5 Box, 2 Monitors

Ultimately I'm trying to build a network driven 5 box setup at the cost of about $1k per clone but utilizing my 2x 28" HDMI 1920x1200 monitors only and still being able to run 1 wow per clone and view them all at once.
After getting really angry at the fact that splicing inputs from 4 DVI-D into DVI-D or HDMI out takes a $4000 USD hardware solution, and only finding kvm switches that support at best a 10 sec flip instead of quad split screen, I decided it was time to start looking heavily at the software driven solutions. I was all ready leaning towards Multicast over IP for the keyboard and mouse so it seemed like the logical next step.

With some fun price weighting off just newegg.com (a nice median market price) and tomshardware.com for the reviews with real explanations, this is the solution i came up with: (on to the fun)

$874.95($174.99 each (5)) Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model
$449.95($89.99 each (5)) GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
$699.80($34.99 each (20)) G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
$624.95($124.99 each (5)) Thermaltake Toughpower QFan Series W0151RU ATX 12V 2.2/ EPS 12V 2.91 500W Power Supply
$999.95($199.99 each (5)) GIGABYTE GV-NX88T256HV1 GeForce 8800GT
$249.95($49.99 each (5)) Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$144.95($28.99 each (5)) Koutech IO-PEN121 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (x1) Card
$359.95($71.99 each (5)) iStarUSA D-406-ND Black 1.2mm SECC Zinc-Coated Steel 4U RoHS Rackmount Case
$90.00($45.00 each (2)) Zonet ZFS3228E 10/100/1000Mbps Switch
$8.90($0.89 each (10)) SUPER TALENT ST-C5/1GR 1 ft. Cat 5E Gray Cable - Retail
$26.95($5.39 each (5)) Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
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$4566.30($913.26 each (5))

The idea here is to use the PCI-Ex1 1000 base-t LAN cards and one of the switches to send the video over a closed full duplex LAN built just for that using the software solution : MaxiVista. In windowed mode outputting quad screen @ 960x600 per clone scaled (1920x1200 native). The on-board LAN then takes the actual internet switch and does all of the keyclone/synergy IP forwarding of mouse and keyboard.

Chances are i could easily drop $312 off the memory cost and drop each to 2gb rather than 4gb RAM. There are other places to potentially save some more money let alone using pricewatch.com to find the best prices on each part.

So for those out there with multi computer setups: Does this sound viable; to keep 2 28" 1920x1200 screen (without buying more) and be capable of 5 boxing on 2 screens with 5 computers?

Peril / Donil

Ugh. Probably not. Test it with VNC. I think you will be very unhappy with framerates and lag. I think you are underestimating how much bandwidth a monitor needs. There are reasons why video cards need x16 connectors. For 2D, this would work great! For 3D? No way.

Why only 2 monitors? The best option is a monitor with true split screening capability but I know of none at consumer prices. Short of that, I think software only or individual monitors are your best bets right now.

I do applaud your out of the box idea though.

Also, why 28" 1920x1200's? 30" would be 2560x1600. Why not get a 24" 1920x1200?