Question for those of you with dual monitors...

[Vigilante]

How in the world can you stand that huge plastic bar in the middle? I've always been curious.

 

[Asus]

What bar?
It's invisible when you get used to it. You know how it looks and works with 2 monitors. Your eyes go right to the window or cursor on the screen. It's great for use with applications when viewing the desktop.

I don't expand games to use both monitors. That is just wrong, having the space there and trying to look down the center. Surround Gaming is with 3 monitors. Should know that.

Though I do use my second monitor when gaming for displaying programs like IM, Xfire, IRC, and Winamp. To keep tabs on things.

 

[l337vegeta]

i just took my monitors out of the casings and sat the screens next to each other voila. no plastic bar

 

[simmo]

So, how do you actually control the other monitor ? :O...a shortcut key or ?

 

[VBN]

I use a laptop and an 17" LCD, so very small border anyway. You don't even think about it. I couldn't cope going back to a single monitor for work.

 

[Adrien C]

Whoa, what do you need to control 2 monitors ?
I'm really interested.

 

[Asus]

Your mouse simply passes to the next screen.
If you move the mouse to the left it stops at the edge of the monitor or desktop but if you go to the right then it continues to the second monitor with the expanded desktop.

In games your mouse is locked with that game on the first monitor. If there is an IM that I want to respond to I would have to minimize the game. It's the same as if I had only 1 monitor except I can actually see the IM and other windows. Alt+Tab works well for that.

And in display properties there are 2 monitors which you can select. Which everone you select is the one you will be changing the settings on when you go to Advanced.

 

[Sgt_Shellback]

You get used to it quickly and a short time after that you wont want to do without the 2nd monitor.

I keep Outlook running and maximized on my left at all times and run my apps, explorer, etc on the screen in front of me.

dial in all the settings though to avoid some nusiances... For instance the annoying triple click... IE If you go from an active window to the other monitor and want to open an EMAIL that just came in it takes three clicks to open it... The first click sets the window active and then the normal dbl click to open.

I did that for months and it always bugged me until I noticed the option in NVIDIA's driver to have mouse over activate a window...

 

[Adrien C]

I see what you mean, its like hooking the Pc wth a Tv screen, I need to try that, defintly woth the try.
When you are runing a game, and you want to pass to the next screen, does it take time to load ? It has to take additional RAM... ?

ASUS, are you runing to separate screens , or one of those 2 integrated monitors ?

 

[Asus]

It takes time for your game to minimize just like it does with 1 monitor.

Two of the same model in my sig, Viewsonic P75f+B.

 

[Sgt_Shellback]

Another interesting thing about running two monitors... I have a 22" main monitor and a 17" second monitor... So I'm running them at two different resolutions...

It's neat when working with photo's to be able to drag them from one to the other and view them that way. It also comes in handy for programming apps and making web pages to check how they look at low and high res.

 

[Adrien C]

I'll have to steal my dads monitor and try this !
How long do you recon to get it up and runing ?

 

[Asus]

Just plug it in and set to Dual View in display properties.
If you have a DVI connection you just might need a DVI to VGA adapter, which most cards come with.

 

[azz0r]

Anyone got pictures of theres dual monitors in action? Would be cool to see.

 

[m3ta1head]

my dad has dual 22" LCD's....they're awesome, except he can only run them at 1280x1024, cause he has a radeon 9000pro. bwhhaaaha

 

[Asus]

Here ya go. Link
Visual C++ .NET on the left.
AIM buddy list, AIM IM window, Itunes, and Firefox on the right.
2560x960 @ 85Hz

 

[filipeg165]

How in the world can you stand that huge plastic bar in the middle? I've always been curious.

LOL you lucky to have only a plastic bar between them, I have some wall too LOL but I only use dual monitor for 3d design not for games... I leave all the controls and tabs on one monitor and on the big screen I leave the actual drawing so I can look for failures and such, with much more detail.

 

[VBN]

The only thing I wish you could do is extend the taskbar across both monitors.

 

[Sgt_Shellback]

The only thing I wish you could do is extend the taskbar across both monitors.

You mean the start bar at the bottom? If so there's an option for it in NVIDIA's driver... But if I remember right it ends up giving you the start button on the left monitor and the clock and the system tray on the right monitor kinda like one really long start bar rather than two. I don't use it.

 

[VBN]

You mean the start bar at the bottom? If so there's an option for it in NVIDIA's driver... But if I remember right it ends up giving you the start button on the left monitor and the clock and the system tray on the right monitor kinda like one really long start bar rather than two. I don't use it.

Bugger, my laptop is ATi driven