3 monitors 1 box

So I stumbled across this when I saw someone from <the zerg> in AV. Has anyone had any experience running 3 monitors on a single PC. I see the recommended video card (8800 GT) has 2 video outs. I was hoping to throw another tv tuner/video card to fill up the 3rd monitor. I really like the look of 3 monitors and most likely would run the main on the center and 4 other copies on the right monitor then the left would be for wowhead/tv maybe. Any help would be appreciated. Hopefully the tax return this year will be big enough to allow me to buy a new box (currently running wow on a macbook).

Another quick question. With the recent changes of trial accounts not being allowed to invite people to a group. Do you just need one paid account to get everyone in a group or do they all need to be paid for?

I built a machine for a coworker using this setup 2 months ago:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 cpu
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 mobo
4GB Corsair DDR2-800 memory
2x 8800GTS 320MB videocards *not in SLI mode*
3x 22" Dell LCDs @ 1680x1050 each.

One videocard powers his main display - for his 3D work, and the 2nd connects to the two secondary monitors.

He's not into gaming much - but heavily uses 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Premiere, and Photoshop. I'm sure it would 3-box WoW just fine though.

Are the 8800GTS pci cards?

I'm using an 8800 for the main screen and the alts are on the 2nd one, also on the main card. A 2nd PCI-Express card (an 8500) runs 2 other screens, although 1 is broken atm so it's powering only 1, which I have IM/Firefox etc running on. I love it ;)

Shogun are you 3 boxing wow or 5 boxing wow? Also could you tell me what kind of mother board you are using. Thanks this is the type of information that i was looking for.

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Originally Posted by Schwarz

Shogun are you 3 boxing wow or 5 boxing wow? Also could you tell me what kind of mother board you are using. Thanks this is the type of information that i was looking for.

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I'm 3-boxing, play with a friend who dual-boxes so we run 5 in total.

Main screen is a 22" widescreen, the other is a 19" normal, I have it in portrait and split in 2 (1024x640 x2)

I can't recall the MB spec, but any that has enough PCI E slots will do it. The main issue to watch out for, once you have the hardware chosen, is space.. make sure the MB is set out to allow for 2 PCI-E cards with large cooling systems, they both take up 2 slots effectively, but the MB is laid out with a PCI-E at the top, then a PCI, and another PCI-E, the PCI in the middle has to be empty in my case, the 8800 is just too big...

Other than that, as long as the main card can handle what you want, the second one can be as craptastic as you like ;)
My 8500 is actualy pretty decent and could run 3 WoWs on it's own, but if I throw a single instance of WoW on each I get quite alot of FPS loss, not sure why (it's not due to dualview/span etc)

The other issue is of course heat, 2 cards is twice the heat... My 8500 has passive cooling, so no fan (also alot quiter ofc) and I've had to leave the side panel off for long sessions as it overheats, been meaning to add another fan which will solve the issue, just too lazy atm ;)

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Are the 8800GTS pci cards?

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No, they're both PCI-Express 16x cards. There are a bunch of motherboards available with 2 x16 slots, and a few high-end boards with 3.
If you have two of the same size monitor, you could just use one 8800GTX/Ultra to run both in span view mode. One of those should handle 1680x1050 x2 without too much trouble. Since I'm using just 1 8800GTX on a 24" 1920x1200 and a 20" 1680x1050 in the worse 'dual view' mode, I'm seeing a framerate hit on the 4 alts on the 20" (/console maxfps 10). However, my main running 1680x1050 windowed mode on the 24" monitor is still very playable. If I had two 24" monitors, I'd just use the span mode and all 5 WoW windows would probably be much smoother. I still haven't attempted a crowded battleground yet - so we'll see when the time comes if I'll need to upgrade.

You can run as many monitors from a single PC as video outputs you have, however, the secondary video cards don't like to do 3D rendering very much. So as long as your are only intending to run WoW off of the main video card you should be set.

Honestly, with the setup you're looking at you'd be perfect. All instances of WoW running off of your "main" videocard, and anything else (non 3D) on the secondary video card. That is really all you need.