CentOS - Aug 2013 - Triple- or Quad-display single-card graphics solutions

So, after some discussion of our new control workstations, we are iterating in
on a solution; we are looking at a 1U short-depth SuperMicro SuperServer
5017R-MF with a graphics card in the PCI-Ex16 expansion slot. However, the
display requirements have increased to 3 or more monitors for future expansion,
so I was wondering whether anyone had any experience with triple- or
quad-display single card solutions. Thus far, I have found two promising
solutions:

NVidia NVS 510 or 450
Matrox M-series M9138 or M9148

Both these solutions claim to have Linux support, but I was wondering if anyone
had any experience with them in CentOS 6.4? And if there were any other
solutions I had overlooked?

Thanks,
-G.
--
Glenn Eychaner (geychaner at lco.cl)
Telescope Systems Programmer, Las Campanas Observatory

On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Glenn Eychaner <geychaner at mac.com>
wrote:
> So, after some discussion of our new control workstations, we are
> iterating in on a solution; we are looking at a 1U short-depth SuperMicro
> SuperServer 5017R-MF with a graphics card in the PCI-Ex16 expansion slot.
> However, the display requirements have increased to 3 or more monitors for
> future expansion, so I was wondering whether anyone had any experience with
> triple- or quad-display single card solutions. Thus far, I have found two
> promising solutions:
>
> NVidia NVS 510 or 450
>
I have an nVidia 510 in a Dell Optiplex 9010, small form factor computer
using CentOS 6.4.  It works well with the standard nouveau driver.

I used to use Matrox M9140 cards, but that requires the Matrox proprietary
driver which, at the time (April 2013), had not been updated to install
on CentOS 6.4.  Perhaps by now it has.

However, I like the NVS 510 and I'll use them in the future.

Is the NVS 450 card one or two GPUs?  If two, you'll have two video cards
and you'll probably have to stitch the monitors together with xinerama.

Matrox M-series M9138 or M9148
>
> Both these solutions claim to have Linux support, but I was wondering if
> anyone had any experience with them in CentOS 6.4? And if there were any
> other solutions I had overlooked?
>
> Thanks,
> -G.
> --
> Glenn Eychaner (geychaner at lco.cl)
> Telescope Systems Programmer, Las Campanas Observatory
>
As an amateur astronomer, I'm a little envious.  However, I probably
wouldn't do well at 2380 m altitude.

-- 
Dale Dellutri

Just found this thread
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2013-April/134212.html
and Emailed the author for details.

On Aug 20, 2013, at 2:52 PM, Glenn Eychaner <geychaner at mac.com> wrote:
> So, after some discussion of our new control workstations, we are iterating
in on a solution; we are looking at a 1U short-depth SuperMicro SuperServer
5017R-MF with a graphics card in the PCI-Ex16 expansion slot. However, the
display requirements have increased to 3 or more monitors for future expansion,
so I was wondering whether anyone had any experience with triple- or
quad-display single card solutions. Thus far, I have found two promising
solutions:
> 
> NVidia NVS 510 or 450
> Matrox M-series M9138 or M9148
> 
> Both these solutions claim to have Linux support, but I was wondering if
anyone had any experience with them in CentOS 6.4? And if there were any other
solutions I had overlooked?
-G.
--
Glenn Eychaner (geychaner at lco.cl)
Telescope Systems Programmer, Las Campanas Observatory