Share Computer Between Sim Rig and Office

[BillyBobSenna]

I am putting together a sim rig and planning to use the computer I use for a variety of tasks. The sim rig will have a triple display and my current office computer also has a set of 3 non-sim displays. It seems like a waste to have a compute for the sim and a separate computer for my office tasks. Has anyone created a setup where you can use the same computer for your sim rig and your office tasks? Can I flip a switch on a computer and change from a set of 3 sim rig displays to a set of 3 different office displays? Can I just add another video card to my computer?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I am putting together a sim rig and planning to use the computer I use for a variety of tasks. The sim rig will have a triple display and my current office computer also has a set of 3 non-sim displays. It seems like a waste to have a compute for the sim and a separate computer for my office tasks. Has anyone created a setup where you can use the same computer for your sim rig and your office tasks? Can I flip a switch on a computer and change from a set of 3 sim rig displays to a set of 3 different office displays? Can I just add another video card to my computer?

You probably need to look into splitters, one example

 

[Durge Driven]

I have been using everyday and sim towers for a while now ( had single tower for decades)

As gaming PC get powerful they consume a lot of power

Using a 3200G instead of 3900X for most of the day dropped my power bill
to under $200 the first time ever

For office work a 3200G is all you need it even multi tasks burning, encoding, downloading, browsing etc no worries at all

I only use 2 monitors but both are connected to both towers so I have all options

The best thing I ever did was to buy the Orico 15 port hub and a Corsair GTX thumbdrive ( 440 mb/s ) 128GB

Now everything from each computer ie: things you can't lose are on it
I leave it in the hub 24/7 so it boots with each computer


I keep nothing important on local drives which also means when you go out you can take your thumbdrive with your phone ......don't sync a single password local

 

[Locoblade]

You could use something like a Gigabyte Aorus graphics card, the 5700XT version has 6 ports that can be used simultaneously or if you prefer Nvidia, the Aorus versions of the RTX cards also have 6 outputs in total although only 4 can be used at any one time. I assume you could switch between them easily enough in nVidia control panel though.

 

[BillyBobSenna]

You could use something like a Gigabyte Aorus graphics card, the 5700XT version has 6 ports that can be used simultaneously or if you prefer Nvidia, the Aorus versions of the RTX cards also have 6 outputs in total although only 4 can be used at any one time. I assume you could switch between them easily enough in nVidia control panel though.

I am using an Aorus RTX 2070. So could I use 3 outputs from the card for the sim rig (surround), 1 output from the card for a office display, and 2 more outputs from the on motherboard video output for 2 additional office displays? If yes, would the sim performance take a hit from the office displays? Wow, 6 total displays.

 

[dud]

I gave up on that. The security implications of those many games and their associated tools alone make this non-viable.

And the most expensive part of my gaming computer is the graphics card, which the desktop normally doesn't need(*).


(*) I actually could use a more powerful GPU in the workstation for molecular dynamics calculations but that doesn't apply to most people.

 

[Locoblade]

I am using an Aorus RTX 2070. So could I use 3 outputs from the card for the sim rig (surround), 1 output from the card for a office display, and 2 more outputs from the on motherboard video output for 2 additional office displays? If yes, would the sim performance take a hit from the office displays? Wow, 6 total displays.

You could also do it that way I think assuming your CPU has on board VGA capability, but with the Aorus you probably have 6 outputs on the card itself that I assume you could just use those for your 6 monitors and switch between sim setup and office setup via NVidia control panel?

 

[BillyBobSenna]

You could also do it that way I think assuming your CPU has on board VGA capability, but with the Aorus you probably have 6 outputs on the card itself that I assume you could just use those for your 6 monitors and switch between sim setup and office setup via NVidia control panel?

Duh! Great suggestion. Thank you. That is now my plan. I hope switching is easy. I always need to fiddle when I change from surround to standard mode. Will be interesting to switch from 3 in surround to a different 3 displays in standard mode.

 

[idealtarget]

Switching is not difficult, but it takes time.. You can use this software to switch on-off surround easily. https://github.com/falahati/HeliosD...5Ym-2k6zRKtZ5W2Myfpy7VxbIDFMfTKMaWLv9YFiQWl4A

 

[jeefAD]

My rig does double duty using a 2070 with four displays connected. Three are in surround for sim and a single 4k for the daily stuff. I don't bother disabling surround, just toggling the primary display between the single and surround setup seems to work for me.

 

[BillyBobSenna]

My rig does double duty using a 2070 with four displays connected. Three are in surround for sim and a single 4k for the daily stuff. I don't bother disabling surround, just toggling the primary display between the single and surround setup seems to work for me.

I also landed with this setup. Seems very reliable and efficient. I just use the win key - P option to switch between primary and secondary display.