wanna add at least 1 video card to support more monitors ...

hi,

I was thinking to revamp a comp I'm using as a server inhere and turn it into a wow system for a 2nd group. With as little spending as possible.

The motherboard is an Asus P5N32-E SLI+
8GB DDR2 ram, core 2 duo E8800 cpu @ 3mhz
nvidia8800GTS nvidia gpu.
I have 24" monitors connected to it.

It runs 5 wows fine, but nothing more than that. But i do have 2 other 17" widescreens and a single 15" non-widescreen monitor. So I was thinking to add at least the 2 other 17" to it and possibly also the 15". Which basically means extra GPU's As this is not very straightforward under linux (my main and only os), I guess I'll have to setup a win box. WoW will be the only thing I do on this machine, so it shouldn't be too bad security wise (avira, comodo & ad-aware should be enough i guess?).

Now my questions as I'm not really uptodate with hardware.

- When I would add a 2nd and prolly 3rd video card, should they be exactly the same, or can I just go to the shop and buy a recent one, plug it in and go (note, I'll stick to nvdia, as I 'll never buy an ati again in my life due to past issues).
- I was thinking to buy a mid range video card instead of a high end. What Impact will that have on my system under windows? Will it be a significant boost or will it just slow down things (as I will run my slaves in a higher resolution obviously).
- In terms of power / cooling, what are the consequences for my system? I did buy a (back then) high end power supply (Thermaltake Toughpower CM). Don't think I have any *special* cooling stuff though.

Thanks in advance
z

Not sure if im on the right track here. But i thought if you added more video cards you have to make sure first your computers power supply can handle the added power. If not you will not only have to buy another video card but a bigger internal power supply.

This is the only reason why mine has a huge power supply so i can add another video card. Plus im going with a different video card then i have one that can handle three monitors like a 2gb one. My 1gb one is fine for two screens, but with more screens i want a bigger one.

From what a computer tech told me is that it doesnt matter if they are different as long as there is room and you dont over heat system.