ATTN: People using two monitors

[fr]

Right now I have a ASUS GF2MX. I'm running Win2K if it makes a difference. I'm about to get a second monitor and I want to run a dual display setup.

I was about to get a second PCI video card, but all my IRQs are used up and I don't want to have to deal with conflicts. Would I be better off getting a video card with dual display? I like nVidia cards, but I'm not too concerned with 3D. It looks like my choices are the ATI Radeon VE (I've seen at least 4 different versions so far) and the Matrox G450/550 with dualhead. Any suggestions/opinions?

 

[Hawk]

I don't think IRQs matter much in Win2k.

 

[joohang]

Windows 2000 can share IRQs.

 

[fr]

Oh really? That's good to know. I guess I can stick with getting another PCI card then.

Any suggestions on that? I think a ATI Xpert 98 would do just fine. I don't plan on using the second screen for more than displaying fancy wallpaper along with Winamp, AIM, Photoshop tools, basic windows stuff...

Another question - Will I be able to have different wallpaper on both screens?

 

[joohang]

You need to create one gigantic wallpaper that spans across both monitors. Just match their resolutions.

 

[Czar]

I use a Matrox Millenium G400 in windows2000
Screen res is 2560*1024 spanning two 20" monitors (my friend owns one of them)

love it

This is the wallpaper I use, a photo I took a while back.

http://notendur.centrum.is/~czar/misc/Lpan01.jpg

 

[royaldank]

I bought a real cheap TNT2 card for my second monitor. It seems to work out great since any gaming I do is done on the main display.

I think you can get PCI TNT2 cards for around $35-40 nowdays.

 

[DaemoN]

ATI 8500 DualHead....

Fast 3D, nice 2D and support for dual monitors...

 

[yakko]

I use two computers. Much better.

 

[Jzero]

There's just something much more useful as having one control interface for two monitors as opposed to two computers. With two computers I can't copy text from a document on one monitor and paste it to a document on another. With two computers it's just not as cool to say "I can watch a DVD on the little monitor and TV on the big monitor. AT THE SAME TIME!"

I have a dual-cpu, dual-monitor job. It's like having 2 computers....with one keyboard and mouse
PS--I use a GF2MX to drive the little monitor and an ATI All-in-wonder128 to drive the 21" fixed-frequency.