Upgrading office computers. Need to build 4 computers. 2 computers will have to run 4 monitors which is where i am having a little difficulty. We are trying to keep budget about $1000 to $1500 for computer. Computers are mainly used for multitasking, multiple web tabs and couple programs for the business, we are a freight brokers and having all of the info in front of us makes things more efficient. None of the programs are heavy on the system at all, just have a bunch of stuff up and running at all times and to be able to split among 4 screens would be great. I am having issue on the GPU and whether or not to run dual low end GPUs to run dual monitors a piece or 1 gpu for 4 monitors or one gpu 3 monitors and 1 off mobo graphics. Looking at running 4 1080p 24" monitors or 2 24" and one 32", even thought about 3 24" and one 42" tv but just for mileage map and truck routes on large area.
right now i have come up with this parts list, just want to know if it will work, what to change, or if something completely different.
Do they need a lot of CPU performance? Because Kaveri APUs support 4 displays, I ran 3 displays off of my last gen 5800k for a while just fine.
You'd just need displays with display port.
Otherwise from a quick google search you'll have to be extra picky with your motherboard if you want to enable both integrated graphics and a dedicated card.
Dual GPUs I don't think would be able to do it, you'd have to go intergrated+GPU or just get a higher end GPU
If you're feeling crazy get a matrox GPU, they can be finicky I hear, but they're only purpose in life is to run as many displays as possible.
And does that budget also include the displays?
And for the last question, why not just get a 4k display? It's basically 4 1080p displays with no bezel
I'd change the case to a silencio 352 ('cause it's small so decent for offices, cheap, has soundproofing and good dust filters) and get a cheap noctua cooler (because presumably you're hoping to keep the things quiet, having a fanless PSU). Obviously the motherboard has to be microATX for that case, so I swapped it out for another H97 mATX mobo.
Changed the GPU to a gigabyte GTX 750 because it supports four displays (two HDMI, two DVI).
Went for a cheaper i5, like $50ish cheaper, you're only loosing like 300Mhz for that and with the work that'll be done with it you wouldn't see a difference. Oh, and I bumped up the SSD to a 500GB variant. Still under $1000 altogether.
Oh, it might be cheaper just to get a motherboard with a displayport output and one of these Mind you, they're $150 at amazon... more expensive than that GTX 750...
Thanks for the input, I was wondering myself if it just wasn't better to daisy chain the monitors with display port, but again, what type of gpu would be necessary. What we run in the office is like having Microsoft access for database on one screen, internet on another with maybe 6 tabs on another monitor, our main database program with our shippers info on another monitor, and pc miler program on another screen for routing. Having just one screen wouldn't work, 4 monitors will breakdown the main things we use on a constant basis the whole day, which goes back to GPU, we aren't running anything graphics heavy except maybe a youtube video here and there and that's the extent.
Thank you, the whole GPU on this build and way to go about it has had me a little crazy, when all we are basically trying to do is push a typical multitasking monitor over into 4 monitors so all the info we need is displayed at once with one main program we are constantly inputing and creating documents, and no heavy graphics or rendering or cad action going on. Just don't know enough to make sure we have a GPU to push 4 monitors. I run 2 20" monitors off the integrated graphics now on the i5 we have, but looking up info on this went straight to gaming on 3 monitors or stock trading workstations with 8 or 10 monitors running quadros.
You could always use a program like Grid Mode, or Split view to split up a 4k display to make it easier to worth with for multimonitor replacement stuff.
If you aren't running anything intensive you could just go with the APU build should do fine
If you guys don't already have displays then an APU with a display port should work for the job and be fairly cheap.
You could always spend the saved money on nice chairs or monitor arm set ups.
Do you guys already have nice monitor arms for the set up?
With a bit more searching it might not be too much cheaper given that you'd need to find 1080p IPS monitors that have display port 1.2 for daisy chaining
upgrading everything in the office, the computer I have would just need a new GPU and two extra monitors but boss is giving the computers to the users and getting all new from mouse to cpu. Kind of nice but im sure its for tax purposes plus we are moving to new location and expanding a little
there will be a total of 4 computers, 2 of which will run 4 monitors while the other 2 run dual but need to be able run up to the 3 for down the road.
At this point I have been given a budget of $1500 per computer and 2000 for all the monitors, but im trying to keep the builds down below a 1000 and spend a little more on monitors.