Multiple monitors

[chikulanikader]

I would like to connect up two more monitors to my single desk top.

It only has one or two of the VGA sockets. How can I rig up the three on one desk top? Any ideas.

By the way I know you are wondering! I want them so I can share deal live time, one for live prices, one for my account and one for research. Seconds count so the task bar option is no good.

[Midget]

fit more grfx cards. if you add a PCI grfx card with 2 VGA headers (or 1VGA and 1 DVI or 2DVIs) in addition to whatever you have now, you can have 3 mointors.

I used to have 8 monitors so I understand your desire

[synaesthesia]

Most graphics cards will run 2 monitors, however this is best if you have/buy an ATI card. Otherwise if you have another manufacturer like nVidia you'll need 3rd party software to do it properly like Ultramon.

You can "group" graphics cards - so you can, slots depending, buy another graphics card and use it to drive a 3rd screen. Or more efficiently, someone like Matrox specialise in cards that will run from 4 to 8 screens per card - and it's Matrox cards you'll find driving the PC's at the London Stock Exchange.

[Chris_Jones]

theres no need to buy an ATI card - we have a six monitor setup here using Nvidia cards and the default windows desktop control panel applet to organise them.

[matt40k]

You can get USB to VGA adapters nowadays, rubbish for games, but should be passable for most apps, dvds aren't too bad too

[dhicks]

It only has one or two of the VGA sockets.

How many VGA ports does your computer have, one or two? If you have one you probably have built-in VGA on your motherboard, if you have two you probably have a separate graphics card in your machine already. Theoretically you can buy one dual-head graphics card, put it in a spare slot in your motherboard and have three VGA ports ready to go. However, there's a good chance that adding a graphics card will disable any on-board graphics, so for three screens you might need to get two graphics cards. If you're not bothered about games and so on then this isn't actually expensive, you can get decent graphics cards for £10-£20 each off eBay.

--
David Hicks

[contink]

Small tip... If you have an Nvidia card in the machine already then get another Nvidia... If it's ATI, get another ATI...

Vista (and as a result probably Windows 7) requires the drivers to be of the same type/brand and I've found problems with some older Radeon 7000 PCI cards not playing nice with new PCI-E devices from the same manufacturer.

If you want any ATI- PCI graphics cards I have about 3 left that I'll happily part with for a tenner + P&P each... Wife is "insisting"* I have a clear out


*For "insisting" imagine tender parts of anatomy being held tightly and occasionally squeezing with more "motivational" pressure to make the point clearer

[synaesthesia]

Suggested against buying nVidia only if there's nothing there already (i.e. onboard etc). nVidia's drivers are amusingly shoddy for multi-monitor work. But yes, do buy another if there's already an existing one present.

[DrPerceptron]

When did ATI's drivers become stable for one monitor?


Do ATI cards have the ability to merge two screens as one? can't remember the feature on nVidia cards....

[EduTech]

I Remember a few months ago i had the same problem, could not have more than 1 monitor, manged to get 2 but that is just not enough

I used a piece of software called CubeDesktop: CubeDesktop - 3D realtime virtual desktop manager and task switcher

Failing that buy more GFX cards

[kearton]

not really answering the original question, but on a similar theme.....

I was recently watching a documentary about Pterry Pratchett "Living with Alzheimer's" and he had SIX monitors hooked up to his PC in a 3x2 matrix. When asked why he had 6 monitors on his desk, he replied "because I couldn't fit 8!"

EDIT: Click here to see a picture

[Midget]

finally found the pic, this is my old setup.

[EduTech]

finally found the pic, this is my old setup.

now that is nice!!

makes a note to get a quote for 8 monitors, 4 graphic cards and a nice large bracket

[contink]

I'm just wondering how good your tan was from all those monitors...