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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
I have three or four Dell systems I need to convert from single monitor to
dual monitors. These are standard businesses systems running Excel and Word in an financial office environment, so we don't need a high performance solution. All the systems currently are running 17" CRT monitors, and I plan on purchasing 19" LCD monitors, which I can get in the mid-$200's. Management is very sensitive to computer expenditures. What is my least expense method of enabling dual LCD monitors? Should I replace the onboard video with a video card that supports two monitors? Should I add a second video card? Or, is there an adapter that will let me use two monitors with my current video card? I expect to purchase LCD monitors should have both analog and DVI inputs. Thanks for any advise or thoughts on this issue. |
#2
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
Can't answer the question without knowing WHICH Dell computers. Depends on
what card slots they have. Let us know more. You cannot run two monitors off a single port in the existing machines, but a cheap card will work. Tom "Z Man" wrote in message news:rnK1g.454$kR4.194@trndny06... I have three or four Dell systems I need to convert from single monitor to dual monitors. These are standard businesses systems running Excel and Word in an financial office environment, so we don't need a high performance solution. All the systems currently are running 17" CRT monitors, and I plan on purchasing 19" LCD monitors, which I can get in the mid-$200's. Management is very sensitive to computer expenditures. What is my least expense method of enabling dual LCD monitors? Should I replace the onboard video with a video card that supports two monitors? Should I add a second video card? Or, is there an adapter that will let me use two monitors with my current video card? I expect to purchase LCD monitors should have both analog and DVI inputs. Thanks for any advise or thoughts on this issue. |
#3
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
You can get two cards or a single card designed to support two
monitors. I would strongly urge the later and here is why. Most computers have a high speed slot for video - either AGP or PCI express. They have one slot not two. You can get PCI video cards but they are on a much slower bus and very slow. The AGP bus is either 2x/4x/8x faster and PCI Express is a 16X faster bus. You also then have the challenge of two video drivers - in theory XP should handle this ok, but in practise, I can't help but think it slows things down. If you are running Dells that do not have a dedicated video adapter slot (AGP or PCI Express) then don't go there. There are dual monitor PCI cards (rare to find these days) but it will just be too slow. James |
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 19:56:17 +0100, James wrote:
You can get two cards or a single card designed to support two monitors. I would strongly urge the later and here is why. Most computers have a high speed slot for video - either AGP or PCI express. They have one slot not two. You can get PCI video cards but they are on a much slower bus and very slow. The AGP bus is either 2x/4x/8x faster and PCI Express is a 16X faster bus. You also then have the challenge of two video drivers - in theory XP should handle this ok, but in practise, I can't help but think it slows things down. If you are running Dells that do not have a dedicated video adapter slot (AGP or PCI Express) then don't go there. There are dual monitor PCI cards (rare to find these days) but it will just be too slow. James Yes. Been ages since I had a single head card, by co-incidence. In fact, since I left sluggish PCI cards with no directX support, I never have. I never chose two heads on purpose, but it seems to be so very common. My first AGP card was in 1999, a Matrox G-400 with two heads. My Ti4200 had two DVI capable, and my current, albeit also ageing 9600 PRO also has two DVI capable. I would have thought, and this seems to be what you are saying, that the integration of two heads on one card brings the advantage of controlling two desktops and/or and extended desktop with one driver, and/or utility (Hydravsion, for example). And the full power of the AGP slot. But I don't know if it stresses the card?? I sometimes feel my Radeon gets too hot using the one output. I'm tempted soon to look at a second, for fun, but don't know if it'll meltdown if I don't ramp up the system cooling. I suppose if you game hard on one output you shut down the secondary? Something like that. If AGP 8x has more bandwidth than the card can use, does that compensate for carrying two streams from the driver? The mind boggles. --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0616-3, 20/04/2006 Tested on: 20/04/2006 21:33:29 avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com |
#5
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
James schrieb:
If you are running Dells that do not have a dedicated video adapter slot (AGP or PCI Express) then don't go there. There are dual monitor PCI cards (rare to find these days) but it will just be too slow. That's nonsense. PCI is still more than fast enough for everything 2D and even moderate 3D work. Of course if gaming is a concern PCI is out of the run but for "real" work PCI is still a valid option. That's btw the reason why there still are professional PCI cards like the new PNY Quadro NVS 280 PCI (which replaced the Quadro NVS 200 PCI): http://www.pny.com/products/quadro/nvs/280Nvspci.asp For everything 2D there is absolutely _no_ performance difference between PCI and AGP. Benjamin |
#6
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
Z man you are going to get a lot of bull **** answer here so your best bet
is go to a forum that is dedicated to multimonitors http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/ after you do some reading youl mostlikly end up getting a cheap pci matrox card. "Z Man" wrote in message news:rnK1g.454$kR4.194@trndny06... I have three or four Dell systems I need to convert from single monitor to dual monitors. These are standard businesses systems running Excel and Word in an financial office environment, so we don't need a high performance solution. All the systems currently are running 17" CRT monitors, and I plan on purchasing 19" LCD monitors, which I can get in the mid-$200's. Management is very sensitive to computer expenditures. What is my least expense method of enabling dual LCD monitors? Should I replace the onboard video with a video card that supports two monitors? Should I add a second video card? Or, is there an adapter that will let me use two monitors with my current video card? I expect to purchase LCD monitors should have both analog and DVI inputs. Thanks for any advise or thoughts on this issue. |
#7
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:45:38 -0400, "Mangyrat"
wrote: ok for what you want/need its easy to answer. disable the built in videa card and go with pci or agp matrox card like the G450 or any of the other matrox cards with 2 or 4 display suport. you cant use the built in video and a agp card at same time so to make it easy on your self and avoid problems just disable it. like you said you dont need a high end card just something to use for office app's so pick a card like a G450 with 32meg or more ram, they will have the best looking 2d display. I'll second that. I use two systems with dual monitors, and I tried a number of dualhead cards - but nothing beats the Matrox for simplicity and reliability in the office. I'd consider the 450 to be the bottom line - I've had problem with the 400 under XP. It's also a passively cooled card, so there's no extra fan noise to consider. I doubt you'll need anything more for 2d work. Regards, -- Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations www.shwoodwind.co.uk Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk |
#8
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
"Stephen Howard" wrote in message ... On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:45:38 -0400, "Mangyrat" wrote: ok for what you want/need its easy to answer. disable the built in videa card and go with pci or agp matrox card like the G450 or any of the other matrox cards with 2 or 4 display suport. you cant use the built in video and a agp card at same time so to make it easy on your self and avoid problems just disable it. like you said you dont need a high end card just something to use for office app's so pick a card like a G450 with 32meg or more ram, they will have the best looking 2d display. I'll second that. I use two systems with dual monitors, and I tried a number of dualhead cards - but nothing beats the Matrox for simplicity and reliability in the office. I'd consider the 450 to be the bottom line - I've had problem with the 400 under XP. It's also a passively cooled card, so there's no extra fan noise to consider. I doubt you'll need anything more for 2d work. I'm sure the G450 is suitable for my purposes, and I checked on Ebay and found that it is inexpensive. It is also available in both PCI and AGP versions. My Dell systems probably don't have AGP. However, the Matrox cards seem to have just VGA, and not DVI. Would I be better of getting a card with VGA and DVI, or perhaps dual DVI? |
#9
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Dual monitor: converting from single monitor - which video card?
On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:21:54 GMT, "Z Man" wrote:
"Stephen Howard" wrote in message .. . On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:45:38 -0400, "Mangyrat" wrote: ok for what you want/need its easy to answer. disable the built in videa card and go with pci or agp matrox card like the G450 or any of the other matrox cards with 2 or 4 display suport. you cant use the built in video and a agp card at same time so to make it easy on your self and avoid problems just disable it. like you said you dont need a high end card just something to use for office app's so pick a card like a G450 with 32meg or more ram, they will have the best looking 2d display. I'll second that. I use two systems with dual monitors, and I tried a number of dualhead cards - but nothing beats the Matrox for simplicity and reliability in the office. I'd consider the 450 to be the bottom line - I've had problem with the 400 under XP. It's also a passively cooled card, so there's no extra fan noise to consider. I doubt you'll need anything more for 2d work. I'm sure the G450 is suitable for my purposes, and I checked on Ebay and found that it is inexpensive. It is also available in both PCI and AGP versions. My Dell systems probably don't have AGP. However, the Matrox cards seem to have just VGA, and not DVI. Would I be better of getting a card with VGA and DVI, or perhaps dual DVI? DVI outputs might be the best bet - more likely to remain compatible in the long term, and you can buy adapters that convert a DVI out into a VGA out ( I don't know that you can convert a VGA out to a DVI ). That said, plenty of monitors still come with a vga input as well as a DVI - and as you mentioned the monitors you were thinking of buying have dual inputs you could save a few bob in the short-term by sticking with VGA. I think later versions of the G550 have DVI outputs - if you check out the Matrox site there's a useful comparison chart that lists each card's features. I should point out that, for best results, it's as well to use monitors that run at the same ( or very close ) screen resolutions. The Matrox card allows scaling ( where two monitors use different screen resolutions ) or zooming ( where the mouse cursor controls what part of the cloned screen you see ), but in practice I find this to be a less than satisfactory arrangement. Regards, -- Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations www.shwoodwind.co.uk Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk |
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