Trying to make a six monitor setup, any advice?

[hammy]

Hey guys, so I'm looking to help my friend build a PC for his new small business office. He wants a PC that can power six monitors on a wall all displaying a singular image like this: http://i.imgur.com/buo7t5W.jpg

 

I have no idea how this could be done, so I don't want to make something and have it not be possible. So here's some questions:  

 

1. Is such a display like this possible? Displaying one image across multiple monitors?  

 

2. If so, can it display powerpoints/videos in the same format (separating one image across multiple monitors)?  

 

3. How powerful of a PC does this need to be to run these displays (he won't be playing any games, or anything like that, like I said, it just needs to run powerpoint/video at the most)?   

 

4. What monitors would be best for this? Is there a brand with a super thin bezel (refresh-rate, even bezel is not paramount, just the thinnest bezel possible)?   

[iHammmy]

Wow, who needs this many monitors? 

[AlwaysFSX]

1. Of course

2. Yes

3. Not very powerful but you still need a decent card for it

4. Thinnest bezel possible with a VESA mount

[Kobrastachka]

1 yes

2 yes

3 I am running a 1 over 3 on a r7 260 and It runs it fine

4 any monitor with thin bezels

[hammy]

1. Of course

2. Yes

3. Not very powerful but you still need a decent card for it

4. Thinnest bezel possible with a VESA mount

 

 

1 yes

2 yes

3 I am running a 1 over 3 on a r7 260 and It runs it fine

4 any monitor with thin bezels

Awesome. What is the methodology to do this? Displaying one image over multiple units? I have no idea how you separate the image into parts. 

[Aniallation]

Awesome. What is the methodology to do this? Displaying one image over multiple units? I have no idea how you separate the image into parts. 

AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.

[Guest]

1. It certainty is possible.

2. It would be connected so yes. 

3. You will need a fairly decent card, mainly due to the requirement of the ports to connect to.

4. VESA mount

 

I'd recommend using AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.

[AlwaysFSX]

Awesome. What is the methodology to do this? Displaying one image over multiple units? I have no idea how you separate the image into parts. 

For whichever graphics card you go with, AMD or NVidia,  you just enable surround which stitches all the monitors together for you.

[hammy]

AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.

 

 

 

1. It certainty is possible.

2. It would be connected so yes. 

3. You will need a fairly decent card, mainly due to the requirement of the ports to connect to.

4. VESA mount

 

I'd recommend using AMD Eyefinity or Nvidia Surround.

 

You guys are great! Thanks so much for the help.

Do you have a card you'd recommend for this? Can you daisy-chain displays? Sorry for all the questions, don't want to tell him info that isn't correct.

[Aniallation]

Do you have a card you'd recommend for this? Can you daisy-chain displays? Sorry for all the questions, don't want to tell him info that isn't correct.

Few cards actually support 6 displays natively without using a DisplayPort hub.

 

I would suggest AMD over Nvidia for 6 displays since past 4 displays Eyefinity works better then NV Surround. Also they support MST hubs much more widely. Ones such as these ones support connecting 3 DisplayPort panels up to one DP output, so just find an AMD card with 2 DisplayPort outputs.

 

[Jack.EXE]

I'd go with a couple of these bad boys:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131508

[hammy]

Few cards actually support 6 displays natively without using a DisplayPort hub.

 

I would suggest AMD over Nvidia for 6 displays since past 4 displays Eyefinity works better then NV Surround. Also they support MST hubs much more widely. Ones such as these ones support connecting 3 DisplayPort panels up to one DP output, so just find an AMD card with 2 DisplayPort outputs.

 

 

Thanks so much man, I really appreciate all the help. Really means a lot to me. So I just need a card with two display ports, rig up two of these, and I should be able to piece out a single image over six monitors? 

 

I'd go with a couple of these bad boys:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131508

Don't know if I wanna over-power the thing. Seems like this might be overkill. 

[Aniallation]

Thanks so much man, I really appreciate all the help. Really means a lot to me. So I just need a card with two display ports, rig up two of these, and I should be able to piece out a single image over six monitors? 

Well, unless you want to get a dedicated Eyefinity 6 card. That will be your best bet for compatibility.

 

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Eyefinity-Graphic-900548/dp/B0085O90SQ

[hammy]

Well, unless you want to get a dedicated Eyefinity 6 card. That will be your best bet for compatibility.

 

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Eyefinity-Graphic-900548/dp/B0085O90SQ

Hmmm! That's pretty interesting! 

 

What do you think about possibly a matrox card? 

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/display_wall/mura_mpx_series/ 

 

Apparently they make GPUs for wall setups. Although... my guess is considering they don't have any prices listed, they're probably gouging customers who don't know any better.

[Aniallation]

Hmmm! That's pretty interesting! 

 

What do you think about possibly a matrox card? 

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/display_wall/mura_mpx_series/ 

 

Apparently they make GPUs for wall setups. Although... my guess is considering they don't have any prices listed, they're probably gouging customers who don't know any better.

A 6-display Matrox card will cost you a lot more then that 7870 Eyefinity Edition, and Matrox cards are very limited in power. Forget about any 3D hardware GPU acceleration. 

 

If you don't need lots of GPU power and it's mainly just a workstation then this is cheaper.

 

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Express-Graphics-900614/dp/B00C7EPSVS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1422643371&sr=1-1&keywords=eyefinity+6&pebp=1422643375049&peasin=B00C7EPSVS

[hammy]

A 6-display Matrox card will cost you a lot more then that 7870 Eyefinity Edition, and Matrox cards are very limited in power. Forget about any 3D hardware GPU acceleration. 

 

If you don't need lots of GPU power and it's mainly just a workstation then this is cheaper.

 

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Express-Graphics-900614/dp/B00C7EPSVS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1422643371&sr=1-1&keywords=eyefinity+6&pebp=1422643375049&peasin=B00C7EPSVS

Perfect, that's what I thought. You are the man. I wish I could give you best answer twice. Thank you so much.

[hammy]

A 6-display Matrox card will cost you a lot more then that 7870 Eyefinity Edition, and Matrox cards are very limited in power. Forget about any 3D hardware GPU acceleration. 

 

If you don't need lots of GPU power and it's mainly just a workstation then this is cheaper.

 

http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Express-Graphics-900614/dp/B00C7EPSVS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1422643371&sr=1-1&keywords=eyefinity+6&pebp=1422643375049&peasin=B00C7EPSVS

Oh sorry! Last thing, I'm also assuming I don't really need a super powerful CPU to power this?

[Aniallation]

Oh sorry! Last thing, I'm also assuming I don't really need a super powerful CPU to power this?

Nope. How much CPU power you need depends on what you're doing. If it's a workstation that he'll be sitting in front of and actually doing work then get a decent CPU as you would any single-monitor rig just for the sake of things, such as an Intel i5. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($174.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.88 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $219.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-30 13:59 EST-0500

 

If you're going to be using it as sort of a video wall type thing that just displays videos or signage for people to see, and doesn't actually get used all the time as an actual workstation, you don't need that powerful of a CPU at all. Something like this would work perfectly fine.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD A4-6300 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($36.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: Asus A78M-E Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($47.95 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $84.94

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-30 13:58 EST-0500