Another Dual Monitor Question

[JTip]

I tried the search "dual monitors" and could not find the thread. I have a tech question.

2 Acer 19" lcd, Compac Presario 512 ram 80gig HD. Looking on newegg (great prices, I buy all my comp stuff there) and there are aprox. 1 billion different video cards ranging from $100 to $500+. I am pretty good installing stuff and walking through the setup, I just cant figure out which card will do the job and not over spend. Many thanks guys and gals.

ST

 

[Smokey Bear]

Is your current video card on the mother board? If so, many computers disable it when you install a separate card, defeating the purpose. So, you'll need 2 cards, or one of those cards with two connections. I have 2 cards, Radeon 7000 for both of them. $40 each. I don't know about the dual cards, I had already bought my first card and played with it beyond the return date when I found out that HP, in all its wisdom, disabled the onboard card when you installed another card. I know you can get a card with two monitor connections, but I don't know which ones they are. Otherwise, if you aren't short on slots to plug them in, you can get two cards.

If you get two cards, install them one at a time, and the first one installed should be your primary monitor, with your start button and desktop shortcuts. This is also where most of your windows will open. I say most because you can open a program, move it to the other monitor and close it, and it will continue to open in that monitor until you reboot, except for some programs that have popups that will always show up in the primary monitor.

 

[Robert Anderson]

Shane,

You need to do a little research before buying a video card. You need to know:

* Does your computer have PCI, AGP, or PCI Express video card interfaces? AGP is most common unless your computer is very old or very new. You can obtain this information from your computer's manual.

* Do your monitors have VGA or DVI connectors or both. You should obtain this information from you monitor's manual.

* What connectors does your existing video card have?

If your video card is relatively new, and if your monitors have both VGA and DVI connectors, your existing video card may work fine. If your monitors have DVI interfaces, NewEgg sells numerous nVidia and ATI cards with dual DVI interfaces at reasonable prices. For example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....Submit=Property

Bob Anderson

 

[Bill Waite]

B) Here's the thread for the topic your looking for. I think.

Topic

 

[JTip]

Bingo!!! That's the ol' thread I was searching for!!! Many thanks Bill!

ST

 

[Artemis Fowl]

I'm a CAD guy and a gamer too so I just went for the "shiznit" $$$$$ vid card. Had all the bells and whistles. Dual setup was pretty much for work only and it is GREAT for that purpose.

 

[Blue1]

Shane,

If your current video graphics card is not capable of multiple monitors, then you probably need another graphics adapter. Most computers now a days have a main graphics card that takes advantage of special bussing in order to provide faster graphics capability. This will be the main card on your system and will be a slightly different configuration than the standard PCI slot.

If you have extra PCI slots, you might consider buying a PCI graphics adaptor. I bought a Diamond Stealth S60 from Walmart for about $45. Works great with my dual LCD monitor setup.

I plugged in the new card, turned the computer on and just had to configure it for 2 monitors in the desktop 'properties' area.