Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

noahslater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2004
5
0
After weeks of researching and no mention of triple monitor suport on the Mac website I finnaly took the risk and bought my third Apple display. The third one is driven by a flashed ATI Radeon 7000 64MB PCI from eBay.

So there you go, it IS possible! See attachments for pictures.
 

Attachments

  • CIMG1316.jpg
    CIMG1316.jpg
    79.2 KB · Views: 4,448
  • CIMG1320.jpg
    CIMG1320.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 3,631
  • CIMG1326.jpg
    CIMG1326.jpg
    75.3 KB · Views: 3,483

noahslater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2004
5
0
You would be suprised....

I was so unsure if it was possible because there was no documentation about more than two display and I could not find any user reports on the net.

In the end it involved the following process:

1. Hook up two monitors to the AGP card pre-installed.
2. Buy a Mac compatable PCI card and flash it to be more powerfull

BTW this involved buying a discontinued card from eBay as I could not find any compatible card for sale new.

3. Hook up third monitor to PCI card

BTW, at this point Quartz grinded to a halt an simple things like drag and drop and expose stopped working.

4. Install http://pages.cthome.net/zacks/pciextreme.sit to get Quartz working again
5. Speeded up the card using http://mapage.noos.fr/campahunta/software/ATIccelerator_1.1.2.dmg.bin

Not exactly plug'n'play!!! :)
 

Peyote

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2002
760
1
You can afford 3 Apple displays, but can't afford anything other than a picnic table to put them on?


Just kidding man....looks really fun to mess around on. Nice setup :D
 

noahslater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2004
5
0
Picnic table? :)

I'll have you know that the table in question is a £500 frosted glass dining table from Habitat actually!!! ;)
 

Peyote

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2002
760
1
noahslater said:
I'll have you know that the table in question is a £500 frosted glass dining table from Habitat actually!!! ;)


Yah, I noticed the glass...helluva lot better than my desk! I've got a giant wooden door sitting on two cabinets that usually go in kitchens. It's all painted up purdy though
 

noahslater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2004
5
0
Just to let you know...

I'm not actually just some rich dude with more money than sense...

I could only afford all that kit (about 7-8K) because I got an inheritance... god I don't even want to think about how long it would take for me to save for that on my regular pay packet!!!
 

Peyote

macrumors 6502a
Apr 11, 2002
760
1
noahslater said:
I'm not actually just some rich dude with more money than sense...

I could only afford all that kit (about 7-8K) because I got an inheritance... god I don't even want to think about how long it would take for me to save for that on my regular pay packet!!!


No, if you were one of those guys, you'd have twin or triple 23" screens on VESA mounts. Or the 30 inch displays if they were available yet.

Still, props to ya homie...definately a very cool setup
 

noahslater

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 4, 2004
5
0
Yeah, fully

I do find it a little amusing, if not satisfying, to know that the combined cost of all three displays was less than the 30" display by itself.

I know what I would prefer! :)
 

Mechcozmo

macrumors 603
Jul 17, 2004
5,215
2
Oooooooh. Shiny.

I so wish I could do that...just wondering: if the PCI card has 2 outputs, can you drive 4 displays total?

That would be even nicer. Not that 3 displays is bad, y'know. It is, in the immortal words of Homestar Runner, "Fweakin Awesome!"
 

cb911

macrumors 601
Mar 12, 2002
4,128
4
BrisVegas, Australia
oh sweet!!! :D

could you post some larger pics though? i wanna see them in all their glory.

do does it really drag OS X down having the 3rd screen? is it still usable?

you're going to have to search for some 3 screen wallpapers now. i know Mandoulx has dual screen walls, but good luck finding 3.
 

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
An off side question...a new G5 dually with one of those really exy cards for the 30"...since its a "dual dual" could it support FOUR 23" apple monitors...?
 

Mechcozmo

macrumors 603
Jul 17, 2004
5,215
2
aswitcher said:
An off side question...a new G5 dually with one of those really exy cards for the 30"...since its a "dual dual" could it support FOUR 23" apple monitors...?

No, there are only two outputs. 2 30" displays, though. The Dual DVI refers to the DVI connection using all the pins on it, instead of just half. If you got a PCI video card, however, then you might be able to...dunno. Any filthy rich people out there willing to try it? ;)
 

BrianKonarsMac

macrumors 65816
Apr 28, 2004
1,102
83
Mac OS X can support as many monitors as:

1. you have outputs for.
2. you have bandwidth for.

with only one AGP slot, it's hard to get a 3rd or 4 monitor without a PCI GPU or some form of splitter (none that i know of). a better card than your discontinued 7000 would have been the 9200 (which costs about the same) with it's 128mb of VRAM and improved components/functionality. I think it might have tv output as well, so you could even go to TV as well for a 4th pseudo-monitor.

the 6800 can only drive two monitors, no matter how small they may be. it would be difficult to attach 4 monitors with only 2 connections. add a PCI card and get a VGA to DVI adapter and you could probably get 4 monitors going...a 30" would look much nicer and save real estate/power draw.
 

MacNut

macrumors Core
Jan 4, 2002
22,995
9,973
CT
How does it look when playing a dvd, Does it spit the movie on all 3 screens or would it be too stretched out to watch comfortably.
 

russed

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2004
1,619
20
mmm ... nice (i will go any wipe the druel off my desk now!), seriously, i'm envious!
 

Fender

macrumors regular
May 9, 2004
164
5
Toronto, CANADA
noahslater said:
I'll have you know that the table in question is a £500 frosted glass dining table from Habitat actually!!! ;)

Do you know the exact name of the desk? That's exactly what I've been looking for. I'd love to get 2.
 

zakee00

macrumors regular
Jul 7, 2004
244
0
wow dude that is SO awesome...you even have the little blue wheel thingy ;)
so what DO you do with those monitors? And btw, i heard that you can get a dual-dvi splitter, splitting one dual link port into 2 regular dvi ports. therefore, a 6800 ultra can have 4 regular dvi outputs. is this true? that would be cool, then get a 9200 and have 5 monitors :D
 

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
Yeah, if you hooked up another couple of monitors to a 9200 you could have a really nice setup. :p I heard awhile ago someone hooked up like 10 monitors to a Mac. This was on OS 8 or 9. Always been there. OS X just makes it better. Pretty much limited only to the # of PCI slots (I think the Performa 9600 had like 6), and even then you could get an external box to run more PCI devices.

Bit expensive though.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.