1 Computer and 3 Screens

Hi All,

I just wondered if anyone else does this and if they do could you please point me in the right direction please?

I have three vga display screens and three laptops at present displaying bits and bobs. What I would like to do is combine these into 1 computer and output three different displays. The laptops are old enough to remember how Noah indexed the Animals into the Ark so I really want to ditch them as they are unreliable.

I thought about setting up remote sessions to each laptop from a VM on my pc so I had quick access to them when they inevtiably fall over but that doesnt get rid of them.. I think the major hiccup is the screens are VGA connected so I would need three graphics cards and then the need for three seperate terminals....

Thanks in advance for any help, advice

Multi Monitor - Dual Monitor - KVM switch

Never tried it myself (kept meaning to but never got round to it) but it's got some good review and looks really cool!

So you want to replace 3 laptops with 1 new computer?

Matrox Triplehead 2 Go or ATi Eyefinity? Then just run it all on one PC. You'll need dongles to adapt them to VGA.

Attaching the monitors is easy... just use some old PCI graphics cards in an old PC. It then depends on what info you are displaying... web browsers, shells, apps, etc.

my standard ati card will do it but outputs are 1 vga 1 hdmi and 1 dvi 2 is wasy dvi to vga adapter 3rd can you get hdmi-vga?

1 PC 3 monitors? Easy, 1 onboard gfx, 1 dual head gfx card. (Assuming your mobo allows this, otherwise 1 dualhead pcie 1 old PCI)

3 PCs 3 monitors? Synergy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SPC

What I would like to do is combine these into 1 computer and output three different displays.

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Do you want the same thing or different things displayed on each screen? If the same, then you need a VGA splitter of some sort. If different, then multiple VGA ports in a computer aren't actually complicated or expensive these days - just get a couple of dual-output graphics cards, around £30 each, and plug them in to a computer. You could look at a multi-seat solution like Windows MultiPoint Server if you want each screen to act more like a separate workstation.

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David Hicks

You can't do HDMI to VGA, as HDMI doesn't carry an analogue portion of the signal, unlike DVI. You'd have to get a converter, rather than an adapter. Probably cheaper and easier to go for a second graphics card of some sort, or if you're sure your card supports 3 outputs, get a monitor with DVI - anything better than bargain basement comes with DVI these days - and an HDMI to DVI adapter.

Hey SPC, are you looking to create 3 independent O/S sessions from 1 PC, or just to have 1 PC with 1 O/S and 3 monitors? The answer to this opens up a world of cool solutions.

Dual heads and Multi Function adapters are certainly the way to go but if you can't or dont want the hassle, I simply use USB to VGA adapters like these Startec to add second & 3rd monitors to those users that need them.
Easily transferred from system to system and not dependent on available Mobo Slots!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m25man

I simply use USB to VGA adapters like these Startec to add second & 3rd monitors to those users that need them.

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How do they perform if you want to playback quick updading content like animations/videos/movies/etc on the screen connectecd to the adapter? Are there any other 'gotchas' when using USB>VGA adapters like the one above?

I've recently just purchased a new video card so I'm hoping, given I have 2 pcie graphics slots on my mobo, I should be able to plug my old one into the secondary slot and run 3 monitors off 2 cards (given they both had dual DVI outputs on them). Will let you know how it goes once I've had a chance to try it!

Edit: Just tried it and it's working fine extending the desktop across 3 displays.