Are Dual Monitors Worth It

Just looking for general opinions really.
I've come into a small ammount of money and was thinking of getting a second dell 1905.

Pros/Cons, gaming with dual monitors, etc. etc.

Cheers!

Yes, i couldnt go back to 1 screen now. You can chuck all your crap, MSN, xfire etc onto your secondary and use your primary for things like gaming and browsing etc. Its nice being able to browse he web and watch a film too.

that sounds great actually, sorta sums up what i was thinking last night, nothing on TV and i wanted to watch a bit of family guy, but at the same time just play some FM2006, im really thinking about gettin Dual Screens

Baker

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Joined: 27 Sep 2004

Posts: 935

I didn't know dual monitors could work like that. I've tried watching something (a film) and playing an online game, but the online game was 'fullscreen' and only loaded on one of my screens while it shut the other one off. The only way i could see of loading a film and that game would be to put the game in a window (virtual PC or the like) and just place it on one screen while the film on the other.
For that reason i think personally i'm going to go widescreen instead of dual display unless i can be convinced otherwise.

did you have ultramon? I found ultramon made almost anything I wanted to do possible in the month or 2 when I had 2 monitors hooked up. I never tried playing games while watching a DVD but I did have Outlook, msn, x-fire, iTunes on the smaller screen while playing games most of the time.
The thing some people expect to work that doesn't is just pausing a game and moving the mouse across to the other monitor, you need to alt-tab out and most games (all the ones i tried it with) will minimize when you do this, unless you have it running in a window.

I'd never go back to a single monitor. I went from dual 17" TFT's to a single Dell 2405 and it didn't take me long to give in and buy a second 2405.

I actually want to get a whole new pc and have media portal setup on it......so i can quickly flick through things with a remote or even have a touchscreen monitor, i think that would be great.

2 screens are far better than one. I have a Dell 2405 as my main screen, and a 19" Xerox as my secondary screen. I did have 2x19" screens either side of the dell at one point, and I started liking that quite fast as well. I say the more the merrier.

I can never go back to one screen.
Having 2 screens is not only uber cool but it's fantastic for uni/college work. I found that my work rate had gone up dramatically. Multi tasking is where it's really at . . Say I'm playing Guild Wars on the first screen, and on the other I'm usually web browsing and on msn

It was my best impulse purchase ever

I'm on the same boat too.
Currently got a 17" tft and am torn between buying a second one (around £160) or getting a 20" widescreen (involving loads of problems looking at backlight bleeding etc)
The 20" will be great for watching dvds and I'l be able to bump up the settings on games more.

got 1 19" widescreen for movies and 2 17" either side for messenger, web and other crap. i agree, it does improve your work rate. if you have an assignment brief and your actuall assignment work. you can look at both and make sure you doing the right thing. and look things up on the net while u do it. much better than 1. i find my self logging onto 2 pcs at college to get my work done lol.

Just to clarify what someone mentioned earlier. If you have a game running on one monitor, and then a web page/music player/MSN runing in the other monitor, although you can see them, to actually be able to use them you have to minimize the game and then move your cursor across to the screen? I have a 17" at the moment, and after my exams I hope to get a 20"WS which are similar height to a 17" so should go well together, and I will want to be playing a game on one screen whilst using something else on the other quite often.

Wow!
I never knew Dual screens can do that. I mean i always thought it'll stretch your gaming screen across 2 screens / load up in 1 screen only with the other in black screen.

Damn forum, answers so much questions and giving me too much options for my new rig.

Baker

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Joined: 27 Sep 2004

Posts: 935

Yes you do need to minimize the game in order to utilize the applications on the other monitor. I'm testing dual monitors right now - with CRTs. Also, if a game automatically has a display settings - like one i am using right now (Legend of mir 2) you cannot watch movies and thing on the other monitor. This game automatically sets the resolution to 800x600 and the colour to something like 8bit. Movies won't run in 8bit and therefore don't show up on the other monitor. Be wary of that.
Although like everyone has said, work ethic is excellent. It's really easy to just bring up two things you need to view at the same time and put them on different monitors with ULTRAMON.
Personally, after using dual CRTs, i can't see myself using them to a great degree apart from working (college work and such) as you don't really need two screens to internet browse, play music, use messenger etc. I will be buying a 20" WS hopefully, but in the future attach a 17" CRT for working when i need it.

Dual monitors are great, I use them for doing video editing, they're also great for doing web design work etc, have photoshop open on one and flash on the other or whatever, so makes life really easy. As for playing game and doing something else you would have to minimise the game in order to move the mouse over to the other application.

Quick question,
Iv currently got a 7800GTX and two monitors (LG 17" and a NEC 20") Would i see a benafit of putting in my old 6200 card and connecting the 17" to it? The 17" will be just used to internet/msn etc.