Matrix Multi Monitor Set-Up

March 6, 2010 - 8:11 pm 25 Comments

After watching Matrix and The Dark Night, dealing with a lot of share market clients who boast huge multi-monitor setups, and doing some research of my own, I cobbled together a thin yet serviceable 6-monitor setup using some various utilities and screensavers. Quite a site. I like the “cobbled together” look, hence the crookedness of the monitors. They are ASUS series 16 inch (3 on top, one on the right) and 2 x 22 inch.

Set-up: Since I didn’t really intend on upgrading my computers, but I did want a lot more desktop real-estate, I used 2 x USB “UGA” SVGA plug-in devices to power the top two 16″ monitors at 1360 x 768 16-bit (it can do 32-bit, but due to the limitations of USB 2.0 it can’t do full screen at 32-bit) affecting video fluidly…. so I settled for 16-bit col and a slight grain/dither on the DivX/Mpeg renderer and it looks pretty good.

The 2 x 22″ monitors are powered by an 8800GTS 320MB (the older slower card). This does not phase me, since I’m only running an AM2 chip 5600+

That leaves the monitor on the right. That is actually an old P4 2.4ghz chip with an upgraded AGP graphics card that has 2 outs, 1 analog and 1 dvi which can be used simultaneously. At the time of the video, it was 3am and I didn’t have an adaptor plug for the dvi. As in, the 16″ monitor only accepts analog in and so I couldn’t really plug in anything to activate it. Still, it’ll work after the adaptor gets plugged in. Thanks to maxivista.com, the AM2 machine can remote-control the P4/AGP set-up via LAN, so it feels like one giant 6-screen behemoth.

I even ran an old matrix screensaver which looked pretty slick in the video. Thumbs up from me!

PS: After you’ve watched this for your monitor-setup ideas, check out my buddy’s submerged oil-PC here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9v7_RRcc7s

Duration : 0:1:14


[youtube B0Ls96TTVvY]

25 Responses to “Matrix Multi Monitor Set-Up”

  1. Nickings07 Says:

    It’s like real-time …
    It’s like real-time designing without the flaws.

  2. thaportal Says:

    Seems very heavy
    Seems very heavy

  3. allmetalhead Says:

    sexyy man!!
    sexyy man!!

  4. bigdima3 Says:

    ur mad
    ur mad

  5. rsherfan Says:

    hahaha. that’s good …
    hahaha. that’s good stuff.

  6. taterfrickintot Says:

    and i thought my …
    and i thought my dual monitors was good. you life ruiner. nice setup =D

  7. genivf2 Says:

    nice setup
    nice setup

  8. rsherfan Says:

    @TheJazzyTrombone …
    @TheJazzyTrombone we are currently using it for running Ableton Live with lots of VST plugins. There is a youtube channel with some of our work – just search for 430ntube on youtube and you’ll see our channel for music production. cheers.

  9. TheJazzyTrombone Says:

    what do you do on …
    what do you do on that…video editing, programming, stuff like taht…and where did you get the matrix screen saver

  10. ComputerJunkies Says:

    I CAN SEE YOU POWER …
    I CAN SEE YOU POWER BILL NOW!

  11. walter0bz Says:

    imagine 3D …
    imagine 3D modelling with one physical screen per viewport..

  12. ICHAS3I Says:

    How many video …
    How many video cards do you have running this thing

  13. rsherfan Says:

    @DRAWER27 oops… …
    @DRAWER27 oops… by 2nd hand I meant eBay. don’t know much more about the retailers who sell these to the public. sorry.

  14. DRAWER27 Says:

    thank you for …
    thank you for answering …
    but my question is where did you get them , because i went to homedeepot they don’t have not even best buy or staples .
    If you know a specific store where to get it let me know please

  15. rsherfan Says:

    I got the hex stand …
    I got the hex stand 2nd hand for about $600ish AUD. The monitors were factory 2nds. All up I spent about 1.5k for everything. To do this today would be much cheaper. Monitors are a lot cheaper and with eyefinity you can get some awesome setups dirt cheap.

  16. AZUFO1123 Says:

    u have a problem jk …
    u have a problem jk lolahahahahahaha

  17. TkMToM1993 Says:

    yer but i dont like …
    yer but i dont like how der all spaced out and different size’s and having to look up all the time.. :/

  18. YeorRecneps Says:

    @TkMToM1993
    lol …

    @TkMToM1993
    lol please be more jealous. Dual gpu’s can handle that perfectly and more monitors = more screen space = more productivity.

  19. TkMToM1993 Says:

    tbh it looks …
    tbh it looks HORRIBLE, and annoying… i couldn’t work with that many monitors and i bet ur graphics and stuff are terrible :/

  20. DRAWER27 Says:

    wow really nice …
    wow really nice your monitors set up
    looks awesome…
    hey quick question
    1)where did you get these arms mount the screen holders ?
    2)how much you spent on?
    please let me know where to buy them …
    i’ll appreciate it

  21. janX9 Says:

    Yeah that “cobbled” …
    Yeah that “cobbled” look is pretty cool, and I don’t know what it is about matrix screen savers, but I just love them. Kinda makes me want to install mine again…I just installed W7 on my main machine so it’s a little bare at the moment.

    I like to run the matrix screensaver on the desktop with and auto-hide taskbar and bare desktop, that way I can stare at it while I’m doing other things. It’ just so nifty.

    Well gotta go find my matrix screensavers and install UltraMon. *poof*

  22. janX9 Says:

    I think he just did …
    I think he just did it for fun, It’s pretty hard to utilize that many screens unless you do some sort of editing (video/audio), or are a software/game developer.

    It would be fun to have, but I’m pretty content with 3 screens. I barely even use my third screen

    Well acctually my 3rd screen is cloned to all the TV’s in my house, and is really only used for watching movies around the house, generally, unless I have company over, my 3rd output is turned off.

  23. lee881962 Says:

    i think im in love
    i think im in love

  24. shemhead Says:

    1 for wow, one for …
    1 for wow, one for itunes 2 for porn, and one for MSN/Facebook/Digsby/myspace/twitter/youtube.

  25. murry001 Says:

    what do you need …
    what do you need ALL of those screens for?

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