Two Monitors

im back and iv got a few questions I need answering ... what is the benefit of two monitors for one computer (I will explain) im thinking of putting two monitors to this machine of mine and have looked on youtube and have looked at this tutorial ... yes I have two tft monitors and they are both 22" and iv also looked in my local computer shop for a pic express card with vga and dvi and its cheap as chips but iv also seen a vga to div to hdmi so my question is do I use vga to div or do I use vga to hdmi ? as always fellas thank you for any replies

Its very easy to implement 2 monitors. It is also very useful. Together with software such as Ultramon (used to extend the taskbar over multiple monitors) it makes work as well as play very easy.

 

For instance I do a lot of web development and programming work, so i'll have my IDE's open in one montior for coding, whilst browsing/testing/researching from the other monitor. It saves clutter and it also saves having to alt-tab between the IDE and Browser etc. Also at home I tend to have irc open in one monitor whilst doing everything else in the other, again meaning alt-tab isn't needed etc. Also good for running Virtual Machines etc.

 

As for impletmenting, then you're going to need a graphics card or onboard graphics that allows multiple montiors. You'll find most Motherboards/Graphics cards these days are pretty much guarenteed to have this feature so that takes care of that. As for different adapters I don't really know what the story is with vga->hdmi (in terms of getting full HD out of it) so really it's up to you. MY graphics card has one DVI port and ond HDMI port, but both monitors only have VGA/DVI. So I obviously got a hdmi->dvi adapter for use and it works well.

I agree, i'm not sure i could go back to a single monitor. It makes all the things i'm involved with so much easier to do with dual monitors. setup is simple providing your video card supports it.

thank you both for your replies and Kingy well explained so much so I went out this morning and got me a PCI Graphics Card with VGA - DVI - & HDMI but they told me it would be easier to use the VGA and DVI ... one more question and lets hopes you will see it ... how does that Ultramon work as iv seen it advertised for $39.00 ... as always thank you for your replies

 

adding a picture:

Well basically dual monitors work well out of the box except the taskbar isn't displayed on both screens. So any programs you have running over on the 2nd screen, the icon is actually placed on the taskbar on the 1st primary screen, which is a tad annoying.

 

So ultramon places the windows taskbar on the 2nd monitor and it basically works very well. Ultramon also has settings for wallpapers, screensaves, right click buttons which allow you to switch and scretch programs across monitors easily etc etc. It is a very handy program, although there are probably others out there..

 

Edit: It also has a 30day free trial, so grab it and have a play.

Cheers Kingy iv downloaded the 30 day trail and will see what I think of it before I purchase it $39.95 and that is only £25.22p in uk money

Like it that much I didnt wait till the 30 trial was over I paid the £25.22p for ultramon ... I did try a couple of others but didnt rate them ... Kingy thanks again fella for telling me about that program