G5 Multiple Monitors

[thehaul]

I'm looking to purchase a mac (imac or G5) that will power up to 3 monitors. I'm looking for advise of how to achieve this. The main use will be for daytrading and will be used in windows xp but I'm also a photographer that will be using photoshop on the mac side as well. I'm trying not to buy two computers, a pc for daytrading and a mac for photos. Thanks for you help in advance.

Sean

 

[CanadaRAM]

I'm looking to purchase a mac (imac or G5) that will power up to 3 monitors. I'm looking for advise of how to achieve this. The main use will be for daytrading and will be used in windows xp but I'm also a photographer that will be using photoshop on the mac side as well. I'm trying not to buy two computers, a pc for daytrading and a mac for photos. Thanks for you help in advance.

Sean

iMac - no way to run three monitors, no expansion slots. There is some suggestion that the Matrox Dual-head2go external adaptor may work, but compatibility is not guaranteed.

G5 tower - are you planning to purchase used? These have been discontinued for over a year. Not a good choice for running Windows at all, have to deal with the slow and buggy VirtualPC

MacPro - Intel Xeon - this can run Windows under Bootcamp or Parallels or VMWare. There may be configuration issues with Windows and multiple monitors. You would have to install a second video card - the first card will support 2 monitors, a second PCI-e video card will support the third. Choose only videocards that are made for Mac, getting PC video cards to work under the Mac OS is difficult to impossible.

 

[Tracer]

Stay away from PPC Macs if you need to use Windows Applications.

That being said it looks like your only option is a Mac Pro.

Go for 2 x 7300GT's if you need it tomorrow or wait till Jan 15th for the new ones.

Tracer

 

[thehaul]

iMac - no way to run three monitors, no expansion slots. There is some suggestion that the Matrox Dual-head2go external adaptor may work, but compatibility is not guaranteed.

G5 tower - are you planning to purchase used? These have been discontinued for over a year. Not a good choice for running Windows at all, have to deal with the slow and buggy VirtualPC

MacPro - Intel Xeon - this can run Windows under Bootcamp or Parallels or VMWare. There may be configuration issues with Windows and multiple monitors. You would have to install a second video card - the first card will support 2 monitors, a second PCI-e video card will support the third. Choose only videocards that are made for Mac, getting PC video cards to work under the Mac OS is difficult to impossible.

It sounds problematic! I really rather just have a MacPro ( I meant to say) and kill two birds with one stone rather than having two separate computers that don't like each other and take up twice as much space. I think both options will cost the about same.

Thanks for the speedy reply!

 

[thehaul]

Thinking more about it two 30" monitors would be sufficient and I can wait till the new graphics card comes out. Any recommendations on monitors? Looking for something that could be good for photos but not top of the line. (good performance but half the price etc..)

Thanks

 

[Plutor]

(edit: just re-read your post, looks like you need a 30", so this reply might not apply, oi)

Check out this 22" LCD: after a bunch of research, I decided to go with it, & ordered it 2 days ago.

http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/hp-w2207-lcd-monitor/4505-3174_7-32391039.html?tag=pop

Not cheap, but not expensive either. You could probably find a used one on ebay?

I'll post an update here after it arrives and I've used it a few days.

Thinking more about it two 30" monitors would be sufficient and I can wait till the new graphics card comes out. Any recommendations on monitors? Looking for something that could be good for photos but not top of the line. (good performance but half the price etc..)

Thanks

 

[thehaul]

(edit: just re-read your post, looks like you need a 30", so this reply might not apply, oi)

Check out this 22" LCD: after a bunch of research, I decided to go with it, & ordered it 2 days ago.

http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/hp-w2207-lcd-monitor/4505-3174_7-32391039.html?tag=pop

Not cheap, but not expensive either. You could probably find a used one on ebay?

I'll post an update here after it arrives and I've used it a few days.

I looked at the 30" version of it and it's great but 3 times the cost around 1300. In still havent decided what I need. Two 22" vertical monitors might work out but I don't think these can be oriented that way. Let me know how they look. What are you using them for? Photos?

thx