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| Thread ID: 37861 | 2003-09-20 06:44:00 | graphic cards for two monitors | Taly (4598) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 176578 | 2003-09-20 06:44:00 | I am using Adobe Photoshop and would like to have one, smaller monitor for tools and pallets and second, bigger one for images. I am looking for second hand PC. How can I know if it will be able to accommodate and handle two monitors? If there will be a need to replace the video card, what are the required specification? Thanks and regards. Taly | Taly (4598) | ||
| 176579 | 2003-09-20 06:55:00 | Hi Taly, If you are looking for a second hand PC make sure it has an AGP slot for starters :) There are plenty of cards out there with "Dual head" on them eg. able to use two monitors. The GeForce 4 , FX, ATI Radeon Cards. Matrox. Have a look at some Hardware sites like http://www.tastech.co.nz/ http://www.dragonpc.co.nz/ www.matrox.com www.leadtek.com.tw www.asus.com http://www.gigabyte.com.tw Hope this helps Cheers Phar |
Phar (2152) | ||
| 176580 | 2003-09-20 08:11:00 | You do not need to get a dual-head graphics card to do what you want. All you would need to do is add a second graphics card to the computer. Just about any PCI graphics card would be suitable. You should be able to buy one second hand for ~$20 and add it to any system you bought. A 2mb S3 Virge would be an example. Adding a second card should work in any fairly recent computer. But you may have trouble if the computer you get has onboard graphics. |
bmason (508) | ||
| 176581 | 2003-09-20 10:12:00 | If you use windows 98 or later, simply adding a second PCI card will enable dual monitors. As mentioned earlier it doesn't have to be a high spec card. Windows should recognise and install it - you may have to get appropriate drivers. You go to display properties in control panel and there is a tick box to enable your second monitor on the settings tab. You will generally get white writing on a black screen saying "if you can see this message you have successfully set up your secondary monitor ... " (or words to that effect) For some reason if you have onboard graphics then the system will relegate this to the 'secondary' graphics adapter, and make the PCI card the 'primary', which annoyed me as the PCI card was of lesser specs than the onboard graphics, but as I don't play games etc on that PC it wasn't too much of a problem. You then set up how the monitors are situated (eg, side by side or one slightly higher than the other) and away you go. Dragging a window from one monitor to another is easy. It's quite satisfying having extra screen real estate to play with, give it a go! J :D |
Jester (13) | ||
| 176582 | 2003-09-20 21:50:00 | I know it's not the same, but I've been using Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager. It's very handy having four desktops with one monitor! :D | agent (30) | ||
| 176583 | 2003-09-22 03:49:00 | good idea but i found when i tried to do this that of the three pci vid cards i had none of them would work on WinXp as the companies had gone defunct so there were no drivers for them :( but it only cost me $120inc for a Ati 7500 with dual heads, good buy | Budda (2736) | ||
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