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I need to build a low power consumption PC, and got stuck with the question:

If a I use a motherboard like: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3988#sp will I be able to use simultaneously 2 monitors ? I see the following on the specs:

1 x D-Sub port 1 x DVI-D port

Will they function with extended desktop mode ? Probably these are very simple questions, but I lost contact with hardware world 3 years ago, and the current setup is ( 6GB RAM, Radeon 4850x2, etc is eating a lot of money in electricity bills (~55 USD difference in electricity bill when I was away from home about 1 month ) , because all I do all day is code, no games, etc.

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  • an important detail you should have included... what kind of monitors are you talking about? CRT? LCD? Right there, is a large difference in electricity consumption. For example... a standard 17" CRT monitor (like the KDS I have on the bench) can consume 140 watts, where the 17" LCD I use daily draws about 60 watts. Also, not every monitor is created equal... but CRT monitors do tend to consume more than LCD (Again, this all depends on the actual equipment). So right there is something you can look at.
    – Bon Gart
    Aug 3, 2012 at 13:15
  • I'd assume if he was away from home, he'd turn off both monitors ;)
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Aug 4, 2012 at 8:56

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A little digging indicates that that chipset supports dual monitors in theory, and most modern motherboards/chipsets seem to support dual and triple monitors. There's also nothing in the motherboard that indicates that you cannot - it does state that the DVI connector is digital only (which makes sense).

Looking at the manual (page 6) the two graphics outputs seem to be independant and should work at the same time

manual

It very likely should work.

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According to other forums, the answer is no

http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/pc-components-configurations/155573-need-advice-workstation-downloads-24x7-online-research.html

However, I'm surprised at this - I thought all modern boards would support it. I would take the PC into a computer shop and try it (but buy the monitor in the shop you're trying it) as this way you're not gambling.

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    Radeon Dual Graphics lets you run two different graphics card, ala nvidia optimus. It has nothing to do with 2 monitors on integrated graphics
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Aug 3, 2012 at 12:35

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