Advice on Business Oriented Three-Monitor Setup

[John Wright]

I have two monitors currently running through onboard graphics (see details on hardware below) and would like to add a little TV/Monitor I got recently to my setup. 2 of the monitors have VGA and DVI ports. The new one only has VGA.

I don't do any GPU-intensive work with all three monitors running; it's only Word docs, spreadsheets, PDFs, and a few tabs in Chrome (although I might have a number of other Chrome tabs/windows running in a separate virtual desktop). On very rare occasions I do light video editing, which I would typically do with only my main monitor on. No 3-D or gaming.

I've read conflicting things about whether I can buy one graphics card and use it in concert w/ the onboard graphics, and whether I can simply add a USB-to-VGA adapter (I have a free USB3 port). Of course, I don't want to spend any more money than I have to, but I will spend what I need to to get good results.

So, can anyone tell me the following:

1. Whether a USB-to-VGA adapter will do the trick, and if so, what a good choice would be;
2. Whether I need a graphics card (or two), and if so, what a good choice would be; and
3. Whether might power supply needs to be upgraded?

All advice is appreciated, and thanks.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
Asus P8B75-M onboard graphics
Thermaltake 500W

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Asus P8B75-M mobo
Core i-5 2400@3.1GHz
4x4GB DDR3 1600

MONITORS:
Samsung SyncMaster P2370HD
X2GEN MW22U
Coby TFDVD1595 (the one I'm adding)

MONITOR RESOLUTION:
Samsung - 1920 x 1080
X2Gen - 1680 x 1050
Coby - 1366 x 768 in TV mode (not sure what it'll do on VGA w/ computer)

 

[eidairaman1]

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8B75M/gallery/

Ok that VGA only Monitor must be hooked up to the VGA port. The DVI port is DVI-D only so only a digital signal comes from it hook one of the DVI monitors up to it.

The other DVI monitor, verify on the monitor itself if it is a DVI-I or DVI-D connector.

Once you know use a HDMI cable from the motherboard. Get a DVI-I/D adapter hook it up to the monitor and the plug in the hdmi cable to the adapter.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Or buy a single 1440p/4k monitor and be done with those obsolete 10 year old monitors? With the resolution of them you could easily do what you want to do with a decent 27"+ monitor which would use 3x less power...

 

[Hotobu]

Or buy a single 1440p/4k monitor and be done with those obsolete 10 year old monitors? With the resolution of them you could easily do what you want to do with a decent 27"+ monitor which would use 3x less power...

While I agree that the setup is less than ideal and a little clunky, sometimes surface area># of pixels. The small monitor can be a permanent email display, one could have Word and the other could have Excel or some other combination of programs. For doing basic office work I can see that being preferable to one large monitor.

 

[John Wright]

While I agree that the setup is less than ideal and a little clunky, sometimes surface area># of pixels. The small monitor can be a permanent email display, one could have Word and the other could have Excel or some other combination of programs. For doing basic office work I can see that being preferable to one large monitor.

Exactly. I have massive spreadsheets that fit very nicely on my largest monitor, and the second largest displays two Word Docs/PDFs/other files at sizes which allow me a good view of their contents. The little monitor will do quite nicely for email, or for various smaller documents I often need access to.

What's more, my desk imposes height limitations; I only have about two more inches to work with. A monitor large enough to display three or four or more files of the type I work with won't fit.

 

[John Wright]

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8B75M/gallery/

Ok that VGA only Monitor must be hooked up to the VGA port. The DVI port is DVI-D only so only a digital signal comes from it hook one of the DVI monitors up to it.

The other DVI monitor, verify on the monitor itself if it is a DVI-I or DVI-D connector.

Once you know use a HDMI cable from the motherboard. Get a DVI-I/D adapter hook it up to the monitor and the plug in the hdmi cable to the adapter.

I tried hooking up the little monitor w/ the VGA and the Samsung w/ HDMI; Windows Display settings would only allow me to extend the desktop to two monitors at a time. Googling it returned a number of results suggesting that this is a limitation of the chipset. An email to ASUS Support confirmed this.

 

[jaggerwild]

Need to add a video card, even then you have three different resolution monitors?

 

[John Wright]

I do, and didn't realize that was a problem as I accumulated them. In fact, the first two have worked just fine together. The third is a TV/Monitor hybrid (as is one of the first two) which I got so I can have the news or the occasional low-interest sporting event on as I work. But I wouldn't mind being able to use it as a monitor now and then.

So, does adding the video card become problematic due to the different resolutions? And if so, does a particular video card, or type of video card, solve the problem?

 

[eidairaman1]

I do, and didn't realize that was a problem as I accumulated them. In fact, the first two have worked just fine together. The third is a TV/Monitor hybrid (as is one of the first two) which I got so I can have the news or the occasional low-interest sporting event on as I work. But I wouldn't mind being able to use it as a monitor now and then.

So, does adding the video card become problematic due to the different resolutions? And if so, does a particular video card, or type of video card, solve the problem?

hmm, there are DP based video cards that will work with the analog VGA monitor via an adapter and then the DVI with adapters too.

Look at Radeon.

 

[John Wright]

Do I need a DP-based card to drive all three monitors, or can I split the load between the card and my onboard graphics? And do I need a power supply with more wattage?

 

[eidairaman1]

Do I need a DP-based card to drive all three monitors, or can I split the load between the card and my onboard graphics? And do I need a power supply with more wattage?

you could very well split the load, but I am unsure actually. You could probably get away with a lower powered card even.

how old is that power supply and is it rated for 80 plus power rating?

it all depends on how many amps the 12V rail is able to push.

I mean you really don't need a gamers card but a IGP replacement since the CPU IGP isnt strong enough for it to run 3 monitors, speaking of I presume the correct drivers are installed for the IGPU?

 

[Toothless]

You can split between dGPU and iGPU, like what I've done with my setup. You can run them all at different resolutions and shouldn't have any issues at all.

 

[John Wright]

you could very well split the load, but I am unsure actually. You could probably get away with a lower powered card even.

how old is that power supply and is it rated for 80 plus power rating?

it all depends on how many amps the 12V rail is able to push.

I mean you really don't need a gamers card but a IGP replacement since the CPU IGP isnt strong enough for it to run 3 monitors, speaking of I presume the correct drivers are installed for the IGPU?

I bought the power supply in the fall of 2011. I can't find the specs online for my exact model, which is Thermaltake TR2 TR-500 500W ATX12V v2.2. Specs for v2.3 can be found here.

Regarding the IGPU drivers, I'm not sure. I got the motherboard in the fall of 2014 and installed the drivers which came with it. I periodically update with Driver Booster.

 

[John Wright]

You can split between dGPU and iGPU, like what I've done with my setup. You can run them all at different resolutions and shouldn't have any issues at all.

So, any card which will drive the VGA monitor will get the job done?

 

[Toothless]

So, any card which will drive the VGA monitor will get the job done?

I ran a GT220 and had two monitors, one on VGA and one on DVI with zero issues. My current 4790k processor can run VGA, DVI, and HDMI all at once with the HD4000 iGPU. I'd say check the specifications on NVIDIA's site and such to make sure that little GPU you pick out can power enough outputs for what you need.


Or AMD because that's an option too.

 

[eidairaman1]

I bought the power supply in the fall of 2011. I can't find the specs online for my exact model, which is Thermaltake TR2 TR-500 500W ATX12V v2.2. Specs for v2.3 can be found here.

Regarding the IGPU drivers, I'm not sure. I got the motherboard in the fall of 2014 and installed the drivers which came with it. I periodically update with Driver Booster.

I would be very wary of using auto download tools for computers.

Lower end gpus which are for basic tasks tend to still have vga on them.

 

[silentbogo]

The problem is that Sandy Bridge does not support tree displays, and something like Ivy Bridge also has it's exceptions (requires eDP, but not necessarily on some boards).
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005556.html

You might need to get an entry-level GPU with triple-monitor support and at least VGA+DVI+HDMI outputs to run the existing display setup.
1) Hook up VGA screen to VGA
2) Hook up one of the other screens to DVI
3) Use either HDMI-DVI cable or an HDMI-VGA passive dongle to hook up the last display.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6Ft-HDMI-to...Adapter-Cable-Male-Gold-HD-HDTV-/121913898441
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1080P-HDMI-...396727?hash=item2822138637:g:QBEAAOSwLF1X-8ka

The only problem I've ever seen with these adapters, is a scaling/resolution problem with 16:10 displays. 4:3 and 16:9 work fine.

Regarding a GPU - even a 2nd gen. NVidia GT730 does support triple display (1st gen does not). Just make sure it's a 64-bit GT730 version, if you get confused with models.