Multi-monitor (3x) setup: (1) linux? (2) graphics card?

[iLLucionist]

I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.

Now. Has anyone here true experience with:
1) Multi-monitor setup and NVidia cards in Linux as of lately? Is Xinerama still a thing/ working?
2) What LOWEST END GFX could I possibly buy to drive 3x27" 2560x1440 that is silent? I will be, namely, replacing the card with a Nvidia GTX 1070 later on.
3) How good is NVidia / AMD these days on linux?

[davkol]

It depends what you intend to do.

I wouldn't touch *any* proprietary drivers with a ten foot pole. Thus, considering the state of Nouveau, I wouldn't touch anything nvidia with a ten foot pole.
The reason is simple: working desktop out of the box—even in 10 years, when the hardware will be completely ignored by the vendor.

The only passively cooled graphic cards with multiple DisplayPorts, that I've found, are quadros/firepros, though… I'm not sure what their drivers are like these days.

[tp4tissue]

You don't need passive cooling for silence..

You just need a 120mm cpu cooler mounted to the graphics card..

Low RPM is the key to silence..


You can get low enough,  such that your cpu-gpu-motherboard- electronics whine, will be louder than your fans..

[davkol]

If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.

[fknraiden]

You could probably get away with the gtx 970. my asus runs silent.
I actually have all of those parts you mentioned. the 950pro, 16 ddr4, and the 6500

[tp4tissue]

If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.

If this is the office at work.. makes sense..


But if it's Dusty --in your house--   then the problem isn't the fans,  rather, you should clean the house no ?

[davkol]

But if it's Dusty --in your house--   then the problem isn't the fans,  rather, you should clean the house no ?

It depends on the location (environment/climate), part of the year, and finally, old houses tend to be dusty in general… not to mention smokers and what not.

[iLLucionist]

You could probably get away with the gtx 970. my asus runs silent.
I actually have all of those parts you mentioned. the 950pro, 16 ddr4, and the 6500

Cool! How do you like your system? Is it snappy? What gpu do you have yourself?

[iLLucionist]

If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.

If this is the office at work.. makes sense..


But if it's Dusty --in your house--   then the problem isn't the fans,  rather, you should clean the house no ?

Show Image

No matter what I do, when I remove dust half an hour later it's there again.

[iLLucionist]

You don't need passive cooling for silence..

You just need a 120mm cpu cooler mounted to the graphics card..

Low RPM is the key to silence..


You can get low enough,  such that your cpu-gpu-motherboard- electronics whine, will be louder than your fans..

Good point.. Back in the day I always had these Zalman heatpipe coolers that I attached to my graphics cards to make them more silent. Like on the 4800 Ti and the 5xxx

[iLLucionist]

Bump. Anybody advice?

[SBJ]

If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.

If this is the office at work.. makes sense..


But if it's Dusty --in your house--   then the problem isn't the fans,  rather, you should clean the house no ?

Show Image

No matter what I do, when I remove dust half an hour later it's there again.

I know those feels, the house we moved out of we had to have the bed in the livingroom (house was terrible) and my computer would get insanely dusty.
I still haven't figured out a method of getting rid of dust, especially not if you have a bed in the same room.
Although airing out A LOT helps plus just removing dust once a day.

[TacticalCoder]

For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.

I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).

If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.

[xtrafrood]

For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.

I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).

If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.

You might be waiting a while before you hear of a passively cooled GPU that can handle that kind of load. A hybrid cooled gtx of some kind (can replace fans with quiet varieties) sure no problem. Oh.. Linux.. Sorry

[Leslieann]

I can't help with the card, but I can with the noise and dust. I've battled both for years.

Large low rpm fans  as mentioned is key to not just noise, but a larger fan can move more air without picking up as much dust. Lots of air, at low speed and low pressure.

I prefer boxes with a large mesh front, with only large fans in the rear blowing out, allowing the entire front to act as a low pressure/velocity intake. This allows the air to move into the case slowly and dust to settle, be it outside the case, or just inside the front panel. If you blow the air in, it sucks in dust and blows it right at your card. Also no top ports.

The more air moving through your box, the less hard your gpu fans will need to work, which translates to less noise and dust. If you have spinner drives, mount them high and out of the air flow. In it, they obstruct flow, act as a holding area for dust, and put heat into the air stream.

If you have a basement, put it in there, and use long cords, I currently do that, despite a quiet system. No computer in the room at all is better than any fan.

[TacticalCoder]

I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.

tmux FTW!

Anyway, I'm interested by your build... Which mobo? I was thinking about an ASUS Z170A for a similar setup. It has 3 PCI-E and a M.2 x4 / 32 Gb/s so your M.2 SDD should fly on such a motherboard (I saw some benchmarks of the Samsung M.2 950 pro and this things seems to be really fast)

Not too sure about the 3 PCI-E: could you just buy 3 cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate (fully passively cooled, doing 4 K @ 60 Hz) and plug one in each PCI-E slot? Would that even work to drive the three 27" screens?

I'm really curious because my workstation is Linux-only too and I'm thinking about a similar setup too. At first I was thinking about a single 34" (curved) screen but three 27" would probably be even better.

[xtrafrood]

I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.

tmux FTW!

Anyway, I'm interested by your build... Which mobo? I was thinking about an ASUS Z170A for a similar setup. It has 3 PCI-E and a M.2 x4 / 32 Gb/s so your M.2 SDD should fly on such a motherboard (I saw some benchmarks of the Samsung M.2 950 pro and this things seems to be really fast)

Not too sure about the 3 PCI-E: could you just buy 3 cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate (fully passively cooled, doing 4 K @ 60 Hz) and plug one in each PCI-E slot? Would that even work to drive the three 27" screens?

I'm really curious because my workstation is Linux-only too and I'm thinking about a similar setup too. At first I was thinking about a single 34" (curved) screen but three 27" would probably be even better.

I've been thinking about switching to Linux when I build a quasi-workstation, this is all pretty interesting

[TacticalCoder]

I did some more reading... The ASUS Z170-A mobo's integrated GPU can apparently drive up to two 2560x1440 monitors simultaneously @ 60 Hz. The DisplayPort port (!) is DisplayPort 1.2 (1.3 would be even better in your case). Then I think you can add say the cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate I mentioned above: it's passively cooled and should be able to drive a 3rd monitor.


If this work than I think it'd meet your requirements. I think that you'll need to tell the BIOS to keep the integrated GPU on after you've plugged a GPU (at least on my current setup I had to do that).

I'm buying a new workstation anyway (not right away: currently travelling) and I'm going for that ASUS Z170-A + either Core i7 6700 or Core i5 6600 (not the 'K' version: I don't care for OC and want the 65 max TDP) + M.2 SSD build and I'll be running Linux only. I've got access to many monitors so I should give a try to a tri-monitors eventually but don't hold your breath

I also plan to try a curved 34" 3440x1440 screen and see if I can drive it @ 60 Hz using the DisplayPort 1.2 on the ASUS Z170-A mobo (it should work fine).

[iLLucionist]

For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.

I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).

If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.

Thanks for the info. I'm still looking around. Also depends a bit on how WWDC turns out... I'm a poweruser in the true sense of the word: I need POWER and I actually use software to the max (research / programming). MacBooks and what not are becoming underpowered and too expensive (like the 90's with Apple), which is driving me towards Linux as I'm NOT touching MS Telemetry 10.

If I find decent components, I will post! I was also thinking on waiting for a 1070 with good quiet cooler, or installing three-four 140mm fans in the front of a sick huge case so that it will remain near-quiet all the time.

[iLLucionist]

For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.

I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).

If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.

You might be waiting a while before you hear of a passively cooled GPU that can handle that kind of load. A hybrid cooled gtx of some kind (can replace fans with quiet varieties) sure no problem. Oh.. Linux.. Sorry

Yeah, well... I'm a bit anxious for the nouveau / proprietary nvidia driver and how'll that turn out. Especially when my system will age... it sounds like basically after 5 years your screwed with any hardware nowadays, win, linux or apple. But if I go the custom build route and "sick" my system with a 1070 and 64gb ram and 4x512 nvme/m.2 ssd in raid-0 I expect it to last 7-10 years with only occassional maintenance.

[iLLucionist]

I can't help with the card, but I can with the noise and dust. I've battled both for years.

Large low rpm fans  as mentioned is key to not just noise, but a larger fan can move more air without picking up as much dust. Lots of air, at low speed and low pressure.

I prefer boxes with a large mesh front, with only large fans in the rear blowing out, allowing the entire front to act as a low pressure/velocity intake. This allows the air to move into the case slowly and dust to settle, be it outside the case, or just inside the front panel. If you blow the air in, it sucks in dust and blows it right at your card. Also no top ports.

The more air moving through your box, the less hard your gpu fans will need to work, which translates to less noise and dust. If you have spinner drives, mount them high and out of the air flow. In it, they obstruct flow, act as a holding area for dust, and put heat into the air stream.

If you have a basement, put it in there, and use long cords, I currently do that, despite a quiet system. No computer in the room at all is better than any fan.

I have a home-built i5 server with 4 spinning hdd's (WD RED 5400rpm), integrated gpu, and custom tweaked fans. It is really silent. People always ask me whether my server is off or something is broken, because they literally never hear it. I also never hear it. Only when I literally hold my head against the case. So it CAN be done. I used noctua fans for everything: cpu, case fans, extra hdd cage fan. I even swapped out the PSU fan for a noctua. And it's been running for almost 3 years now and still good. Noctua with their beige/brown look is ugly, but it IS quality.

[iLLucionist]

I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.

tmux FTW!

Anyway, I'm interested by your build... Which mobo? I was thinking about an ASUS Z170A for a similar setup. It has 3 PCI-E and a M.2 x4 / 32 Gb/s so your M.2 SDD should fly on such a motherboard (I saw some benchmarks of the Samsung M.2 950 pro and this things seems to be really fast)

Not too sure about the 3 PCI-E: could you just buy 3 cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate (fully passively cooled, doing 4 K @ 60 Hz) and plug one in each PCI-E slot? Would that even work to drive the three 27" screens?

I'm really curious because my workstation is Linux-only too and I'm thinking about a similar setup too. At first I was thinking about a single 34" (curved) screen but three 27" would probably be even better.

Could you describe your workstation? Components, distro, typical software? I'm really curious to learn about how people use linux as their serious productivity driver.

I'm still looking into components. Recently read an article on a (ASRock) motherboard with 2 m.2 slots. They put 2 x  Samsung 950 in raid 0 and it was blazingly fast: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/7553/samsung-950-pro-pcie-gen-3x4-nvme-ssd-raid-report/index.html

That was on the Z170 chipset if I remember correctly, but that chipset is also old. So I'm actually waiting for X99 (is the newest chipset yes?) with 2 m.2 sockets and native raid-0 support (or in the os, linux should be able to handle it with mdadm and lvm as boot drive).

I'm also curious what Amd Zen wil bring us and whether Intel will announce something more interesting.

Further, I'm a bit disappointed that DDR4 is not that much faster than DDR3. From what I've read, although raw MhZ increased, CAS latencies increased as well, partly negating the advantage of the MhZ.

[iLLucionist]

I did some more reading... The ASUS Z170-A mobo's integrated GPU can apparently drive up to two 2560x1440 monitors simultaneously @ 60 Hz. The DisplayPort port (!) is DisplayPort 1.2 (1.3 would be even better in your case). Then I think you can add say the cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate I mentioned above: it's passively cooled and should be able to drive a 3rd monitor.


If this work than I think it'd meet your requirements. I think that you'll need to tell the BIOS to keep the integrated GPU on after you've plugged a GPU (at least on my current setup I had to do that).

I'm buying a new workstation anyway (not right away: currently travelling) and I'm going for that ASUS Z170-A + either Core i7 6700 or Core i5 6600 (not the 'K' version: I don't care for OC and want the 65 max TDP) + M.2 SSD build and I'll be running Linux only. I've got access to many monitors so I should give a try to a tri-monitors eventually but don't hold your breath

I also plan to try a curved 34" 3440x1440 screen and see if I can drive it @ 60 Hz using the DisplayPort 1.2 on the ASUS Z170-A mobo (it should work fine).

Cool info, thanks! What 27"-ers do you use currently? I'm using one 2713HM now (same panel as in Apple's Thunderbolt display, but matte coating luckily).

Du you now if that motherboard supports 2 m.2 connectors? Ideally, I'd like to do a raid-0 build or something (yes I know... but I'll be backing up every week).

[Leslieann]

I have a home-built i5 server with 4 spinning hdd's (WD RED 5400rpm), integrated gpu, and custom tweaked fans. It is really silent. People always ask me whether my server is off or something is broken, because they literally never hear it. I also never hear it. Only when I literally hold my head against the case. So it CAN be done. I used noctua fans for everything: cpu, case fans, extra hdd cage fan. I even swapped out the PSU fan for a noctua. And it's been running for almost 3 years now and still good. Noctua with their beige/brown look is ugly, but it IS quality.

My systems are all pretty much dead silent as well, I still prefer it in the basement.

Besides there being no sound (or interference), there's no (ugly) box getting in the way. With it in the basement, I can use any case, and not have to look at it. There are some rather functional cheap cases out there, they just look terrible.

[iLLucionist]

I have a home-built i5 server with 4 spinning hdd's (WD RED 5400rpm), integrated gpu, and custom tweaked fans. It is really silent. People always ask me whether my server is off or something is broken, because they literally never hear it. I also never hear it. Only when I literally hold my head against the case. So it CAN be done. I used noctua fans for everything: cpu, case fans, extra hdd cage fan. I even swapped out the PSU fan for a noctua. And it's been running for almost 3 years now and still good. Noctua with their beige/brown look is ugly, but it IS quality.

My systems are all pretty much dead silent as well, I still prefer it in the basement.

Besides there being no sound (or interference), there's no (ugly) box getting in the way. With it in the basement, I can use any case, and not have to look at it. There are some rather functional cheap cases out there, they just look terrible.

Yeah, unfortanately, I have to agree with you on that point. Most boxes look hideous (IMHO).

[TacticalCoder]

Could you describe your workstation? Components, distro, typical software? I'm really curious to learn about how people use linux as their serious productivity driver.

I'm a software dev (although I do have some Linux sysadmin skills and do take care of a few servers). Typical software for me is: Emacs, IntelliJ IDEA (for Java stuff) and browsers. I'm using the "Awesome WM" window manager: it's a tiling window manager. No icons, no "desktop": only borders-less windows basically always taking up the entire screen.



I need a big screen. Ideally big screens. I remember paying 1200 EUR (!) for one of the very first 20" LCD to come with a digital connector. Before that I'd fork big bucks for Sony Trinitrons. Currently I'm happy with my 27" 2560x1440 but I tried a 34" (one of the fancy curved ones) for a while and kinda liked it.


I also need a keyboard with which I feel comfortable and then I need a chair I feel fine in: YMMV but I love my Aeron.


My "workstation" (in that it's for work very mainly (some forum reading too): there's no sound and I don't play games nor watch vids on that computer) is getting old by now: a 3rd gen / Ivy bridge Core i5 3450s (max 65 W TDP, easy to silence), ASUS mobo (don't remember which one), 16 GB of whatever Kingston DDR3 memory (which was kinda a lot for a PC back when I built that setup). Be Quiet! PSU, very old (and very quiet) Panaflo fan for the CPU cooler, 128 GB SSD (don't have big storage needs at all). The SSD is the only upgrade I ever did to that machine.


I'm not doing anything fancy in my builds: no gaming at all on this machine (only machine on which I play is my old vintage arcade cabinet!), so no need for anything but the integrated GPU (as I'm driving only one screen). Without any GPU, I'm only being cautious in picking up a CPU with a lowish max TDP (say up to 65W) so I'm not drawing much power, not generating much heat at all, not needing fancy cooling / fans.


I should be replacing it "soon" with a sixth gen / Skylake build (also with a CPU with kinda lowish max TDP) and one of these M.2 / PCI3.0x4 high-throughput SSDs (I won't bother with striping although I can see the appeal). Apparently they draw a little bit more power than sata SSDs, but nothing crazy. The coming (end of 2016 I think) high-throughput/ultra-low latency Intel SSDs looks insanely fast too: they should be way faster in actual/typical use. Maybe I'll just update the SSD once they come out.


Haven't looked much yet into the Z170 vs X99 mobo thinggy: I don't need something too crazy... As long as the mobo's integrated GPU can drive my 27" and potentially later on a 34" @ 60 Hz and as long as it has a PCI3.0x4 / M.2 connector, it should be a huge improvement over what I've got now.


The M.2 connector isn't mandatory: I could just use an adapter in a PCI-e slot but I kinda like the form factor of these SSDs with M.2 connectors 


Let's keep in touch for our builds: mine's probably gonna be for end of august / early september unless I decide to do it before the vacation.

[mrhead]

My setup is completely silent:

Gigabyte GA-X99P-SLI
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti 6GB G1 Gaming OC Edition
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300 Memory
Noctua NH-D15 SS02 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler
Intel Core i7-5820K 6 Core 3.3GHz Processor
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate 2TB HDD
Corsair RM1000 Power Supply (Fully modular)
DIYPC D480-BK Case - supports 120mm fans, mesh front and top with filters

Even when I play games it's quiet.  My Afterglow controller scares me when it registers feedback (plugged in) while I'm using my keyboard/mouse for gaming.

[cryptokey]

(2)

I'm running an Nvidia GPU with on a newer laptop with Arch Linux.  The only issues that I had were getting 4k working with i3wm.  On another machine, I have an Nvidia GPU running two monitors with absolutely no problem with i3wm.  I frequently use it for gaming as well, without issues.

Edit:  Also, I am using xrandr with i3wm and Nouveau drivers.  Since in my old Windoze days, I had two 560ti's in SLI, now it slightly kills me inside that I can't use SLI.  But being honest with myself now, those two GPU's are overkill since I only play CSGO now and then (I used to game more at the time of purchase).

[TacticalCoder]

My setup is completely silent:

Gigabyte GA-X99P-SLI
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti 6GB G1 Gaming OC Edition
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300 Memory
Noctua NH-D15 SS02 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler
Intel Core i7-5820K 6 Core 3.3GHz Processor
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate 2TB HDD
Corsair RM1000 Power Supply (Fully modular)
DIYPC D480-BK Case - supports 120mm fans, mesh front and top with filters

Even when I play games it's quiet.  My Afterglow controller scares me when it registers feedback (plugged in) while I'm using my keyboard/mouse for gaming.

Nice rig, cool that you got it cool despite the CPU's max TDP: impressive!

As to me I got to sell my 4-years old Core i5 today for a good price and so I ordered a Core i7 max 65 TDP / ASUS Z170-A mobo / a very fast M.2 SSD Samsung 950 Pro / 16 GB of RAM / quiet tower / quite PSU ("Be Quiet!" PSU, 400 W, 15 dB max @ 100% load, 100% load which it'll never reach anyway) / quiet CPU cooler. Can't wait. I think I'll feel the difference.

I may change the Samsung SSD later on if / when Intel comes up with their new SSDs (end of 2016 I think I read in another thread here).