Dual Monitors!

I just got a dual-monitor setup at work and now I'm planning to get a second one at the house. It's great!

But...check this out. /drool
http://digitaltigers.com/displays-powertrio.shtml

drool.....

I think this is a happy medium:-

http://digitaltigers.com/displays-commandcenter.shtml

I considered dual monitor, but the ergonomics never made sense to me. Either you've got them centrally side-by-side, which means that there's a great big border in the middle of your view, or you've got one off to one side, which is going to mean neck-strain after a time (I know, I had my TV next to my monitor for a while).

Three monitors makes sense to me, because you've got one central monitor and two peripheral ones, which is conducive to the way you'd work. Problem is, most graphics cards support only dual monitor. you would have to compromise on something fairly major in order to utilise 3 displays from one graphics card. Though, if all you do is 2D work, you'll be OK.

The temptation to play 3D games with 3 monitors would be too much for me. I would end up buying an expensive SLI system and adding a fourth monitor above the central one ;)

**EDIT** My single monitor provides *plenty* of screen real-estate as it is :^D

I plugged in dual monitors last week and I wish I did it years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can watch winfastPVR full screen on the right monitor and websites/desktop etc on the left

@vinylpusher -0- There is no border in the middle, your desktop(orginal one) is still on one monitor and you can drag icons accross to the right monitor

sometimes I turn the right monitor off and this doesnt effect anything in a everyday operational sense.

Both monitors are running at 1024 x 768 @ true colour and add to that TV running in a window and broadband network connection, all that runs at full speed.

I'm running 2x24" as 1920x1200 + 1200x1920 and I'm ready for a third (probably 22" though). I'll hook that one up to a second computer for running tests on, though. It makes a huge difference to the way you work.

I prefer some more height. Usually the new 22" monitors aren't much higher than my 17" 1280x1024 screen. So I walked into a normal electronics shop and talked a bit about about HD TV. If some of those TV models are like 1900x1200 orso.. well, that's decent, and with 107cm orso you've quite something at your nose.. :D

Someone with experience in using those huge TV's for serious PC work? (no gaming, just programming, editing, photoshopping etc.)

So uhm, something like Mike Oldfield has:

Hey that looks like my screen! got a 22 inch widescreen off ebuyer. omg i love their prices!

o_O thats huge. i only have 19", but thats big enough.

talking about it... anyone plan to make a dual-monitor game?

If a 2nd monitor is mandatory, then don't put your hopes on it..

Yeaahhhh he's using FL Studio! Top man.

BTW if you have dual monitors, get Ultramon - I use it to put a second taskbar on the 2nd monitor, helps keep applications tidy if you run several at once.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/overview/

Dual monitors here. I had actually gone back to using a single for many months. Hooked up the 2nd one recently... totally forgot how much it can help with productivity.

I keep my main workspace on the main monitor, and then have all my secondary windows( like api docs, pdf's, image viewers, xplorer2, irc, winamp, etc ) on the 2nd monitor.

Man. I would *love* for a 3 screen setup.

Single 20" wide here (1680x1050)

i am using a single 30" tft here. nice 2560*1600 pixels, without any disturbing borders of multiple monitors in view.

Multi_Mon is free and does similer things to UltraMon

http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm

A roomie I had once (very very rich man he was) bought himself 2 brand new plasmas.. back prettymuch when they were first coming out.

He mounted them on the wall vertically behind his laptop...

He used them for things like AIM and Yahoo.. He also liked to put porn on them and various other things... (since it was when they were first coming out, they really didn't have anything that could use them yet, so it wasn't as much of a waste as a vertical flatscreen HD would be today... but still.

They were biggons too.. Cost him like 5 grand a piece... I wanna say 42 Inchers.. but I really don't know for sure.

Someone ripped them both off by the end of the year cause my other 2 roomies never locked the door.. served the rich bastard right... and he didn't even care.. Spoiled Brat.

I've been using a dual monitor setup at work for about 3 years at work its definatly benefical to productivity. I decieded to shell out for a similar (somewhat nicer) setup at home and I've been a bit dissapointed as I don't use it that much for lesiure.

So I would say if you intend to use it for work I would say go for it, otherwise it's not really worth it.

Darkheart

iMac 20" with an external 20" Cinema display here, 2x 1680x1050. I will change that as soon as Apple releases a 30" inch Quad-Core iMac. ;-)

By the way, Dell is now selling their 30" display for around 1400 Euros incl. tax here in Germany. We have one of those at work, it's an awesome display. Unfortunately, the only machine that I could connect to it is my 17" PowerBook G4, and that does not make too much sense for me, otherwise I would buy one now.

The other thing is that I prefer two displays over having just one, especially when I use software like Aperture that uses the second screen for previewing the image while using the first one for the tools and library.

WindowXP Pro actualy already spawns your taskbar over 2 monitors. why you need an app for that?

By default it shows it on just a single screen -- how do you get it to use both?

Does anyone know of any software that lets me take full advantage of dual monitors, particularly the ability to click on a second monitor while playing a fullscreen game? That Ultramon looks handy..

This thread inspired me to try a dual monitor setup of my own - works great!

Pic

Not sure why I didn't think of doing it earlier actually. The TV has always been there, just used it for the 360 before.

I love having a dual-screen setup at the office, but at home I didn't like it much. Part of it is the layout -- most of the stuff at home only uses the one screen (e.g. playing a game) at which point the screen positioning becomes an issue. Either you always have to look sideways since your primary screen is centered in front of you, or your secondary screen is too much off to the side to be really useful when you do need it.