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More than one monitor
Reynolds
Gone Fishin'Registered User regular
Gone Fishin'Registered User regular
I haven't made a thread here before, so I'm sorry if I did something wrong. But, I promised my friend I would ask you guys. You're all good with this stuff, right?
Very basic, to start off with. My friend has a computer. He has one monitor hooked up. He has two extra. He wants to connect one or both of the extra ones up as well. They're all the big CRT style ones.
What all equipment or software does he need to do this? What will he need to do to make it work?
I can get more specific info about his computer/monitors if you need to know it. But the computer has a pretty standard setup.
Very basic, to start off with. My friend has a computer. He has one monitor hooked up. He has two extra. He wants to connect one or both of the extra ones up as well. They're all the big CRT style ones.
What all equipment or software does he need to do this? What will he need to do to make it work?
I can get more specific info about his computer/monitors if you need to know it. But the computer has a pretty standard setup.
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http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/
Maybe someone knows a free alternative?
Also I have an iBook that I link to another monitor via it's mini-dvi out (and a firmware hack).
It's pretty much the best thing ever.
Scholar and a Gentleman? Critical of bad science and religion? Skeptobot - Is for you!!
or two video card with one output each should work iirc (might need to be SLI, I know very little about this kind of thing, other than its cool)
For better wallpaper/screensaver options, and a taskbar on the second monitor, you'll want ultramon.
Just a warning: This WILL spoil you. I've been runing two monitors for nearly two years now, and I don't think I could cope with going back to just one.
Most graphics cards will have two ports, either a DVI and a VGA or two DVI. Make sure the graphics card you get will fit in the computer. Old computers have the AGP slot for graphics cards, newer computers have PCI Express X16. Computers that really really suck will only have PCI, which is awful for graphics.
EDIT: Also, if you have multiple video cards in your system (if you have more than one PCIe slot, or if you crammed a whole bunch of crappy PCI graphics cards in there) they can each independently run a monitor or two (or however many that card supports). They don't need to be SLIed, Crossfired, the same brand, the same interface, anything. I wouldn't try doing anything 3D on anything but Monitor #1, though.
Oh, and SLI'ed graphics cards can only drive one monitor at a time, no matter how many ports are on each card, while in SLI mode. In normal mode they can drive as many as they have ports for.
There are also more exotic solutions like the DualHead/TripleHead2Go external boxes, that trick the computer into thinking that two or three adjacent monitors are actually one gigantic monitor. These are expensive and usually not worth it unless you have a laptop or something.
So I will look at his computer and find out what kind of slots he has to attach new an extra video or graphics card that has a VGA connector (or two) to plug in the extra monitor(s).
As long as I can plug the card into the computer, and the monitor(s) into the card, it should be really simple, right?
Next part. Will I be able to simply go to Wal-Mart, Target, or Best Buy and purchase a video or graphics card to do this with? And, about how much would it cost, in your experiences?
A friend just called me and told me he had bought a 7600 GT card and hooked up his two CRT monitors to it.
He plays COD2 and has Teamspeak and Xfire running, and occasionally want to keep the game running and visible, but fiddle with one of the other apps running on the 2nd monitor.
However, when he tries to do it, COD2 apparently minimizes and disappears until he switches back to it, which is bad.
Any suggestions?
We'll say it's 5x5.
Retail stores will rip you the hell off. Wal*Mart will only carry awful PCI graphics cards (they still stock the GeForce 4 MX 4000, which is really a rebadged GeForce 2, which dates back to what, 1998?), and Best Buy will charge two or three times MSRP for a graphics card. You want a reputable online seller instead. I use NewEgg myself, but if you're in Canada you'll probably want TigerDirect or NCIX instead.
What slots does the computer have for add-in cards and does it already have a graphics card in it, or just built-in graphics?
You'll need special hardware that's not often sold to regular consumers. I believe Matrox makes special cards for this purpose. It will cost a lot of money.
Thanks for all the help, guys. Now, since I have an extra monitor sitting around, I'm thinking about finding a cheap card I can plug it into. That setup looked really nice...