Anyone sporting dual monitors?

mriedel · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 02:12 AM

I decided that I used my computer enough to support investing in dual monitors. I had an extra monitor laying around, so the only thing I needed to get was a video card that supported duals.

The card should be here Friday, so hopefully I'll sport some pics then. In the meantime, anybody else got 'em?

1FastGTX · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 03:10 AM

I'm running 3 actually.

You're going to love it once it's all set up and running. You'll wonder how you ever got along without them!

What card did you get?

mriedel · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 04:08 AM

ATI Radeon X700PRO

Not the best out there but should be able to handle what I need. I don't really play games, but if I someday want to, that card should suit me fine. Now, I have a question...

My dad has a dual monitor set up, however, there's one little issue i worry about. For his desktop background image, his just repeats on each monitor. Is there a way to make one wide one and span it across both monitors or to perhapps set two different wallpapers to each monitor?

Mind print screening your setup? Here's mine currently:

vatechguy · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mriedel

My dad has a dual monitor set up, however, there's one little issue i worry about. For his desktop background image, his just repeats on each monitor. Is there a way to make one wide one and span it across both monitors or to perhapps set two different wallpapers to each monitor?

Theres good news and bad news.

The bad news is that no - in Windows they don't provide this functionality. What you're asking for is "Spanning" (having an image span all the monitors) or individual desktop settings (picking a different image for each monitor).

The good news is that if you load ATI's software - I'm relatively sure they do.

It's a novelty that I typicaly get bored with after a couple days though.

Triple-Mon rocks.

By the way - little insider peek - if you use Remote desktop? In Vista/Longhorn they started supporting multimon over RDP - how cool is that?!?!?!

jk0 · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vatechguy

Theres good news and bad news.

The bad news is that no - in Windows we don't provide this functionality. What you're asking for is "Spanning" (having an image span all the monitors) or individual desktop settings (picking a different image for each monitor).

The good news is that if you load ATI's software - I'm relatively sure they do.

It's a novelty that I typicaly get bored with after a couple days though.

Triple-Mon rocks.

By the way - little insider peek - if you use Remote desktop? In Vista/Longhorn we started supporting multimon over RDP - how cool is that?!?!?!

Are you trying to say that you work for Microsoft?

Wilderbeast · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 09:57 AM

ATI software does it.
What i want to know is how many people still waste there time on one.
I feel trapped on less than three.

Microsoft cant be wrong
http://research.microsoft.com/displa...le.aspx?id=433

Second question
How many virtual desktops does every body run ?
I find more than 3 and i lose the plot.

vatechguy · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jk0

Are you trying to say that you work for Microsoft?

Oops... didn't realize this was upstairs.

Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilderbeast

Second question
How many virtual desktops does every body run ?
I find more than 3 and i lose the plot.

I run 3 at work and 2 at home.

There are several folks around me who run 4 and 5. Depends on what you're doing during the day. I have one buddy who has his widescreen flatpanel rotated sideways so he can run like 600 lines of debug output on it - helps being able to look back in the stack after running 2-3 commands on it.

phillydude · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 04:56 PM

Now THIS is kewl...

kmfisher · Wed, March 1st, 2006, 05:09 PM

You can have a background desktop span two monitors easily in Windows:

1. Get a SINGLE background that is the width + height of the combined desktops (for example, 2048x768).
2. Select the background in the display properties
3. Set the background to TILE.

Then it will span. You will want to check your primary monitor settings because sometimes the right one will be the left image.

mriedel · Fri, March 3rd, 2006, 09:58 PM

Got 'em set up and I LOVE them! I can already see myself having a problem going back to single

Now I have another problem: WIRES! They were there before but I never really realized how bad it was until i took this pic: I don't want to zip tie them because that would make moving things around too difficult, so I was thinking of just getting a thin sheet of wood and cutting a hole for PC access. That way I would have access to all the wires, but you wouldn't get to see them.

1FastGTX · Sat, March 4th, 2006, 01:47 AM

Very nice!!

You got that keyboard hooked up too? I have a X3 but have not had the software installed for some time. That is very fun.

Is that Photoshop I see running? Here's a nice tip - move your various panels to the other monitor (Layers/History/Actions/Font/etc.). This will give you more room to work with your documents on one monitor. It makes Photoshopping much easier.

When I have After Effects open I actually drag the entire program across all three monitors which gives me tons more room to work and preview video.

Compaq? Nice machine, mine is similar.

Don't know what to tell you about the wires, mine is messy too.

Jokat · Sat, March 4th, 2006, 02:43 AM

Hey there,

Please could you tell me what sidebar tool you are using at the top of your screen. It looks really really nice.

Kind Regards,

Preach

Timbermiko · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 02:24 AM

Is that screen set up from the card?
That's tight!

mriedel · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 02:52 AM

As I explained to Preach, the top of the screen is simply part of my background made in photoshop. The icons are simply placed on that area of the screen and the other things are widgets from yahoo! (free, check 'em out)

Here's a picture to demonstrate what i mean:

Reeze · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 09:38 AM

I've never really seen the point of having more than one monitor... until now. Yep, I actually took 2 seconds to think about it, and obviously this would be incredibly worthwhile. The amount of flicking back and forth I do from web browser, to word document, to winamp. Clearly this would save me truck-loads of time. Now I just need some money.

fujo · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 10:19 AM

I've had dual 19" for a few years - I'd add more if I had enough desk. I love it and would never want to go back to a single.

Timbermiko · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mriedel

As I explained to Preach, the top of the screen is simply part of my background made in photoshop. The icons are simply placed on that area of the screen and the other things are widgets from yahoo! (free, check 'em out)

Here's a picture to demonstrate what i mean:

That's a great tip

I'm loading CS rigt now and designing my own...thanks!

T

jim331656 · Sun, March 5th, 2006, 07:45 PM

Its very helpful for me at work. I have 4 19"lcds set up 2 and 2.