dual monitor setup question

Ashfield

Ashfield

Ashfield

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Joined
25 Jun 2008
Posts
315
Hi,

Im looking at buying 2 x Dell UltraSharp U2410 to replace my old Dell 24" monitor and having never had a dual setup before am a bit unsure on something.

Does it tax your system more having the larger desktop? Going to be using it for design purposes.

Currently got an i7, 6gb based pc and was wondering if its worth grabbing 6gb more ram.

Also, are there any things I should be aware of to switch to a setup like this?

Any advice welcome :)

Cheers,
Ash
 
I presume you'll be using the dual DVI outputs from the GXF card?

With this you will still have two physical screens. If you want to have one screen shared across the two monitors you will also have to go for a Matrox Dual Head set up or possibly SoftTH to do this.

If so with your system it shouldn't tax it.

I was running 2 * 24 2407's on my set up, now I'm running a triple head 3 * 2407 set up without problems.

I wouldn't bother with more ram unless your applications particualry need it, most reviews of ram performance don't give any real benefites above 4GB.

Taff
 
Can you elaborate on 'design work'? An extra screen is negligable burden on the hardware. Your system is likely more than adequate, but let us know the intended usage to be certain.

RAM is cheap and 64bit OSs love it, if you're doing something demanding like 3D modelling you might want it irrespective of the second screen.
 
Im a web designer mate so want more screen real estate.

Question is really can I get those two dells, plug two dvi cables from 4870 to each monitor than make one big desktop. Previous post has confused me somewhat :)
 
Ashfield said:
Hi mate,

So from an ATI 4870 using the dual DVI I cant make one big desktop spread across two screens?

Thanks,
Ash
Click to expand...

You can, the triplehead2go/dualhead2go Supertaff is talking about is a box which fools your PC into thinking it has a single super-wide screen attached. You won't need this unless you're doing something like gaming. Your proposed setup of 2 monitors - each attached by their own cable to the graphics card - will allow the OS to see and use both screens.
 
Just for further clarity, here's a screenshot of how Vista sees my 2 screens.


Both screens are usable working area, and I can move the cursor from one screen to the other seamlessly.
 
Indeed, I use dual screns for VM and can move betweens OS' seemlessly on the dual screen setup make life loads easier. I get no slow down from uising dual screens although the GPU is doing a bit extra work. BUt even while gaming and having both screens on, I do not lose any fps.
 
got them set up and sort of managed to get it working. do the actual taskbar not extend across the two monitors? I can move the pointer between monitors and drag windows in out of each monitor. is this correctly set up as the resolution in display properties shows as 1920x1200 still, assumed it would show the two monitor widths together?

cheers :)
 
That sounds like it's working as expected. If you want a taskbar on each screen look into Ultramon. It's not free though.
 
thanks mate, once again you have been a great help :)

one other thing, the colours etc appear quite different on each monitor, whats the best way of matching them up?
 
That depends on your budget and intended usage. It'd be most economical to do it with a software solution, but I can't help you there as I use a Spyder 3 hardware solution (~£90). Being that you've got a Dell screen I assume there're lots of adjustment options.

One thing I haven't tried is going to a food manufacturer's website (say Cadbury's, Heinz, etc) with their product in hand and trying to match the colours. They make considerable efforts with their colour accuracy.
 
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