DrumnBassBBoy's Official 1st Computer Build Thread

[james.wired]

Thanks for the heads up! Currently not running 3 monitors for two reason:
1. Monitor number 3 is still in the mail.
2. The desk here at my moms house is much to small to fit all 3 22" monitors.

Currently, the 2 monitors are running off my displayport out and my hdmi out, still have the dvi out free.

Right, but you still need to run the 3rd monitor off of the displayport or mini displayport through an Active adapter. Just because you have 4 ports back there doesn't mean you can run 4 monitors. You can run the two just fine through any of those ports, but the 3rd again, has to be through the displayport or mini displayport with an Active adapter. Just tryin to let you know what's comin so you can prepare and not be bummed out and confused when the 3rd monitor comes and doesn't work.

 

[DrumnBassBBoy]

Right, but you still need to run the 3rd monitor off of the displayport or mini displayport through an Active adapter. Just because you have 4 ports back there doesn't mean you can run 4 monitors. You can run the two just fine through any of those ports, but the 3rd again, has to be through the displayport or mini displayport with an Active adapter. Just tryin to let you know what's comin so you can prepare and not be bummed out and confused when the 3rd monitor comes and doesn't work.

What do you mean by active display port? I only have 3 outs on my 5850 card.

1 DVI
1 HDMI
1 Display Port

By active do you mean running a monitor to the display port via a display port cable? If so, I already have that cable on hand and ready to roll...enlighten me please...

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Read up some on it, its a little box that is powered and has these 2 cables coming out one end. Yeah, won't be buying that anytime soon considering it cost $100 and I don't game. It is a developers machine, so what I have now is fine. Thanks for pointing this out though. Thought you were just able to run the cable and eyefinity works!

 

[james.wired]

What do you mean by active display port? I only have 3 outs on my 5850 card.

1 DVI
1 HDMI
1 Display Port

By active do you mean running a monitor to the display port via a display port cable? If so, I already have that cable on hand and ready to roll...enlighten me please...

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Read up some on it, its a little box that is powered and has these 2 cables coming out one end. Yeah, won't be buying that anytime soon considering it cost $100 and I don't game. It is a developers machine, so what I have now is fine. Thanks for pointing this out though. Thought you were just able to run the cable and eyefinity works!

Yeah it's a powered adapter (powered by plugging in its USB cable to your computer), this takes the power draw off the card. I had the Active displayport to DVI adapter when I used an Eyefinity setup. Once you take it into consideration it's kind of BS to have to fork out additional $100 to use Eyefinity. But that's just the way it is

 

[DrumnBassBBoy]

The Active Display Port Adapter, that is only to run tri-screen Eyefinity correct? Will I still be able to run a multiple display tri-screen setup with just my cables?

 

[james.wired]

I'm afraid not, dude. You need the 3rd monitor connected through the active displayport adapter any way. Sucks I know.

 

[DrumnBassBBoy]

I have been reading around about this active / passive business. I will have to run my own test when the monitor comes in.

If I am to buy a $100 adapter to get my 3 monitors up in running, wouldn't I just be better off investing in another Asus 5850 and running CrossFire?

 

[james.wired]

Even in crossfire you can not run 3 monitors unless one is powered by the active displayport. You can only run 3 monitors even in a crossfire setup, unless you got the Eyefinity 6 edition cards that allow up to 6 monitors on its one card. I know that sounds even more silly than the last thing I said but it is what it is

 

[DrumnBassBBoy]

Even in crossfire you can not run 3 monitors unless one is powered by the active displayport. You can only run 3 monitors even in a crossfire setup, unless you got the Eyefinity 6 edition cards that allow up to 6 monitors on its one card. I know that sounds even more silly than the last thing I said but it is what it is

It does sound a bit silly. I guess I will have to see what I can and can't do when the monitor comes in. Reading up on this, there is not straight answer as to what works and doesn't work as far as passive and active dp goes...

 

[james.wired]

You absolutely, 100%, no way around it, NEED an ACTIVE displayport adapter. I **** you not. There is no seeing what you can do when you get it, it just is what it is. There's no magic touch for some people to make it work while everyone else simply can not.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

If you change your mind about the SSD I highly recommend either a Intel X25-M 80gb or a Intel X25-V 40gb depending on your budget. Both of those drives are significantly faster than the WD SiliconEdge and also use more proven controllers.

I also feel that it's worth mentioning that SSDs are actually very significant upgrades over conventional hard drives. I'm running a 60gb OCZ Agility SSD, which is a decent bit slower than the Intels I mentioned earlier, and the difference in application launch times and system responsiveness compared to the conventional drive it replaced is like night and day.