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[TehGritz]

I got a great deal on a monitor the other day, and today is the day where I'm going to meet him to pick it up.
10$ (7 Euro) for a 21 Inch, widescreen monitor.
I think he was selling it because of the wonky resolution, it comes brand new in the box.

Alright, so I've never had dual monitors before, and I'm somewhat clueless.
I know how to set it up and connect it etc, though I'm not sure how I actually make use of it once it IS set up.
Any helpful advice, tips or warnings that I should be aware of when using it?


Anything welcome.

[steffono]

I have dual monitors of the same size. Both are 21 inch. I recommend you get "Display fusion' if you have Windows 7 or XP. The reason being is it allows you to extend the task bar across both monitors, and choose individual wallpapers for both. I absolutely love having two monitors, and would never go back to just one. And I am sure you will feel the same once you receive yours and become comfortable with it.

Display fusion is free, but it has a pro edition for $20 dollars. I would recommend pro. It is currently what I am using, and works great!

[_j03_]

TehGritz, on 29 August 2011 - 11:32 AM, said:

I got a great deal on a monitor the other day, and today is the day where I'm going to meet him to pick it up.
10$ (7 Euro) for a 21 Inch, widescreen monitor.
I think he was selling it because of the wonky resolution, it comes brand new in the box.

Alright, so I've never had dual monitors before, and I'm somewhat clueless.
I know how to set it up and connect it etc, though I'm not sure how I actually make use of it once it IS set up.
Any helpful advice, tips or warnings that I should be aware of when using it?


Anything welcome.

So what was the problem with the screen? Dead pixels, light leaks or what?

And for what you are going to use it? For gaming it's useless unless the monitors are same models.

But to connect them, you just need to plug them both to their own ports in the graphics card.

[TehGritz]

steffono, on 29 August 2011 - 11:36 AM, said:

I have dual monitors of the same size. Both are 21 inch. I recommend you get "Display fusion' if you have Windows 7 or XP. The reason being is it allows you to extend the task bar across both monitors, and choose individual wallpapers for both. I absolutely love having two monitors, and would never go back to just one. And I am sure you will feel the same once you receive yours and become comfortable with it.Display fusion is free, but it has a pro edition for $20 dollars. I would recommend pro. It is currently what I am using, and works great!

Thank for the tip, I'll be sure to get that!

_j03_, on 29 August 2011 - 11:36 AM, said:

So what was the problem with the screen? Dead pixels, light leaks or what?And for what you are going to use it? For gaming it's useless unless the monitors are same models.But to connect them, you just need to plug them both to their own ports in the graphics card.

Absolutely NOTHING was wrong with them; best deal of the century. Why can't use them for gaming though? I already know how to connect it, I was asking more about the utilization of it, things such as Display fusion that the other poster mentioned.

[_j03_]

TehGritz, on 29 August 2011 - 12:22 PM, said:

Absolutely NOTHING was wrong with them; best deal of the century. Why can't use them for gaming though? I already know how to connect it, I was asking more about the utilization of it, things such as Display fusion that the other poster mentioned.

Well I hope so... And even if they would be the same size and same resolution, the brightness and color levels are most likely so much different that it will look pretty stupid. You'll see it when you test it. I'm not saying you can't use them for gaming, but I wouldn't recommend it

[42and19]

I run two monitors but I don't use the fusion thing. Didn't even know it was out there. I just shoved my task bar to the side of the main monitor rather than having it run along the bottom. As for gaming. Most games don't support dial monitors anyway. I game on one and have my skype/forum windows in the other so resolution and brightness are not an issue. When I do use both monitors for the same program (photoshop, after effects, blender) I tend to use me secondary for for the tool bars and the primary for the render screen/canvas and I don't notice a huge difference. Just a note one monitor is a 19 inch widescreen (main) and the other is a 17 inch regular (secondary. Strangely enough they are the same height.

[steffono]

42and19, on 29 August 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

I run two monitors but I don't use the fusion thing. Didn't even know it was out there. I just shoved my task bar to the side of the main monitor rather than having it run along the bottom. As for gaming. Most games don't support dial monitors anyway. I game on one and have my skype/forum windows in the other so resolution and brightness are not an issue. When I do use both monitors for the same program (photoshop, after effects, blender) I tend to use me secondary for for the tool bars and the primary for the render screen/canvas and I don't notice a huge difference. Just a note one monitor is a 19 inch widescreen (main) and the other is a 17 inch regular (secondary. Strangely enough they are the same height.

You would be surprised how many games you can play with dual monitors, and triple monitors. Check out ATI's Eyefinity! It is only for ATI cards (which I have), and it is an amazing feature for games. Especially flight Sims, and racing games.

[Dandistine]

steffono, on 30 August 2011 - 04:39 AM, said:

You would be surprised how many games you can play with dual monitors, and triple monitors. Check out ATI's Eyefinity! It is only for ATI cards (which I have), and it is an amazing feature for games. Especially flight Sims, and racing games.

For Eyefinity though I believe the monitors have to be of the same resolution, and it is not actually "multi-monitor" in the traditional sense.  Eyefinity just makes multiple monitors appear to be a single large monitor.  Eyefinity support just requires support for non-standard resolutions.

Some games though (like Supreme Commander) support true multi-monitor.  In SupCom you can have the mini map on a dedicated monitor and the standard screen on another monitor.  DOOM can show left/right/center views on three monitors (not necessarily of the same size, and requires 3 networked PCs) and Star Trek Armada I & II can show cinematic views of battles on a separate screen.

[Sarker1986]

I don't think there is a lot you should worry about, you should be able to set it up in your appearance settings on W7, Vista or XP without too many issues. Take a little getting used to but if you like to multi-task, it is an incredibly useful feature of modern computing.

It can be a little trickier if your running linux, just because it depends on your distro. But I won't bother going into the details for linux unless someone requests it.

[6677]

On windows plug in, it has a pop-up window asking what to do. You'll want an option that says something like extended desktop. You can also have it so that only 1 of your 2 monitors is on (or x monitors) or that the same image is cloned onto all monitors. The cloning technique is handy for a few "proffesional" tasks but not so much for home use. My school uses it with the projectors and touch sensitive whiteboards. The image projected onto the touch surface on the wall is the same as the image on the monitor, just horrible contrast and brightness as you would expect from a projection.

Linux mint you can open the control preferences and theres an icon for monitors that deals with setting up the extended desktop and duplication. This window allows you to drag images of your monitors around though for strange shaped desktops made of mulitple monitors. There is a windows equivelent window in control panel > classic view > display

[Fat Cat RoR]

Both my monitors are different sizes. I have a square, 17 inch HP and a 21 inch ACER widescreen.  Generally run games on the smaller monitor and MSN, Chrome, and other stuff on the other.

[TehGritz]

_j03_, on 29 August 2011 - 02:07 PM, said:

Well I hope so... And even if they would be the same size and same resolution, the brightness and color levels are most likely so much different that it will look pretty stupid. You'll see it when you test it. I'm not saying you can't use them for gaming, but I wouldn't recommend it

Ohh, I never planned on doing that, I thought you meant something else. I don't think it would work very well with the big line down the center anyway. ._.

42and19, on 29 August 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

I run two monitors but I don't use the fusion thing. Didn't even know it was out there. I just shoved my task bar to the side of the main monitor rather than having it run along the bottom. As for gaming. Most games don't support dial monitors anyway. I game on one and have my skype/forum windows in the other so resolution and brightness are not an issue. When I do use both monitors for the same program (photoshop, after effects, blender) I tend to use me secondary for for the tool bars and the primary for the render screen/canvas and I don't notice a huge difference. Just a note one monitor is a 19 inch widescreen (main) and the other is a 17 inch regular (secondary. Strangely enough they are the same height.

I tried the Monitor Fusion thing, it works, but in order to get anything good you need to but the full version.
I don't think I'd ever get used to the taskbar on the side though.

steffono, on 30 August 2011 - 04:39 AM, said:

You would be surprised how many games you can play with dual monitors, and triple monitors. Check out ATI's Eyefinity! It is only for ATI cards (which I have), and it is an amazing feature for games. Especially flight Sims, and racing games.

I'm on Intel graphics.
NO eyefinity for me ):

Sarker1986, on 30 August 2011 - 07:53 AM, said:

I don't think there is a lot you should worry about, you should be able to set it up in your appearance settings on W7, Vista or XP without too many issues. Take a little getting used to but if you like to multi-task, it is an incredibly useful feature of modern computing.It can be a little trickier if your running linux, just because it depends on your distro. But I won't bother going into the details for linux unless someone requests it.

I love multitasking, this is the best thing ever. \(o>O)/

6677, on 30 August 2011 - 09:28 AM, said:

On windows plug in, it has a pop-up window asking what to do. You'll want an option that says something like extended desktop. You can also have it so that only 1 of your 2 monitors is on (or x monitors) or that the same image is cloned onto all monitors. The cloning technique is handy for a few "proffesional" tasks but not so much for home use. My school uses it with the projectors and touch sensitive whiteboards. The image projected onto the touch surface on the wall is the same as the image on the monitor, just horrible contrast and brightness as you would expect from a projection.Linux mint you can open the control preferences and theres an icon for monitors that deals with setting up the extended desktop and duplication. This window allows you to drag images of your monitors around though for strange shaped desktops made of mulitple monitors. There is a windows equivelent window in control panel > classic view > display

You are getting confused of what I am asking, i know how to set it up, I wanted things that could help optimize my experience.

Fat Cat RoR, on 30 August 2011 - 01:07 PM, said:

Both my monitors are different sizes. I have a square, 17 inch HP and a 21 inch ACER widescreen.  Generally run games on the smaller monitor and MSN, Chrome, and other stuff on the other.

Same sizes, though both mine are widescreen. ._.


Thanks to everybody who helped, This is the best thing EVER.

Monitor: 10$.
Program to make it run nice: Free.
Look on younger brother's face when I get dual monitors and he doesn't: Priceless.

Though I do have one real question now, when someone asks for my resolution, do I give them {A+B}*C Where A and B are the widths of both monitors respectively, and C is the height of the taller monitor?

[Dandistine]

TehGritz, on 30 August 2011 - 06:57 PM, said:

Though I do have one real question now, when someone asks for my resolution, do I give them (A+*C Where A and B are the widths of both monitors respectively, and C is the height of the taller monitor?

Either the resolution of your main monitor or both resolutions individually.  For instance I always say 1920x1080 although I have a side monitor at 1600x900.