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How to Run Multiple Monitors

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Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Happy said:
Could multi screen set up be tax deductible, if it is work related?
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I'm not a Tax accountant or can't give you finance advice Whatsoever, but IMO and what I claim is the Tools of the Trade, whatever gives you the edge to profit from.

I would be supprised if they questioned a scanner, printer, office desk, chair, interstate conference, seminar, course, etc, etc if your intvesting/trading business needs to operate effeciently or is in the name of education.

I could say even internet camera, if your video communicating across the net Primarly for business.

SevenFX
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

So far on this thread there have been quite a few suggestions on how to run multiple monitors - various video card options, & dual and triplehead2go. There is also a software option for those with an old spare computer - maxivista.com: "Use any spare PC as a dual monitor screen for your primary PC". I don't know anything about the product but thought I would bring it up as another option.

Also, apparently there are now products where you can run a monitor through a USB connection; again, might be an option for some? Anyone know anything about this?
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Timmy said:
Also, apparently there are now products where you can run a monitor through a USB connection; again, might be an option for some? Anyone know anything about this?
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Yes there's a few different brands, but I would use these as a last option for desktop pc or as a lower cost option for notebook only.

They're can be slow and definetly wouldn't recommend if your machine is USB1 as max speeds are around 10mbps only, whereas USB2 is up to 480mbps

Still think Card option inside desktop machine would be better choice, as these USB boxes are not cheaper or faster than internal card. (Video data transfer rate much faster)

Cheers
SevenFX
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

I was wondering if any of you tech heads might be able to help me.

I am tossing up between 2 different graphics cards, and as i dont know much about hardware its pretty confusing :confused:

I can get this one for $280
http://www.powercolor.com/eng/products_features.asp?ProductID=531

Or this one for $300 (which is the maximum im willing to spend):
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1259&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136


Any help appreciated as there's too many numbers that i dont undestand :eek:


EDIT - My motherboard is 18monthhs old so i can only support agp cards not pcie
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

prawn_86 said:
I was wondering if any of you tech heads might be able to help me
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Hi P86.

B4 looking into these, details on your overall system specs would be better.(whereever possible)

Processor Model
Motherboard & AGP slot speed (1x 2x 4x 8x)
Memory & Speed
Monitor(s) (VGA or DVI) (& resolution you intend to run)
Operating System

And most important of all, what you hoping this new card will do for you, that your old card is not doing....???? (what application, assuming games)

EDIT: While some of the above specs are not as important, it will give an overall view of how siuted the card matches the system.
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Im running a 3.2gh pentium 4.

1gb ram

19inch lcd monitor. its a smallish blue connection that says "D-sub". :confused: im presuiming dvi

Pretty average motherboard: http://www.asus.com.au/search.aspx?searchitem=1&searchkey=P5S800-VM
I cant restart at the moment as im in the process of burning a dvd so i cant tell you what agp speed.

Windows XP Sp2


Looking at running games. It currently does fine but i just want an upgrade so i can get a few of the latest games.
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Both those cards are DVI (better choice) so you will have to run adaptors ($5ea) to convert the connectors back to DSUB (VGA) which I'm assuming you were describing small blue connectors (15pin in d formation)

The AGP slot is a AGPII which seems to be faster than 8X, so a 8X card should be compatible.

Your motherbaord runs a max speed of ddr400 memory and if you have 1slot of 2 occupied (single 1gb chip), would recommend getting another matching 1gb chip to occupy the second slot, as most games can use a lot of memory, otherwise this may become a bottleneck, hindering the new card.

XPSP2 is good and should have DirectX9c installed (check at the RUN prompt in menu by typing dxdiag.exe)

EDIT: Now to eval the cards... But lunch first, as cant work on empty stomach :eek:
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Cheers for the help tek.

I have 2x 512 mb ram, but i was thinking of getting another 1gb ram so that would take me to 1.5gb. Depends on my cash scenario after xmas really :)
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

prawn_86 said:
Cheers for the help tek.

I have 2x 512 mb ram, but i was thinking of getting another 1gb ram so that would take me to 1.5gb. Depends on my cash scenario after xmas really :)
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I'd be putting a matchin pair of 1gb's as opposed to mixing brands, speeds and hoping they match well.... as memory is cheap by comparison.

EDIT: But comes down to cash, and try getting kingston brand if you want quality.

EDIT EDIT: You could try 1gb chip first, and see, but make sure you could get second 1gb in same brand, speed if problems arise.
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

ok will do.

damn hardware, why cant it all be compatible. :banghead:
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

P86.

The MSI card you picked is much better in many ways, BUT it is a PCIExpress card which your motherboard doesn't support.

Actually all the GeForce 8600GTS series cards are PCIE type...
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodpage2&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=136

Got another choice...????

EDIT: I'd also consider how much $$$ your gonna pour into a older machine, as opposed to upgrading to new motherboard, memory & PCIE video card standard. Processor, will go into new motherboard

SevenFX
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

really appreciate the advice tek.

I have thought about a total upgrade, but at this stage i can get 4gb of ram (2x 2gb) for $100 and then one of those cards for $300. (and yes i can get them in AGP, it is just the site lists them as the main type). so $400 total

And if i did upgrade then i would have to pay for someone to put the processor into the new board as i wouldnt be confident doing that and all the BIOS sort of stuff, so that would add to the costs.

Approx what do you think i would be looking at for a new board with a card about those specs also?
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Memory 2 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC3200/2700/2100 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory

From that link you sent, your board only supports 2gb total so 2 X 1GB

Maybe Ghost (complete back) your hard drive to another drive, and walk the whole box in to a shop to upgrade decent motherboard, memory, vid card which retail prices should be around $700-$750 ($200/$100/$300) and find some shop to do it all free as part of buying the parts from him.

But backup /backup/ backup and keep your old bits to sell on ebay or something.
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

an old college buddy is a bit of a tech head and says he will install it all and do all the required stuff if he gets to keep the old board and card, so i guess that is alright, as i wont be needing them.

I can get:

1 x Gigabyte VM900M s775 Main board $96.00

1 x Gigabyte nVidia 8600GT PCI-E $200.00

2 x Elixir 1GB DDR-2 667MHz $100.00


So for an extra $100 to wat i was going to spend i get a decent upgrade (imo).

Sorry to bug you tek, but does this look like an alrite deal?
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

prawn_86 said:
I can get:

1 x Gigabyte VM900M s775 Main board $96.00

1 x Gigabyte nVidia 8600GT PCI-E $200.00

2 x Elixir 1GB DDR-2 667MHz $100.00
Click to expand...


Motherboard better of a ATX (more pci slots, etc)(full size board) as opposed to Micro Atx board. and this whilst has PCIE has onbaord video as well so one generally gets disabled. (don't need onboard video if going for decent video card. (Gigabyte is Good) and Intel chipset is better than Via chipset imo

The other card was a 8600GTS which is better than a 8600GT. but either way PCIE is much better than AGP.

Memory also comes in DDR2 800 and 2gb capicity for new board and Kingston is a good brand for few dollars more. (but make sure board supports DDR2 800

Cheers
SevenFX
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Snakey said:
Hi Guys
Im running three laptops and two LCD screens, Thats five screens, on two broadband connections. On the screens i run dynamic depth, dynamic ticker set a minimum of 25000 volume, Live announcements, commodity prices and one for scanning around.
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Snakey...realise you probably have your hands full, what with Schoolies week on the Gold Coast etc...:) But when you get a moment could you fill us in on how you have set up the extra monitors etc. - a lot of info on this thread about desktops but not about laptops, be interesting.
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

SevenFX said:
Well someone better tell my machine that, as it being running 4GB for over a year now...

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx




Not sure what you mean here...???? Can you explain further...???

SevenFX
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Hi SevenFX,

It was poor posting on my part. I was too broad in my statement.

in the link you posted from the MS site, it notes the 2gb switch in the boot.ini. In a nutshell, no single program can make use of more than 2gb of physical ram address. Using the 3gb switch will allow a single program to access 3 gb of available space. Every system I have seen that have utilised this 3gb switch has taken an overall slowdown as an offset.

In standard mode (2gb switch) XP will utilise excess ram in the operating system only.

So yes, your motherboard will accept your 4gb ram, your operating system acknowledges the 4 gb of ram, though it simply will not use it.

I'm yet so see any mainstream programs running concurrently in XP requiring more than 2gb ram and being forced to utilise the swap file. Intense video editing may push this boundary as might massive 3d rendering. XP sees no real speed up using more than 1gb ram.
There is no way any of the stock market software will even come close to utilising 2gb ram, therefore your extra 1GB and potentially 2.5gb ram is redundant.

The error I spoke of is when a single program tries to access more than 3gb of ram for execution..

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;316739

That link might give more info for you.


For dual channel mode, ram modules work in tandem effectively doubling the throughput of data transfer in a nutshell. Not all motherboard utilise this option and some motherboards need to have identical ram in certain slots to implement dual channel.
For instance, 2 sticks of cas 2 512mb ram may in fact run a system faster in dual channel mode than those two ram chips + a single ram stick of 1gb forcing the cas latency to run at 3.5. The speed of the ram is often more important than the quantity of ram..

A crude analogy is this: You have a truck that can hold 50 tonnes of cargo and has a maximum speed of 80km an hour due to it only being able to run on a single lane highway. This is single channel with slow ram.
It may be faster to run two trucks with 30 tonne capacity and a new dual lane highway at a speed of 100km an hour. This is dual channel.

The through put of the two trucks is greater than the single truck and in a pc you are not paying for the extra overhead of running the two trucks..



Cheers,






cheers,
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

SevenFX, Stan 101 - all this techie talk is a bit daunting, but I have taken the time to read your recent posts and am learning a lot thank-you!

---

My next humble contribution...

Using 3 monitors now raises the question of increased power consumption. The increased use of electricity probably adds a few cents or dollars to the power bill, not much at all really, and hardly makes one think twice.

But looking at it from the environmental perspective makes more sense. If SevenFX is successful with this thread and the world switches over to using multiple monitors (!) then it behooves us users to consider the environmental impact.

I now switch off the monitors immediately if I am going to be away from the computer for more than a few minutes, rather than relying on the “Power Options” in XP that will switch the monitors off in a defined number of minutes. Rather than physically switching each monitor off I found a little program (at http://www.koding.co.uk/index.php?page=monoff) that turns off all 3 monitors with a single click of the mouse – very handy and lets me think I am doing at least a little bit to help the environment!
 
Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

Dual monitors...... that’s so 2007

I just bought myself a new system with 4, one being a monster 30" Dell.

I decided to go for one big monitor as I found from using multi monitor systems for some time that you spend 90% of the time looking at the screen right in front of you. The other ones are just for the odd glance but still very helpful.
 

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Re: How to Run Multiple Monitors....

trembling Hand said:
Dual monitors...... that’s so 2007

I just bought myself a new system with 4, one being a monster 30" Dell.

I decided to go for one big monitor as I found from using multi monitor systems for some time that you spend 90% of the time looking at the screen right in front of you. The other ones are just for the odd glance but still very helpful.
Click to expand...
Noice!

I'm thinking of going the big screen too.
 
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