MiniFrame: SoftXPand 2011 Duo

[Mixzzz]

                                                                                                                                                      

NOTE: I have moved to Aster V7 as its way better with less bugs and more stable. It supports 8/8.1 aswell and win 10 in BETA but Im currently using it and its fine.

SoftXPand 2011 Duo by MiniFrame is a software that splits your PC into 2 workstations. Now you can share your pc with another person while you're using it yourself.

 

How does it work?

 

It uses a windows built-in feature called Remote Desktop. It creates a remote desktop session but the target is your pc and on a different screen with other mouse and keyboard... The best thing is that second workstation is fully functional and you can play games on it also(But you need two copies of the game and installed in different places).

 

How do I link e.g. mouse and keyboard to a workstation?

 

There are 2 options. One is by configuring it in the software or by pressing both CTRL + X + Enter for keyboard(X is the number of the workstation) and both CTRL + X + Left and Right click on mouse (Again X is number of the Workstation).

You even separate front audio out from back audio out so e.g. You can put in back of the motherboard your speakers for you and in front you can connect headphones or other speakers for the other workstation.

 

Performance

 

Hmmm, can't really say anything here since I have an Athlon II X2 and GT 240 but still I can run 2 source games and 2 MC at the same time without problems. Other people report that heavier games are also running fine on their computers

Note: I will update this part once I get a new pc and that should be till end of the summer.

 

My Thoughts

 

Personally I love this software because now I don't need to fight with little sister or my mom because we can use the pc at the same time...

 

Costs

 

You can have a free trial for 30 days I think but the second workstation will log off every hour during the period. But it isnt really expensive - It costs 39$ for Windows XP and 49$ for Windows 7. Windows 8 will be supported soon and Mac or Linux isn't supported at all.

 

Video made by MiniFrame:

My own setup (My PSU died so I needed a replacement but this one had too short cables :D)

[Cheese65]

                                                                                                                                                      

SoftXPand 2011 Duo by MiniFrame is a software that splits your PC into 2 workstations. Now you can share your pc with another person while you're using it yourself.

 

How does it work?

 

It uses a windows built-in feature called Remote Desktop. It creates a remote desktop session but the target is your pc and on a different screen with other mouse and keyboard... The best thing is that second workstation is fully functional and you can play games on it also(But you need two copies of the game and installed in different places).

 

How do I link e.g. mouse and keyboard to a workstation?

 

There are 2 options. One is by configuring it in the software or by pressing both CTRL + X + Enter for keyboard(X is the number of the workstation) and both CTRL + X + Left and Right click on mouse (Again X is number of the Workstation).

You even separate front audio out from back audio out so e.g. You can put in back of the motherboard your speakers for you and in front you can connect headphones or other speakers for the other workstation.

 

Performance

 

Hmmm, can't really say anything here since I have an Athlon II X2 and GT 240 but still I can run 2 source games and 2 MC at the same time without problems. Other people report that heavier games are also running fine on their computers

Note: I will update this part once I get a new pc and that should be till end of the summer.

 

My Thoughts

 

Personally I love this software because now I don't need to fight with little sister or my mom because we can use the pc at the same time...

 

Costs

 

You can have a free trial for 30 days I think but the second workstation will log off every hour during the period. But it isnt really expensive - It costs 39$ for Windows XP and 49$ for Windows 7. Windows 8 will be supported soon and Mac or Linux isn't supported at all.

 

Video made by MiniFrame:

P1010067.JPG

My own setup (My PSU died so I needed a replacement but this one had too short cables )

Do you still use Softxpand Duo? If so how do you like it now? Given you have have some more time to use the product.  I want to use this software for my wife and I and use two Evga 760's so we can both play games on high or ultra settings and I will be using Windows 7 too.  

[Mixzzz]

Do you still use Softxpand Duo? If so how do you like it now? Given you have have some more time to use the product.  I want to use this software for my wife and I and use two Evga 760's so we can both play games on high or ultra settings and I will be using Windows 7 too.  

I still use it and love it. Probably will work on High, don't know about ultra, also depends on your CPU...

[Cheese65]

I still use it and love it. Probably will work on High, don't know about ultra, also depends on your CPU...

This is going to be my set up.

 

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 500r Arctic White Steel

MotherBoard: Asus p8z77-v Pro

CPU: Intel i7-3770k (plan to overclock to 4.2-4.4 GHz)

SSD: Samsung 120gb

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 7200 RPM

RAM: G.Skill ripjaw 16GB (2 x 8gb) DDR3 1600

CPU Cooler: Corsair 100i

GPU:  2 x EVGA 760 Superclocked (ACX or Blower) in SLI

PSU: Corsair HX 850

 

I will not be setting up the two 760 GPU's in SLI but instead have one dedicated GPU per workstation and as you can see the CPU is an i7 3770k which will be overclocked to 4.2-4.4 GHz.  With that information will I be able to have graphics on High and possibly Ultra on some games?

[Mixzzz]

This is going to be my set up.

 

Case: Corsair Carbide Series 500r Arctic White Steel

MotherBoard: Asus p8z77-v Pro

CPU: Intel i7-3770k (plan to overclock to 4.2-4.4 GHz)

SSD: Samsung 120gb

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB 7200 RPM

RAM: G.Skill ripjaw 16GB (2 x 8gb) DDR3 1600

CPU Cooler: Corsair 100i

GPU:  2 x EVGA 760 Superclocked (ACX or Blower) in SLI

PSU: Corsair HX 850

 

I will not be setting up the two 760 GPU's in SLI but instead have one dedicated GPU per workstation and as you can see the CPU is an i7 3770k which will be overclocked to 4.2-4.4 GHz.  With that information will I be able to have graphics on High and possibly Ultra on some games?

Well splitting i7 in half = 2 i3's so you should be able to pull High or Ultra but Miniframe told that both monitors should be connected to the same card(or SLI) so I doubt that it will work if you dont have them in SLI, but worth a shot...

[Cheese65]

Well splitting i7 in half = 2 i3's so you should be able to pull High or Ultra but Miniframe told that both monitors should be connected to the same card(or SLI) so I doubt that it will work if you dont have them in SLI, but worth a shot...

Okay thank you.  I am asking Miniframe now about using two gtx 760 in order to dedicate two gpu's per workstation.  I appreciate your help! 

[Cheese65]

One last question, you mentioned your setup and that you were going to upgrade it.  Have you had a chance to get a better gpu and test out games?  (my idea with the two gpu's may not work so I might go for a gtx 780 instead but I want to see some performance reviews/benchmarks first... still researching that though.)  Thank you for all your help!

[Mixzzz]

One last question, you mentioned your setup and that you were going to upgrade it.  Have you had a chance to get a better gpu and test out games?  (my idea with the two gpu's may not work so I might go for a gtx 780 instead but I want to see some performance reviews/benchmarks first... still researching that though.)  Thank you for all your help!

Ugh... No I haven't upgraded my PC yet because the money always goes somewhere else... Well you can try maybe using 2 760's not in SLI... But pretty much 780 = ~2x 760 so yeah, you could upgrade... Also you will probably need Sandbox for steam and origin so you can run 2 clients at the same time...

[Cheese65]

Ugh... No I haven't upgraded my PC yet because the money always goes somewhere else... Well you can try maybe using 2 760's not in SLI... But pretty much 780 = ~2x 760 so yeah, you could upgrade... Also you will probably need Sandbox for steam and origin so you can run 2 clients at the same time...

Yes after some more research I found this video and this guy really pushs Softxpand to its limits! He has 4 graphics cards and 4 different workstations so it looks like I will be able to use 2 x gtx 760's after all. And yes I will use sandboxie for those clients.  Once I finally make my machine and get to test everything out I'll make some videos and post again with my results. (it might take a while but I promise I will post my results when I finally do it).

[Mixzzz]

Yes after some more research I found this video and this guy really pushs Softxpand to its limits! He has 4 graphics cards and 4 different workstations so it looks like I will be able to use 2 x gtx 760's after all. And yes I will use sandboxie for those clients.  Once I finally make my machine and get to test everything out I'll make some videos and post again with my results. (it might take a while but I promise I will post my results when I finally do it).

Yeah, i think I saw it too, he had like 560, 630 and 8800 cards and he launched Counter Strike on it

[FellTheSky]

can you set dedicated hardware for each workstation or everyone gets the resource out of the poll?

[Cheese65]

can you set dedicated hardware for each workstation or everyone gets the resource out of the poll?

I could be wrong but it looks like you can dedicate individual GPU's per workstation, and even have multiple monitors per workstation.  I have yet to try this myself but once I do I will post pictures and details of what I did.

 

Also I am not sure about the CPU usage... but you can set a dedicated Mouse, Keyboard, and even audio devices per workstation.  Sorry I didn't add this in earlier.

[Weak1ings]

I've played Space Engineers, Unreal and The Witcher 3 at the same time on a single SLI setup for GTX 660s, mind you, neither except for Unreal ran well for obvious reasons, but they ran!!