Basic desing questions on building a new dual monitor system

[tanstafl]

I'm planning to build a new system centered around dual 22" LCDs - one
in landscape and one in portrait mode. I'm fairly decent on PCs in
general, but years ago I decided to avoid things graphic since I'm not
a gamer. My penance for that is I now have to do some remedial
reading. I would like to get two things from this post:

1) Is this a feasible goal? Can 1 card (or 2?) drive both a 1680x1050
and a 1050x1680 monitor? No sense chasing the impossible dream.

2) I would appreciate references to sites that have general and/or
moderately technical tutorials or reference materials so I can
bootstrap my knowledge level. I don't have a decent understanding of
the interdependencies of the monitor(s), video card(s) and the OS
(probably XP2 Pro).

I will appreciate any responses. Don't waste your time with detailed
technical explanations, at best I'd probably only partially
comprehend. Those conversations can wait until I can form decent
questions

 

[William]

I'm planning to build a new system centered around dual 22" LCDs - one
in landscape and one in portrait mode. I'm fairly decent on PCs in
general, but years ago I decided to avoid things graphic since I'm not
a gamer. My penance for that is I now have to do some remedial
reading. I would like to get two things from this post:

1) Is this a feasible goal? Can 1 card (or 2?) drive both a 1680x1050
and a 1050x1680 monitor? No sense chasing the impossible dream.

2) I would appreciate references to sites that have general and/or
moderately technical tutorials or reference materials so I can
bootstrap my knowledge level. I don't have a decent understanding of
the interdependencies of the monitor(s), video card(s) and the OS
(probably XP2 Pro).

I will appreciate any responses. Don't waste your time with detailed
technical explanations, at best I'd probably only partially
comprehend. Those conversations can wait until I can form decent
questions

I've been running two 19" monitors on my own computer for over 4 years now.
CCC will handle the resolutions and rotation you are interested in with no
problems. The biggest problem is the initial setup, simple, but can be
confusing. At first, both monitors will be active, but when windows starts
only the primary monitor will be active. Once you "extend" your desktop
onto the second monitor in CCC it will be active from that time forward.
You will have to set the resolutions and rotations at that point. It's all
their in CCC.

Three years ago I had problems with some programs not working with two
monitors, some would not show drop-down menus or video on the second
monitor. Some would not start-up on the second monitor. However, this
seems to have cleared up the past year after updating my programs. I think
more and more people are taking advantage of two monitors that all these
high-end graphics cards can provide and the software industry is answering a
need.

One area of problem has been with windows and background desktop images.
Their are programs that will correct this problem, allowing a single image
to span across multiple monitors. I finally went with a program called
WidowBlinds which takes care of this and a multiple of other features for
me. Oh - screen savers, not all screen savers run across multiple monitors.
It's fun when they do.

William

 

[Geoff]

I'm planning to build a new system centered around dual 22" LCDs - one
in landscape and one in portrait mode. I'm fairly decent on PCs in
general, but years ago I decided to avoid things graphic since I'm not
a gamer. My penance for that is I now have to do some remedial
reading. I would like to get two things from this post:

1) Is this a feasible goal? Can 1 card (or 2?) drive both a 1680x1050
and a 1050x1680 monitor? No sense chasing the impossible dream.

why would you want one in landscape and one in portrait?

you should be able to do this with 1 normal video card with 2 outputs
i use dual head (1 video card)
and i tested turning my main display into portrait mode just for a laugh

as long as you buy ati or nvidia video card, you should be fine
avoid crappy graphics chipsets like intel, you normaly find em on cheapo
desktops, and laptops, just stick with those 2 brands to( hopefully)
save your sanity

 

[tanstafl]

I've been running two 19" monitors on my own computer for over 4 years now.
CCC will handle the resolutions and rotation you are interested in with no
problems. The biggest problem is the initial setup, simple, but can be
confusing. At first, both monitors will be active, but when windows starts
only the primary monitor will be active. Once you "extend" your desktop
onto the second monitor in CCC it will be active from that time forward.
You will have to set the resolutions and rotations at that point. It's all
their in CCC.

Three years ago I had problems with some programs not working with two
monitors, some would not show drop-down menus or video on the second
monitor. Some would not start-up on the second monitor. However, this
seems to have cleared up the past year after updating my programs. I think
more and more people are taking advantage of two monitors that all these
high-end graphics cards can provide and the software industry is answering a
need.

One area of problem has been with windows and background desktop images.
Their are programs that will correct this problem, allowing a single image
to span across multiple monitors. I finally went with a program called
WidowBlinds which takes care of this and a multiple of other features for
me. Oh - screen savers, not all screen savers run across multiple monitors.
It's fun when they do.

William

William; My apologies for the long delay, I was off my feed for
awhile and haven't been online. Thanks for the overview and your
experiences - it gives me some structure and framework to guide my
remedial reading on the topic. I hope you'll still be around in a
month or two when I'm able to start asking some coherent questions.

 

[tanstafl]

why would you want one in landscape and one in portrait?

That goes to assumptions I've made that probably should be examined.
My idea was that some apps like .doc and .pdf would be a natural fit
for portrait mode. I would expect that the 1050 horizontal would
accommodate 80+ character lines in a font size that would be
comfortable to my aging eyes, while the 1680 vertical would allow for
full page displays. Conversely, landscape should be friendly to
spreadsheets, Opera, Agent etc. But I've never had LCD displays
before - do you see any subtle gotchas above?

you should be able to do this with 1 normal video card with 2 outputs
i use dual head (1 video card)
and i tested turning my main display into portrait mode just for a laugh

as long as you buy ati or nvidia video card, you should be fine
avoid crappy graphics chipsets like intel, you normaly find em on cheapo
desktops, and laptops, just stick with those 2 brands to( hopefully)
save your sanity

As I slowly dip into reading up about graphics, hanging onto sanity is
an increasingly important goal I'm a long way from hardware
selection at this point, but I hear you about cheapo stuff. Stability
(usually equates with low heat) and function are the criteria. A few
bucks at build time are unimportant amortized over the 2-4 years I'll
be using the system.