Matrox Extio F1400 quad graphics extender

We can't see too many applications that would require a four head KVM extender up to 820 feet from your workstation, but where there's niche, there's a product -- like Matrox's new Extio F1400. Basically it's a remote graphics unit that shifts your desktop experience from right next to your box to wherever the hell you want it within 820 feet, via high speed fiber optics back to the mothership. No, we can tell already this graphics system isn't really meant for Dooming it up or anything like that, but for a desktop extension without a thin-client solution, the Extio F1400 is probably as sophisticated (and expensive) a solution as you're gonna find.

[Wintrode @ Feb 23rd 2006 8:44AM]

Would love to use this thing on the trading desks that I support. That way I can rack mount all of the trader PC's and ease my HW support big time. We looked at a bunch of multi-monitor KVM extension solutions years ago, but they were horrible. This actually looks like the real deal. Good stuff Matrox!

[w.y. @ Feb 23rd 2006 9:10AM]

Sure it will be used to many industries which needs graphics applications. Good Matrox!

[Damien Benoit @ Feb 23rd 2006 9:31AM]

That would be perfect for my home studio. Keep the CPU far away from your area so you dont need to hear it at all, plus I use 2 monitors now and run out of real estate fast!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bob @ Feb 23rd 2006 10:12AM]

couldnt you just hook up 4 of those to the first one and so on until you get like 1000?

[nicholas @ Feb 23rd 2006 1:46PM]

Wouldn't it be nice if somthing like this were built in to large displays to assist lower powere devices like tablets?

[hector @ Feb 23rd 2006 4:12PM]

man, i wish i had 4 screens just for leasure, a screen for web browsing, iming, movie, and photo editing...any one know a cheap alternative to pull something like that off?

[irfaan @ Feb 23rd 2006 4:20PM]

It's hard to tell looking at the picture - I hope those are USB ports the keyboard and mouse are attached to, not PS/2.

I'd be awfully neat if this could be switched between multiple machines, or even repeated. That would allow someone like me to easily move between locations, while still having access to my multi-monitor desktop.

While the product is really interested to me, I'm reluctant to actually consider it any further - I vowed never to buy another bit of Matrox kit after getting burned by the G200 and G400. Matrox hardware is dandy, but the software support has seriously soured me to the brand.


I ended up ditching my G400 Max to return to a pair of Intel i740's, which was a dead product line by that point - even products other companies relegated to the maintence dustbin had better support.


I'm curious what this thing is going to cost - when I think of Matrox, I'm not exactly thinking "value-pricing", afterall. :)

[irfaan @ Feb 23rd 2006 4:45PM]

#6 - PCI video cards (*not* to be confused with PCIe). I push 5 monitors on my main machine, and am capable of running 6. How? 2 dual-head GeForce MX PCI cards + my main dual-head 6800GT.

I have a habit of picking up PCI dualhead GeForce MX cards when I find them - awfully easy way to bump up a machine's monitor count. Though I should mention - the most recent nVidia driver iteration did *not* work with my setup - the PCI cards' displays were garbled. Hopefully this is just a temporary hiccup, but I figure it should atleast by mentioned.

[Jonathan Buford @ Feb 23rd 2006 10:12PM]

The SGI Onyx system had something like this back in 1998. I remember they got one at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon around that time. The machine would sit in the ground level or basement and the user operated it from the 3rd floor or something on that order.