Multi-display Cards P750 or P650?

[Teffy]

Please help me decide between the multi-display cards, Matrox P750 or P650. (I'm not a gamer.)

Option for 3rd display with P750: I only own 2 monitors now, but CRT's are cheap. Don't know if I'd find 3 more useful than 2, or unmanageable.

Matrox says, "TripleHead is available only in "stretched" mode with a maximum resolution of 3840x1024.." Does this in any way mean Triple head doesn't look as good due to the resolution?

P650 passive cooling, P750 active. Is fan a plus or minus? i.e. if fan dies, house burns down? Or, it's always nice to have more air moving around in the mini-tower? Is the extra room required by a fan a problem? (I have a Dell Dimension 4100.) Is the fan quiet?

Price: $215 vs $159 = $56 difference. (newegg.com)

P750 is RETAIL and p650 is OEM: I can't think why I would care in this case. I don't think there are any parts except the card, and I assume I could get any drivers and manuals from the Matrox site.

Thanks for additions, corrections, and advice!
Teffy

[Sasq]

The OEM comes with cables and driver CD as far as I know.

The fan is fairly quite, but if not quiet enough you could allways change it.

I'm still running the P750 in my main rig, and I only use two monitors, however the TV out does have its benifits.

What is your intended use?

Dan

[Teffy]

What is your intended use?

I do alot of surfing, image editing, and html coding. I never play games - too many repetitive motion problems already!

I have never used multiple monitors before, so I don't know if I will want to end up with two or three. Three seems like alot to look at, but experience might change that...?

I typically have 10 to 20 windows open. Perhaps this is due to a short attention span, and letting one thing lead to another until I have 5 projects going.

Teffy

[Sasq]

While probably not neccesary, if you have the money, spend the extra. It allows you to experiment later, as well as having two monitors to work with and a tv out if you progress from image editing to video editing.

[FormerEx-SalesSoup]

I have found three monitors to be even more useful than two. Typically, I run e-mail on one, ColdFusion in the middle, and IE on the third. I've never had to waste time minimizing, maximizing or moving application windows around. If you can afford to spend the extra $50+, you'll be getting everything the P650 has and more and won't kick yourself later on for not giving yourself the option of moving up to 3 monitors.

[martinlk]

Originally posted by Sasq
I'm still running the P750 in my main rig, and I only use two monitors, however the TV out does have its benifits.

I'll just barge in here! Is the P750's tv-out any different from that on a P650? I've been thinking of buying a P650 because I want a really good tv-out and good image quality on my main monitor.

[Sasq]

No different, excpet that you need to buy the optional cable from Matrox.