you want to connect 5 monitors and the eyfinity 6 has the 6 ports on a single card. however i believe the eyefinity 6 only has 6 displayports as its the only way to fit enough ports on one card due to size retraints.
Note each card will only support a maximum of 2 non display port monitors, after that you need display port monitors or an display port adapter for each monitor
I'm not sure if you can connect 3 monitors to your primary card and 2 extended desktops to your secondary card on normal eyefinity cards if you crossfired them and still have all monitors active as eyefinity normally insists that all monitors that are in your 3x1 group are connected to your primary card.I think you would lose the 2 extended desktops when you enable eyefinity.
According to ati's site, you can.but i think it was again with the eyefinty 6 series, but i dont know if anyone has actually done so.
But the downside is that the eyefinity 6 cards are very expensive and idealy you would need all monitors to have display ports which again are dearer, but you would save the cost of using 5 display port adapters. and i would hate to think of the problems caused by running 5 display port adapters as people still have issues when using just one.
you may want to wait till the eyefinity 6 5970 4gb are available instead of the eyefinity 6 5870 4gb. but the pricing is likely to be huge and since you are talking about crossfiring them, i think the 5870's would be a better bet.

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intel x79
2 way 780ti's under water
Intel 4760 extreme @ 4GHz
3 x 42 inch screens @5860x1080
16 gigs xmp ram @2200

I really would rather stick with Eyefinity so that I can do more than 3 monitors. Multiple monitors was always about the multi-talking capability, and gaming across 3 is awesome, but that kinda defeats the purpose of doing more than just one thing at a time with multiple monitors.

After looking around and reading alot I do think I'm going to go with the Eyefinity 6 edition, and will buy Monitors with DisplayPorts for my bottom 3 display group, so NO messing with Active Display Adapters. I'll use the 2 "Legacy" outputs that the Eyefinity 6 edition has for my 2 monitors mounted above.

I would love more suggestions or insights though. I don't want to invest this kind of money without being THOUROULY informed.

An announcement was just recently made over at Rage3D about some newly tested active adapters that are "guaranteed" to work. You may want to check out the post there....

http://www.rage3d.com/reviews/video/ati_eyefinity_ecosystem_update/

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~Windows 7 x64 Professional~MSI X58A-GD45~Intel I7-950~6x2 GB DDR3 1600 RAM (Triple Channel)~RealTek Onboard~XFX HD 6950 2 GB GDDR5~3 ViewSonic 24 inch LCDs in Eyefinity~SATA Dual Layer DVD RW~1000 W PSU~And a Whole Lot More!~Done with Vista~XP Pro on the way out, too!~AND....250 GB XBOX 360~

+ further info here. http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Eyefinity_-_Ecosystem_September_2010

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