multi-monitor setup

[dilbert firestorm]

To all readers,

I'm curious as to what type of monitor set up everyone has.

how many monitors do you have on your desk and in what configuration?
what application are you using it with.

I suspect its has good use in some gaming applications and in flight
simulators.

I'm really intrigued by this.

Is there a multi-monitor setup that lets you expand from one monitor
stand and build your way up to a certain amount like 2 to 5 or more
monitors without having to discard parts?

 

[Paul]

To all readers,

I'm curious as to what type of monitor set up everyone has.

how many monitors do you have on your desk and in what configuration?
what application are you using it with.

I suspect its has good use in some gaming applications and in flight
simulators.

I'm really intrigued by this.

Is there a multi-monitor setup that lets you expand from one monitor
stand and build your way up to a certain amount like 2 to 5 or more
monitors without having to discard parts?

If you click "Browse Gallery" here, you can see examples of
multi monitor setups. They mention how many video cards it
takes. Not all the entries are exactly clear about the hardware.
And I doubt some of these setups are used for games or flight
simulations, because the hardware is too weak.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/gallery.asp

There is a posting on their forums here, with some FS9 and FSX
experiences.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/forum/messages.asp?Topic=6786&tmpl=UltraMon

If you want a motherboard with lots of video card slots:

L1N64-SLI WS (bring buckets of money... AMD socket 1207)
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1530&l1=3&l2=82&l3=489&l4=0

Striker Extreme (Intel solution LGA775, supports FSB1333)
There are other boards with three slots as well, so this is only a taste.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1439&l1=3&l2=11&l3=397&l4=0

Don't just grab the first thing you see, in terms of hardware
You can dump a lot of money into setups like this.

Paul

 

[Bill]

To all readers,

I'm curious as to what type of monitor set up everyone has.

how many monitors do you have on your desk and in what configuration? what
application are you using it with.

I suspect its has good use in some gaming applications and in flight
simulators.

I'm really intrigued by this.

Is there a multi-monitor setup that lets you expand from one monitor stand
and build your way up to a certain amount like 2 to 5 or more monitors
without having to discard parts?

I use dual monitor setup's both at work and at home. At work I use one
display for mostly static stuff, email client, maps that monitor the
network and such. The other one I run mainly my terminal programs on. Its
really great for taking informaion from and email and just dropping it
into the terminal on the other monitor. This setup uses an AGP Nvidia
FX5500 128Mb. The Primary monitor is a 19" Hitachi LCD the Secondary
monitor is a 21" Viewsonic CRT. At home my wife an I do a lot of work with
Photoshop and Different Video Editing Software. It is really nice to have
a whole 21" for workspace in photoshop and putting the tool bars on the
secondary display. Also you can play games on one display and leave your
messengers and email running on the Secondary Display so you can see
whats going on even if your in a full screen game. That setup is an PCI-E
X1950XTX with 2 21" Viewsonic CRT's. It also helps a ton when Im working
on web pages to have the editor open on one screen and the test browser on
the other.

Later,
Bill

 

[Frank McCoy]

In alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt dilbert firestorm

To all readers,

I'm curious as to what type of monitor set up everyone has.

Depends on which computer.

how many monitors do you have on your desk and in what configuration?

On my main PC, I have just a single 1680x1050 LCD monitor.
I used it to replace my old 21", which is now down on the Wife's
computer.

On the wife's computer (like I said) I now have a Dell 21" dual-input
monitor.

On my laptop, I usually use just the built-in screen; but at the moment
I have it hooked up to a Sony 21" monitor for easier viewing.

In the past I've hooked up both 21" monitors on my main PC; but after a
few weeks I removed the second monitor because it was *way* too
distracting, gave me little (if any) extra utility; and made finding
Icons and programs on the desktop twice as hard.

That's not even mentioning the problems encountered when certain
programs automatically switched resolutions to what *they* liked.

what application are you using it with.

Mostly just Windows XP with:
Agent
Netscape 7.2
Eudora
Word
Norton SystemWorks
WORDSTAR and LIST (under DOS).
I've got a whole desktop and three toolbars almost completely filled
with Icons of Windows-based programs that I use every month or so; but
all of them together aren't used as much as the least one of the above
five.

I suspect its has good use in some gaming applications and in flight
simulators.

*I* didn't like it at all for games.

I'm really intrigued by this.

Is there a multi-monitor setup that lets you expand from one monitor
stand and build your way up to a certain amount like 2 to 5 or more
monitors without having to discard parts?

Most video-boards only support two monitors; and only some of them.
Going beyond that gets to be a major hardware problem.

 

[John Doe]

how many monitors do you have on your desk and in what
configuration?

Dual, for years.

what application are you using it with.

Currently, I like to keep the taskbar, instant messaging, system
monitoring, calender, notes, and stuff like that over on the
secondary monitor.

I suspect its has good use in some gaming applications and in
flight simulators.

Secondary applications like those listed above go well on the
secondary monitor with most applications. I used to think the
secondary monitor is good with full screen games, but I'm not so
sure nowadays. Games are partly for getting away from it all.

For MS FS2004 or higher, you will need some serious CPU and video
card power to run more than one monitor at 20+ FPS frame rates. Same
goes for Supreme Commander.

Is there a multi-monitor setup that lets you expand from one
monitor stand and build your way up to a certain amount like 2 to
5 or more monitors without having to discard parts?

Good game frame rates with more than two monitors probably would
require more PC power than I'll ever have. You might want three with
flight simulators, but good luck driving them.

I'm used to it now, but the question might be whether you have much
to do. If you have a lot of computing to do, multiple monitors
probably won't seem like a waste.

Good luck and have fun.