• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

The Monitor Wall

Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
Since I started using the other thread as a 'build thread', figured I'd move my progress to the correct forum.

At work, we had 15-20 old monitors, mostly Dell 15", just laying around. I always wanted to do something with them, and only recently did I decide what I actually wanted to do. I figured, why can't I chain these all together and make something out of them? I initially figured it would be pretty expensive as I figured I'd need a huge eyefinity setup or similar. I decided to ask on here, and a few members informed me about the Nvidia Quadro cards and others that use the DMS-59 connectors. My only other fear was that a system would conflict using video cards in parallel in a non-SLI/Crossfire setup. Well, they didn't, in Windows 7 or XP. So I decided to go through with it completely. And here we are thus far.


One of the monitors de-bezeled...they all are similar but slightly different. These I will have to use a Dremel and cut off the part where the monitor buttons hang, and move them to the rear. The other ones I will have to cut off the part where the VESA mount dock connects and two other small tabs to get them as flush as possible.


First video card, after going through 2 not fully working ones. Setup in my kitchen because why not:



Second video card. One full PCI-e and the other a 1x. I decided to however go full for the rest and depending on how they work switch the fourth one to a full as well.



Took the cards to work (one of these was the non fully working one) since I had a machine there with one full PCI-e and then a 1x slot and tested them. Wes is a coworker. :)



De-bezzeled the rest of the monitors at work besides the 4 I have at home.



I decided screw it, I've got nothing else to do today. Measured up and went to go get a piece of wood. 5/4 x 6 x 8' works great...except the one I got, which I didn't notice until I got home, has a crack at one end of it so I feel like that side isn't gonna be able to be used. Oh well. But I can basically cut them to 4' pieces and I can cut them in half to get two of them, now I'll need two instead of one to finish though.

I will be putting holes for the vesa mounts all the way through the wood and using a longer screw to screw where the vesa mounts are. I am then going to use a heavier bolt to bring the boards all together in a 4x4 configuration, with 16 monitors total. There will be 4 pieces of wood holding 4 monitors each, then 3 in the middle holding all the 16 together.

My crappy workspace outside in my 1 car garage..my Trans Am isn't in there right now because I've been driving it to work so I have a bit of space.




I should have all the parts below Thursday to finish this, and basically all that will be stopping me then is the mounting of them. I have all these parts to make the PC:

GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3
AMD Phenom II X2 555 BE
4gb DDR3
Corsair TX 750w
120gb OCZ SSD
4x Nvidia Quadro 440 NVS video cards (3x PCI-e 16x, 1x PCI-e 1x right now)
Crappy old case I have laying around

That is it so far! I will hopefully be getting into this by next weekend. The first step will be making sure all the monitors work together. When I get the first monitors all mounted up, the last three rows should come easily. Then it will just be bolting them together which won't be that hard. I just need to line them all up, and since I'm pretty anal that's going to be a big PITA I fear. We shall see!
 
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
6,680 (1.43/day)
Processor 7800x3d
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling Custom Water
Memory GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s) MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s) HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case ThermalTake P3
Power Supply SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687
So what do you plan on showing on your huge monitor wall? Will it be just a work toy or can you actually use it for something work related( I don't know what). This is a cool project.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
Anything we want. Initially it started out as a fun thing, then when I chained the 8 together, people at work started to get interested and most of it is funded that way. We will use it to display our builds possibly, do product demos on, display our application stats, whatever. It's kinda also just something to have and say "Look, we built this."

I work at a 'start up' FWIW.
 
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
6,680 (1.43/day)
Processor 7800x3d
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling Custom Water
Memory GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s) MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s) HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case ThermalTake P3
Power Supply SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687
Its a cool project, even better if you will be able to get practical work value for it too. All we need now is a picture of the thing completed.

What will the total resolution be?
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
The only thing I'm worried about is it being really laggy. The two computers I tried it on both seemed to be really laggy. Both were older machines but they still didn't handle it well..I might be able to speed it up disabling Aero or maybe the fresh W7 install will help. I ordered some stuff and hope to have it somewhat starting to go together this weekend. I also will need to paint the monitors black to aid with the whole coming together effect so it hides the grid better than grey.

All monitors are 1280x1024 I think...and hope because I really want them all to be the same. So I guess 5120x4096 adding them together.
 
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
6,680 (1.43/day)
Processor 7800x3d
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling Custom Water
Memory GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s) MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s) HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case ThermalTake P3
Power Supply SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687
The only thing I'm worried about is it being really laggy. The two computers I tried it on both seemed to be really laggy. Both were older machines but they still didn't handle it well..I might be able to speed it up disabling Aero or maybe the fresh W7 install will help. I ordered some stuff and hope to have it somewhat starting to go together this weekend. I also will need to paint the monitors black to aid with the whole coming together effect so it hides the grid better than grey.

All monitors are 1280x1024 I think...and hope because I really want them all to be the same. So I guess 5120x4096 adding them together.
That is higher than 4k. I dont' know what those graphics cards are meant to support for resolution but that is a lot of pixels.
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
3,521 (0.59/day)
System Name Xazax
Processor 6700k
Motherboard ASrock Fatal1ty z170
Cooling H240X
Memory 16GB DDR4 2800mhz
Video Card(s) Gtx 980ti
Storage 1TB Mushkin
Display(s) ASUS PG27 G-sync
Case Corsair Air 540
Audio Device(s) Logitech G35
Power Supply Corsair 1500w Digital
Keyboard Patriot Viper
Software Windows 10
Good luck with the displays! you heading into uncharted territory there buddy, I've had multiple varying problems just running 3 monitors lol! Nvidia is the way to go for multi-monitors despite AMD having more functionality. I ran into an issue with a 270x that would not out-out display to a 3rd monitor, no matter how I had it connected it refused to display the 3rd monitor.

Another issue I had was with 120hz monitors, this is more unique though, in that I needed a special DVI/Display port convertor in order to run 3x 120hz displays off a single graphics card.

Rest assured though I've had that motherboard running 6x GPUs at once! in Windows 7 granted they were not running displays :)
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,147 (2.96/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
I work at a 'start up' FWIW.

You should read The Lean Startup by Eric Reis if you haven't already... before you make too many mistakes by working on things that probably aren't that important and won't help the company succeed. Not to say the project doesn't sound cool, but cool doesn't always mean success when it comes to start-ups. I've been down this road recently and have been reflecting on how the last project failed due to over architecting the project and not focusing on just the important things first (as opposed to solving all problems now.) Just thought I would throw that out there since it sounds like you're spending work time on this. Either way, I'm reading that book now and it's a good read. It's useful for just about any person who is part of a start-up or a small software development team.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
Good luck with the displays! you heading into uncharted territory there buddy, I've had multiple varying problems just running 3 monitors lol! Nvidia is the way to go for multi-monitors despite AMD having more functionality. I ran into an issue with a 270x that would not out-out display to a 3rd monitor, no matter how I had it connected it refused to display the 3rd monitor.

Another issue I had was with 120hz monitors, this is more unique though, in that I needed a special DVI/Display port convertor in order to run 3x 120hz displays off a single graphics card.

Rest assured though I've had that motherboard running 6x GPUs at once! in Windows 7 granted they were not running displays :)

These cards run 2 per DVS-59 port and seems to work well. I've had 8 going with no hitches so I think 16 will be easy. We may see come this weekend!

You should read The Lean Startup by Eric Reis if you haven't already... before you make too many mistakes by working on things that probably aren't that important and won't help the company succeed. Not to say the project doesn't sound cool, but cool doesn't always mean success when it comes to start-ups. I've been down this road recently and have been reflecting on how the last project failed due to over architecting the project and not focusing on just the important things first (as opposed to solving all problems now.) Just thought I would throw that out there since it sounds like you're spending work time on this. Either way, I'm reading that book now and it's a good read. It's useful for just about any person who is part of a start-up or a small software development team.

There's a reason I put start up in quotes. We've been around since 2000 and are privately funded. What I do on my own time is my business, and that's primarily what this is. This has nothing to do with what we produce and even less on the time spent actually on the job. I do DevOps work as well as fixing all in office hardware.
 

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
13,147 (2.96/day)
Location
Concord, NH, USA
System Name Apollo
Processor Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory 64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s) AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage 1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s) Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s) AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply 96w Power Adapter
Mouse Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software MacOS 12.1
There's a reason I put start up in quotes. We've been around since 2000 and are privately funded. What I do on my own time is my business, and that's primarily what this is. This has nothing to do with what we produce and even less on the time spent actually on the job. I do DevOps work as well as fixing all in office hardware.

It wasn't meant as an insult. I still think it's a worth while book to read and was serious when I said:
It's useful for just about any person who is part of a start-up or a small software development team.
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
2,318 (0.35/day)
System Name MONEY PIT
Processor i7-3770K @ 4800 1.20v batch #3231B415 Delided
Motherboard ASrock Z77 OC Formula w onboard waterblocks
Cooling Apogee HD, MCP655,rad MCR320-XP,Micro Rev2 res
Memory G,skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified with EK nickel/acetal waterblock installed
Storage 2x120gig Wildfire raid0 2x120gig VERTEX3 raid0
Display(s) 3/ Samsung2343bwx + 65in LG 4K
Case NZXT Phantom White w/red
Audio Device(s) ReCon3d fatal1ty pro, Logitech z906 THX
Power Supply corsair AX860i
Mouse Rat7
Software 64bit ++++ win 10
This looks to be a very fun project for you :toast: Congrats on your work:respect: Will be waiting for the pics.
 
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
3,450 (0.57/day)
Location
CA, US
System Name :)
Processor Intel 13700k
Motherboard Gigabyte z790 UD AC
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 64GB GSKILL DDR5
Video Card(s) Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC
Storage 960GB Optane 905P U.2 SSD + 4TB PCIe4 U.2 SSD
Display(s) Alienware AW3423DW 175Hz QD-OLED + Nixeus 27" IPS 1440p 144Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent
Audio Device(s) MOTU M4 - JBL 305P MKII w/2x JL Audio 10 Sealed --- X-Fi Titanium HD - Presonus Eris E5 - JBL 4412
Power Supply Silverstone 1000W
Mouse Roccat Kain 122 AIMO
Keyboard KBD67 Lite / Mammoth75
VR HMD Reverb G2 V2
Software Win 11 Pro
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
Should have everything waiting for me when I get home. Got all the adapters I needed today...and I realized I might run into a problem. The cables may not be long enough...and I may need to get a few VGA extender cables....that's gonna suck if so. All cables are ~6 feet so there MAY be JUST enough at least temporarily..but we'll see. These are all except two (four VGA) because I am taking those home to test the hardware tonight:

 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,223 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
Subbed. I've been watching this and I'm tempted to save up and do something like it.
 
Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
357 (0.09/day)
System Name Broken Butterfly.
Processor Intel Core i5-3570.
Motherboard Asus P8H67-M LE.
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus.
Memory 2x4gB Corsair Value Series.
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 660 FTW Signature 2.
Storage 180gB Intel SSD 330 Series, WD Blue 500gB (AAKX).
Display(s) Samsung BX2031.
Case CM Elite 334.
Power Supply Corsair CX 430.
Need more PICTURES!!!. :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
Subbed. I've been watching this and I'm tempted to save up and do something like it.
I think the hardest part would be getting the monitors. But if you found a school sale or old office sale, I think you could find a few. Or if you're rich, chain a bunch of 24"+ 1080p monitors together. Lol.

Teasers...system is together. No hitches thus far. Cards are already heating up sitting there so this might require some big old fans on the side...maybe a fan wall for the monitor wall. ;)

Initial getting everything in the case. I don't do cable management even on my own PCs..so suck it nerds. :p



All video cards in and running:





This looks promising...



 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
I had the system running for a good hour/hour and a half and temps didn't seem to get above 63* C...but only one card is running one monitor. We'll see what happens. After I got back from walking the dog...

One down.



How it sits on the rear.



Aww snap that looks like two:



Is that..a third?



A fourth? You don't say...









So the problem I'm running into is that I'm somewhat of a self appointed perfectionist/a bit OCD. I really like things to be even and the way I want them...and these aren't. I'm doing this on a shit little section of my shit one car garage with basic hand tools. I'm measuring the stuff by hand, sort of eyeing it as far as measurements, no level, a crappy Harbor Freight drill, and this cheap wood. It's not turning out exactly how I hoped, meaning too it is a lot tougher to get everything lined up then when I first measured it all out and plotted it out on the wood. I bought this piece as sort of a test piece so that's fine..but I'm not sure how I am going to get the other pieces lined up exactly how I need them. I've had to redrill/make the holes bigger on this one and while it seems to be stable, it's not exactly how I want it. Maybe I'll rough mock all of them up and redo them sometime in the future, I'm not sure yet. I want to get it together this weekend if I can. So kind of conflicted.
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
All video cards seem to work..here's my ghetto little setup to test. I was going to start drilling the other board today but my 'perfection' side is getting the best of me..gonna take everything into the office this weekend and work on it there so that way I have all the monitors there and everything. At worst I get them all setup on a table/cube and displaying without actually being in the wall formation, at worst I end up taking all this stuff to my grandfather's shop and getting it done correctly there in a week or so...I did buy a level and that seemed to help keep the other test piece I was trying out straight..we'll see.



 
Joined
Jun 27, 2011
Messages
6,680 (1.43/day)
Processor 7800x3d
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 Auros Elite AX
Cooling Custom Water
Memory GSKILL 2x16gb 6000mhz Cas 30 with custom timings
Video Card(s) MSI RX 6750 XT MECH 2X 12G OC
Storage Adata SX8200 1tb with Windows, Samsung 990 Pro 2tb with games
Display(s) HP Omen 27q QHD 165hz
Case ThermalTake P3
Power Supply SuperFlower Leadex Titanium
Software Windows 11 64 Bit
Benchmark Scores CB23: 1811 / 19424 CB24: 1136 / 7687
You need a huge panoramic photo for what you have set up right now.
 

Toothless

Tech, Games, and TPU!
Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2014
Messages
9,223 (2.52/day)
Location
Washington, USA
System Name Veral
Processor 5950x
Motherboard MSI MEG x570 Ace
Cooling Corsair H150i Elite
Memory 4x16GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Powercolor 7900XTX Red Devil
Storage Crucial P5 Plus 1TB, Samsung 980 1TB, Teamgroup MP34 4TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro XZ342CK Pbmiiphx + 2x AOC 2425W
Case Fractal Design Meshify Lite 2
Audio Device(s) Blue Yeti + SteelSeries Arctis 5 / Samsung HW-T550
Power Supply Corsair HX850
Mouse Corsair Nightsword
Keyboard Corsair K55
VR HMD HP Reverb G2
Software Windows 11 Professional
Benchmark Scores PEBCAK
You need a huge panoramic photo for what you have set up right now.
Good thing with Google you can pick how big you want to search for a picture. Even searching for 4k+ pictures is easy.
 
Joined
Feb 12, 2006
Messages
2,318 (0.35/day)
System Name MONEY PIT
Processor i7-3770K @ 4800 1.20v batch #3231B415 Delided
Motherboard ASrock Z77 OC Formula w onboard waterblocks
Cooling Apogee HD, MCP655,rad MCR320-XP,Micro Rev2 res
Memory G,skill Trident X F3-2400C10D-16GTX
Video Card(s) EVGA GTX 980 Ti Classified with EK nickel/acetal waterblock installed
Storage 2x120gig Wildfire raid0 2x120gig VERTEX3 raid0
Display(s) 3/ Samsung2343bwx + 65in LG 4K
Case NZXT Phantom White w/red
Audio Device(s) ReCon3d fatal1ty pro, Logitech z906 THX
Power Supply corsair AX860i
Mouse Rat7
Software 64bit ++++ win 10
..but I'm not sure how I am going to get the other pieces lined up exactly how I need them. I've had to redrill/make the holes bigger on this one and while it seems to be stable, it's not exactly how I want it. Maybe I'll rough mock all of them up and redo them sometime in the future, I'm not sure yet. I want to get it together this weekend if I can. So kind of conflicted.
I would lay your monitors face down lined up the way you want, I'm a lot OCD that way too. Then make a template of the mounting holes. I like to use cheeeep masking tape making it 5-7 layers thick. Simple to transfer to your back brace & you drill right through
 
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
1,619 (0.29/day)
I would lay your monitors face down lined up the way you want, I'm a lot OCD that way too. Then make a template of the mounting holes. I like to use cheeeep masking tape making it 5-7 layers thick. Simple to transfer to your back brace & you drill right through

That sounds like a great idea. I'm going to try that tomorrow at work.
 
Top