Dual Monitor

[lupi]

My workstation has an onboard intel video chip with a vga outlet. Can I connect a standard vga y adapter and then plug 2 monitors in to have both monitors operate?

 

[Lonyo]

A Y-adapter would at best give you mirrored displays (same thing on both, since it just splits the signal)
If you want both monitors to be different, then you would need something like the Matrox DualHead2Go, although it is rather expensive for what it offers.
If you want a cheaper route for multiple outputs, your best bet would be to get an add-in card (standard PCI would be the safe bet if you don't know what slots you have available inside the computer), since pretty much any normal video card will do dual outputs.

If you can't add a card, then the DualHead2Go is your only option if you want discrete displays, the Y adapter will only let you mirror.

 

[lupi]

hmm, the guy next to me has a single dvi port with a dvi to dual vga cable and is using two monitors on his desk and displays different stuff on each one.

 

[Zensal]

Are you sure its not a single DMS-59 out? They look similar at a glance, but DMS-59 supports 2 displays out.

 

[lupi]

Ah well damn, that may be it. Me and another guy are the only ones that didn't get that connector on our comps as our workstations were swapped out a few months before the rest.

 

[lifeblood]

lupi may be right about it being a DVI connector. I bought some Quadro cards for dual monitor workstations I seem to remember it using a DVI connector with a Y cable plugged into it.

Either way, a Y cable on a VGA connector will only mirror your display. A few jobs back I had the same problem as you so I went to the folks who handled the surplus PC's and found an old one with a PCI video card. I took the card out and installed it into my PC and was able to use the onboard display for one monitor and the add-in card for the other.