Dual Monitor setup- wattage needed

[donky]

I have 2 ViewSonic 20 inch lcds.......whats the minimum wattage I need for this dual monitor setup?

Also not sure if this helps but I will be using this computer to play poker ..and I play about 20 tables at once....not sure if this will cause a big difference in me needing more wattage or not...

Help me out !

 

[donky]

I will either buy this cpu which has 420 watts
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11162052&whse=BC&Ne=5000000%204000000&N=4018477&Mo=50&No=5&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=59229&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&Sp=C&topnav=national

Or i am going to buy this one that has only 305 watts
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11122989&whse=BC&Ne=5000000%204000000&N=4018477&Mo=50&No=12&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=59229&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&Sp=C&topnav=national

 

[Ford_Prefect]

It makes no difference at all - the PSU only supplies power to the PC, not the monitors.

 

[donky]

so this means i could hook up 4 monitors to the cpu and it would not need more wattage?

 

[djgandy]

Monitors have their own power supplies.
The signal down the cable requires very little power.

 

[zjohnr]

so this means i could hook up 4 monitors to the cpu and it would not need more wattage?

Well, yes and no. The previous poster is completely correct. The LCD monitors have their own power supply and will not draw any extra power (essentially) from the PC. But that's not the only concern you have if you want to use more than one display with your system.

I'm not clear on how you would connect your four monitors to the PCs you posted links to. I only scanned the product descriptions so perhaps I missed it, but I did not see anything about them supporting up to four LCDs. Here's the specs for the two systems as I read them:

Dell SC430 $1,549.99
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, Standard Edition
Pentium D 930, 800MHz Front Side Bus
?? some flavor of integrated video ?? (couldn't tell)
one x8, one x4, and one x1 PCI Express slots
Single Power Supply (305W)
1GB ECC 533MHz DDR2
2x 80GB SATA
1x CDRW/DVD-ROM

Dell 840 Server $1,999.99
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2, Standard Edition
Xeon 3050, 1066MHz Front Side Bus
Integrated ATI RN50 VGA Controller
one x8 and one x1 PCI Express slot, one PCI and two PCI-X slots,
Single Power Supply (420W)
2GB 533MHz DDR2
2x 160GB SATA
1x DVD-ROM

Here are my concerns based on what you've posted so far. First, you only said you want to use the PC to play (on-line?) poker. For that I'd assume you'd want a basic to good desktop system, but the systems you've listed are both servers that come with a Microsoft server operating system. This doesn't sound like a good match at all.

I don't believe either system as shipped will support more than one display/monitor. In order to use more than one monitor you would need to add at least one and possibly two video cards. Again, I'm not sure how well these systems would work for that. It looks like there is only room for one additional PCI Express video card. You could support an additional two monitors if you added a PCIe video card for a total of 3 monitors. (You might also be able to add a PCI bus video card to support a fourth monitor, but it seems like more of a reach).

My final concern is that when you add video cards to support more than one monitor, you will need a power supply with enough juice to support the power required by the additional card(s). Frankly, I don't trust power supplies that come with Dell systems so I'd have concerns that they would be up to the task.

Of the two, the more expensive system has the bigger PSU and also uses a Xeon 3050 processor which uses (a lot) less power than the Pentium D 930. So it would be the better bet. But I honestly don't think you want to buy either of these systems. It sounds like you'd get a much better match for less money if you went with some other desktop system instead of these Dell server systems.

Just my two cents worth. Is there any reason you didn't mention in your original post why you decided to go with one of these server systems?

-john, the redundant legacy dinosaur

 

[Heyyou27]

Oops; for some reason I thought you said four monitors. For two all you need is any videocard with dual outputs.

 

[djgandy]

You will need either two videocards or an Nvidia Quadro NVS card of some sort to hook up four displays.

yep,

2 of the cheapest will do the trick fine.

 

[donky]

I am a noob to buying a good comp I only look for basic things like processor speed,ram, etc.......I am not sure what the difference is in buying a server like these 2 or a regular cpu.

I will be playing 20+ tables at one time online...I just want a reliable cpu that wont lag out on me while doing this for it will cost me alot of money ....I want to spend anywhere from $1,500 - $2,500 tops....The reason I am buying from costco is because you can return it no questions asked and trade it in for another one.....so I thought that as a big PLUS

Also it seems all they have here is a Dell....and they have a customizable HP desktop

I gtg, will be back in about 5 hours to check this thread
thanks

 

[zjohnr]

I am not sure what the difference is in buying a server like these 2 or a regular cpu.

The difference in this case is not so much the CPU as the motherboard and other components. A server computer is put together with the expectation that a person will seldom actually sit in front of it and use it directly. Instead server computers provide access to files and programs via a network. When you play online the computer your computer is talking to is a server. A server is expected to give adequate service to many nearly simultaneous network requests sent from other computers, not to give dedicated keyboard/monitor service to one person. I think you'd be happier in the long run with a desktop computer and operating system.

I just want a reliable cpu that wont lag out on me while doing this for it will cost me alot of money

A lot of factors mix together to determine what the final performance of your computer will be like. Unfortunately, when you're playing online the two biggest factors are things you usually have no control over. One is the speed of the Internet in general and of your ISP connection in particular. The other is the speed of and the load on the server computers which your computer is interacting with at the game site.

Having said that, if you can afford it having a dual core CPU and a lot of memory (at least 1GB but up to 2GB if you can) will go a long way to ensure that there is no performance lag on your end.

The reason I am buying from costco is because you can return it no questions asked and trade it in for another one.....so I thought that as a big PLUS

I've never looked at the site. I'll try to browse it later to see what they offer. Hopefully some other folks will also pitch in with helpful suggestions.

-john

 

[donky]

thanks man , hope to get a little more replys as I want to get this by tomorrow ...

 

[zjohnr]

I tried to find something more suitable on the http://www.costco.com site. I'll say this about that -- they sure as all Donny Rumbucks heck don't make it easy to find what you want! The only systems that allowed customization were the HP/Compaq ones (right?) and common to both the Dell and the HP/Compaq systems was a frustrating lack of details about just what it is you were buying.

The really irritating thing about this is I have a pretty good idea just which way I'd suggest going if it were possible to pick components for your system. That would be a reliable Intel G965 chipset motherboard with at least 1 free PCI Express x16 video card slot, probably an Intel E6300 CPU, and 2GB of suitable memory. (2GB is definitely overkill for the use you are thinking of putting this computer to. But if you spend the extra $100 to go with 2GB rather than 1GB you can be 99.999% sure that any response lag your may see on the computer would not be due to the computer hardware).

With a setup like that you should then be able to buy/add a competent PCIe video card for around $30 and be able to connect up to three monitors -- connect one via the integrated video and the other two using the video card. I tried to find something like that on the costco.com site, but couldn't. (Not surprisely).

FWIW, I'll look again and post some suggestions of questionable worth. But maybe you really want to go with mpilchfamily's suggestion and order direct from HP or Dell. Whichever way you go, you really want to get someone to assure you that you will be getting what you need/demand in terms of video capability. (Not that I have a lot of faith in the poor souls taking the phone orders to actually deliver on what they may promise you. But given your situation I don't know what more you can do).

-john

 

[zjohnr]

As per my previous post, some suggestions of questionable worth from the www.costco.com site. I think these would work for you, but they are just suggestions. Also, as I said previously, it's hard to know just what capabilities you are buying based on the descriptions on the costco website. Verify that you are getting what you need before you buy!

The Dell systems looked like they were all pre-configured. More disturbing was the fact they all came with monitors. The one that seemed somewhat appropriate to what you may be looking for is Item # 137555, Dell E520 $1,399.99 On the pro side, it comes with Core2Duo E6300 and 2GB RAM. This system may also support up to 3 monitors out of the box. It appears to come with both integrated video and a nVidia GeForce 7300LE video card.

On the con side, this dell comes with a 20.1" W widescreen LCD which you may not want. It's also possible that this system does not support 3 monitors. I can't tell for sure one way or the other from the info on the website. Possible gotcha's are (1) you may not be able to use both the integrated video and the graphics card at the same time (it happens). And (2) the graphics card may not support two monitors at the same time.

On the HP side I came up with
HP Pavilion d4650y $1,021.99

The "shipping & handling" is $20.00 and I don't think it's included in the price. The system does not include a monitor. I threw an optical mouse into the config for an extra $9. (If you don't already have an optical mouse, this is the way you'd want to go).

The system apparently comes with an NVIDIA GeForce 7300LE video card. This card should support up to two monitors, but I can't tell for sure that it will from the info on the website. You should ask to make sure it will do what you need.

If you want to use more than two monitors, you may need to buy a PCI bus video card. I've never tried this so I can't say how well this will work. I think I've seen posts from other people on this board who use this scheme. You might want to search for previous posts about this.

Also, as mpilchfamily mentioned in his post, opening up the PC to install another video card may void your warranty. Yet another thing to try to find out about before you purchase the system.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you in both your purchase and your use of it after you buy it. If you have time, please update this post later with what system you actually got and how it worked out for you? I'd be interested in seeing how this story ends for you.

-john

 

[zjohnr]

FWIW, I took a quick glance at the Dell site (as much as that's possible given their pain in the butt navigation) and noticed you could get essentially the same Dimension E520 that Costco is selling for $1400 only without the LCD monitor for ~$900-$1,000 direct from Dell. (Assuming I checked the right boxes and didn't miss some hidden charges someplace).

-john