Did dual monitors feel weird when you first tried it out?

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MercenaryForHire

Lifer
Jan 31, 2002
40,819
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If you're having trouble, think of it almost as "Storage Space". Instead of stacking the windows on your desktop and having to alt-tab around to pull up your (IM/Winamp/Notepad/PDF/ETC) - throw it on Monitor 2.

And of course, if you compute for a living - code monkey, graphic designer, network admin - you should not have any issue utilizing all the space available.

- M4H
 
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imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
9,837
0
0
Dual at work (Phillips 17" LCD @ 1280 x 1024, 17" CTX CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Matrox G450 dual-head card), and dual at home (ADI 17" @ 1024 x 768 and a Sun 17" CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Sapphire 9600 Pro). I'd never go back if I was given the choice.

 
L

loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
1
81
First, it felt weird.
Then, it felt a little dirty. :evil:
After that, I felt a little hungry, so I made a sandwich.
After eating the sandwich, I felt sleepy, so I took a nap.
When I awoke, I saw I had two monitors. And it felt good.
 
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arod

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2000
4,236
0
76
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: So
Originally posted by: malak
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: malak
I can't imagine ever needing dual monitors with what I do daily.
Click to expand...

just using word and acrobat for example- it's awesome to be able to type your assignment and refer to the source without alt-tabing-you can keep typing & read/digest at the same time+you dont have to remember things when you alt-tab to typle them...

its also awesome to be able to have a couple of IE windows up...and if u've got someone to entertain who really bores you you can put a futurama on on one screen while you nef on ATOT :)

I could go on for ages but i think those are good examples..
Click to expand...

I don't ever write anything, I graduated college a while ago. I don't use IE, tabbed browsing for the win. I have a TV for futurama.

I'm sorry, but your examples are reasons why I don't have a second monitor. In fact, I have a KVM switch to use one monitor for 2 machines.
Click to expand...

See, I said all that before I had dual monitors, but it's really something you have to try...for ~ a week, before you can judge. It really does sound useless, until you realize how great it is.
Click to expand...

you said it- an undefinable charactersistic :)

plus it looks very l33t indeed-i've had plenty chicks go 'wow-how on earth does it do that? That is so-like-cool!' then proceed to spend a couple of minutes moving the cursor back and forth and draggin icons across the two!

EDIT: plenty of folk have a impressively flash LCD monitor these days, but in the real world very few people indeed have two monitors :) So you also have something that almost no one you know (AT doesn't count :p) has...
Click to expand...

Also you can game on one monitor and have chat/irc/web browser open and using before the game w/o having to switch back and forth. Tribes Vengeance has a problem doing that but every other game Ive tried has been fine.

I also remote desktop to my work machine at home and it can have its own monitor, email.

theres really a ton of uses for it.
 
DannyBoy

DannyBoy

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 2002
8,820
2
81
www.danj.me
Originally posted by: Dopefiend
Dual at work (Phillips 17" LCD @ 1280 x 1024, 17" CTX CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Matrox G450 dual-head card), and dual at home (ADI 17" @ 1024 x 768 and a Sun 17" CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Sapphire 9600 Pro). I'd never go back if I was given the choice.
Click to expand...

bastard.

but my 8 meg DSL still > you.
 
M

MaxDSP

Lifer
May 15, 2001
10,056
0
71
Triple Monitor setup at work....3 Dell 17" E173FPs hooked up to one NVIDIA Quadro PCI-E Series and 1 RADEON 9200 PRO 256MB...:D

Only 1 LCD at home though, but might upgrade to a dual monitor setup in a few months
 
J

jjones

Lifer
Oct 9, 2001
15,424
2
0
No, it didn't feel weird. The first time I saw a dual monitor set up, I thought, "Oh, that's cool. More is better."
 
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imported_Phil

Diamond Member
Feb 10, 2001
9,837
0
0
Originally posted by: DannyBoy
Originally posted by: Dopefiend
Dual at work (Phillips 17" LCD @ 1280 x 1024, 17" CTX CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Matrox G450 dual-head card), and dual at home (ADI 17" @ 1024 x 768 and a Sun 17" CRT @ 1024 x 768 on a Sapphire 9600 Pro). I'd never go back if I was given the choice.
Click to expand...

bastard.

but my 8 meg DSL still > you.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha :beer:

Poor baby.

In addition, I swapped my clunky old 5400rpm 40Gb Seagate for an equally old (but bastardly fast in comparison) 18Gb 10,000rpm Fujitsu U160 SCSI disk today ;)

The seek time improvement is :shocked:
 
U

Ulfwald

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
May 27, 2000
8,646
0
76
Originally posted by: Jfrag Teh Foul
Originally posted by: So
No, it was weird at first, but now I cannot live without it.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I have to agree. It is nice to be surfing on one and have email, chat, remote support windows open on the other dual 21 inch Dell trinitrons are nice
 
E

EyeMWing

Banned
Jun 13, 2003
15,670
1
0
I've spec'd systems with SIX monitors, and this was back when DVI was new and rare and AGP4x was god.

Nowadays, on PCI-E, I could probably spec like, eight. Never built one, though.
 
A

Alex

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 1999
6,995
0
0
Originally posted by: dug777
Originally posted by: malak
I can't imagine ever needing dual monitors with what I do daily.
Click to expand...

just using word and acrobat for example- it's awesome to be able to type your assignment and refer to the source without alt-tabing-you can keep typing & read/digest at the same time+you dont have to remember things when you alt-tab to typle them...

its also awesome to be able to have a couple of IE windows up...and if u've got someone to entertain who really bores you you can put a futurama on on one screen while you nef on ATOT :)

I could go on for ages but i think those are good examples..
Click to expand...


wow that post alone convinced me i HAVE to get dual monitor goodness some time in the future!

a CRT for gaming, movies, and an LCD for work... perfect! :)
 
C

cjgallen

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2003
6,419
0
0
I had dual monitors for a while. Kinda cool, but overall pretty useless.

Now I just have a laptop.
 
Malak

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Originally posted by: arod
Also you can game on one monitor and have chat/irc/web browser open and using before the game w/o having to switch back and forth. Tribes Vengeance has a problem doing that but every other game Ive tried has been fine.

I also remote desktop to my work machine at home and it can have its own monitor, email.

theres really a ton of uses for it.
Click to expand...

But you can't game AND chat at the same time, it's just not possible without 3 eyes and 4 hands. So it's a moot point, which is exactly why I don't have multiple monitors and never will.
 
J

JustAnAverageGuy

Diamond Member
Aug 1, 2003
9,057
0
76
Originally posted by: dug777
Three monitors is supposed to be the shizzle :) I suspect that i'd use the one on my left much less that the other two however- it doesnt seem natural dragging stuff to the left of your 'master' screen...being right handed and all.
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I have my second one on the left.

I used to have it on the right, but it just didn't feel right :)

<-- Right handed, left eye dominant.

If I could have three on here, I would.

It takes awhile getting used to throwing everybody off to the side though. After you've used two though, you won't want to go back.
 
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