Looking for a low-power computer to drive two or three 4K monitors

[Phil Marsh]

Hi Evelyn,
It turns out that I got three 4k displays working on my old tower server. I
have a computer case + power supply from 2007 and 2014 and I'm thinking of
just getting a low-power motherboard into one of these and then moving my
old graphics card to it? That way, I could run the three monitors with
certainty and leave the computer on all the time without wasting energy.
Aaron helped me here and I'm going to try the HP T740 thin client.
Best and thanks,
Phil

On Sat, Mar 2, 2024 at 3:20 PM Evelyn Mitchell <efmphone at gmail.com> wrote:

> It looks like the 12 gen ($725) will drive up to 4x4k or one 8k.
> NUC12WSKi5
>
> The prior gen also does. ($495)
> NUC11PAHi7
>
> I have no experience with either.
> Evelyn
>
> On Sat, Mar 2, 2024, 2:28 PM Phil Marsh <microcraftx at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> Could someone advise me? I'm looking for a low energy use computer setup
>> to drive two or three 4K monitors. Presently, I run a big tower server to
>> do that but it's from 2014 and eats enough power to keep my office warm -
>> two E5-2630v2s but it can't compete with my newer server stack for compute
>> power anyway and I'm thinking of getting a dual EPYC motherboard to upgrade
>> it for computing if I really need more compute power. In any case, it seems
>> wasteful to use an old server like this just to drive my 4K monitors.
>> I tried a Dell laptop XPS 9370 13" with a docking station but found that
>> while the docking station has two 4K DVI ports, it appears to still be able
>> to drive a maximum of one 4K monitor. While that's great when I travel (I
>> typically pack a 4K monitor in my luggage), in my home office I run two 4K
>> monitors and might even want to run three 4Ks.
>> I was looking into the Intel NUC machines but does anyone know if they'll
>> actually drive at least two 4K monitors?
>> Could you kindly give me your experiences and ideas?
>> Thanks,
>> Phil
>>
>
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