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Thread: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

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    Registered User johnthehappyguy's Avatar
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    Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Hi,


    I would like to have a monitor displaying the internet, and another monitor displaying my word document.

    Although I have a big monitor, I find it very difficult flicking between two windows on one monitor or, looking at more than 1 open window at a time one one monitor, hence my desire for two monitors.

    I have Windows Vista home premium, which i understand supports two monitors.

    My computer has an integrated graphics card, and no other cards have ever been added so I presume there is a spare slot.

    A local supplier (NRG computing in Stirling ), has quoted me £45 for an ASUS graphics card for two monitors, and £25 to fit it.

    Unfortunately I am exceedingly hard up just now, and am wondering how hard it would be to install the card myself ?

    Also there seems to be a few cheaper cards on ebay which support two monitors, however the "plugs/sockets/connections" seem to only have one "normal" socket for a monitor and a different (white) type. Am I looking at the right thing, and if so, how do you plug the second monitor in ( both monitors are CRT ) ?

    I am not going to be playing any complex games on my PC, I just want something to plug two monitors into. Could I buy a suitable card cheaper than the £45 I have been quoted ?

    Any advice will be most welcome.

    thanks very much,

    John

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    Hi,


    I would like to have a monitor displaying the internet, and another monitor displaying my word document.

    Although I have a big monitor, I find it very difficult flicking between two windows on one monitor or, looking at more than 1 open window at a time one one monitor, hence my desire for two monitors.

    I have Windows Vista home premium, which i understand supports two monitors.

    My computer has an integrated graphics card, and no other cards have ever been added so I presume there is a spare slot.

    A local supplier (NRG computing in Stirling ), has quoted me £45 for an ASUS graphics card for two monitors, and £25 to fit it.

    Unfortunately I am exceedingly hard up just now, and am wondering how hard it would be to install the card myself ?

    Also there seems to be a few cheaper cards on ebay which support two monitors, however the "plugs/sockets/connections" seem to only have one "normal" socket for a monitor and a different (white) type. Am I looking at the right thing, and if so, how do you plug the second monitor in ( both monitors are CRT ) ?

    I am not going to be playing any complex games on my PC, I just want something to plug two monitors into. Could I buy a suitable card cheaper than the £45 I have been quoted ?

    Any advice will be most welcome.

    thanks very much,

    John
    basically...

    You can plug in and use as many monitors as you have slots for graphics cards.

    If you are not worried about graphical power (needed for video editing, games and the like) practically any card will do.

    new cards starts at £20ish and one will be all you need.

    If you come to my house (falkirk) i'll fit it for free

  3. #3
    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    Unfortunately I am exceedingly hard up just now, and am wondering how hard it would be to install the card myself?
    It's very straightforward. All you need is a screwdriver and a little bit of patience. (One suggestion: it''s nice if you can have another PC connected to the internet, so if you do have a "OK, what am I supposed to do now?" moment, you can search for advice. But it's unlikely you'll need it).

    Also there seems to be a few cheaper cards on ebay which support two monitors, however the "plugs/sockets/connections" seem to only have one "normal" socket for a monitor and a different (white) type. Am I looking at the right thing, and if so, how do you plug the second monitor in ( both monitors are CRT ) ?
    White socket will probably be a DVI connector. You can get DVI-VGA converters for a few quid. (I may have one lying around I can send to you).

    I'm not 100% certain that all cards with two sockets will actually work with two monitors simultaneously (one of the cheap ones I checked had a lot of people having problems trying to get it to work on two monitors). I'm also not sure whether you'll be able to run one monitor off the integrated gFx and one from the new card; I think you should be able to with Vista, but it's one of those things where you never really know until you try it.

    Any advice will be most welcome.
    Get DS to sort you out...

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    Basically lazy robd's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    John, my responses are inline in bold.

    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    Hi,
    I have Windows Vista home premium, which i understand supports two monitors.

    All recent versions of Windows have supported this.

    My computer has an integrated graphics card, and no other cards have ever been added so I presume there is a spare slot.

    It's likely that there is an AGP slot (for older graphics card technology) or a PCI-e slot (for newer graphics cards) though in the price you are looking at AGP is likely to be the way to go.

    A local supplier (NRG computing in Stirling ), has quoted me £45 for an ASUS graphics card for two monitors, and £25 to fit it.

    Unfortunately I am exceedingly hard up just now, and am wondering how hard it would be to install the card myself ?

    Shouldn't be difficult assuming
    * you have a case that's easy to get into
    * you have a standard motherboard with a spare AGP slot
    * you have the drivers for the card you are installing (there may not be Vista drivers available for some older cards)

    Make sure to discharge static from yourself before handling components - there's loads of step by step guides online for installing graphics cards, etc.


    Also there seems to be a few cheaper cards on ebay which support two monitors, however the "plugs/sockets/connections" seem to only have one "normal" socket for a monitor and a different (white) type. Am I looking at the right thing, and if so, how do you plug the second monitor in ( both monitors are CRT ) ?

    The white thing is a DVI socket for digital output - you can get an adapter that will convert it to VGA (the blue connectors that you describe as a 'normal' socket) - do you have the two monitors already? Does either have a DVI input?

    I am not going to be playing any complex games on my PC, I just want something to plug two monitors into. Could I buy a suitable card cheaper than the £45 I have been quoted ?

    Possibly - I have a Matrox Millenium G450 32MB Dualhead which would be perfect for what you need (assuming there are Vista drivers) and I see there are some on Ebay for £25 but I am nowhere near you and not sure how well it would fare in the post.

    Do you know your PC model name? If so, post it and I should be able to tell you what possibilities are open to you for a new graphics card.

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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    I'm not 100% certain that all cards with two sockets will actually work with two monitors simultaneously (one of the cheap ones I checked had a lot of people having problems trying to get it to work on two monitors).
    Most with 1 d-sub and 1 dvi should be fine with 2 monitors. Your motherboard may well not be able to use the onboard graphics and a graphics card at the same time as DF says, but that's not an issue if the new card itself can handle 2 monitors (and its actually not something i've ever tried, as freeing up the memory wasted by onboard graphics is a good thing). I did run 4 monitors from one motherboard for a year or 2 - simply because it was cool (and flight simulators use multiple monitors well, as do editing/art/video/ide programs).

    Please can you
    download this

    run it - click on the MOTHERBOARD ICON half way down on the left - paste the resulting text from the right hand window in a reply here.

    As an example, this is the motherboard for the computer I'm using now...


    Property Value
    Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
    Model A8R32-MVP Deluxe
    Version Rev 1.xx
    Serial Number MB-1234567890

    North Bridge ATI Xpress 3200 (RD580) Revision 00
    South Bridge ALI M1575 Revision 00

    CPU AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+
    Cpu Socket Socket 939

    System Slots 6 PCI

    Memory Summary
    Maximum Capacity 8192 MBytes
    Maximum Memory Module Size 2048 MBytes
    Memory Slots 4
    Error Correction None



    Get DS to sort you out...
    In a nice way

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    Registered User johnthehappyguy's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    I have been having a bit of a hard time lately on a few different fronts.

    The three responses above have really brightened my day.

    Thank you so much for all of your help and advice.

    I checked out the Matrox that RobD recommended and have bought one ( used but guaranteed working off ebay ), delivered for £17. It has the old fashioned VGA ports so I do not need an adapter/convertor for my older monitors. ( Thanks David nonetheless for your offer of possibly giving me one of yours )

    I use a 20" visible screen nokia multigraph 445M, which I bought 2nd hand about 5 years ago for £90, and I recently got an unused (but a couple of years old) RELYSIS with 18" visible screen through freecycle.

    I checked out the Matrox site and it seems to have drivers for my vista as far as
    I could tell, which is handy too !

    I will attempt to install it myself, using the tips above - the advice to have another pc conected to the internet for on-line/other help is a really good idea, thanks.

    If I have unsurmountable problems, then I will be hot-footing it to Falkirk to take up DS's very kind offer.

    Once again, thanks for all your support.

    I really do appreciate it.

    Best Regards,
    John

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    Most with 1 d-sub and 1 dvi should be fine with 2 monitors.
    Problem is, when I actually did a search on "dual monitor support" with one of the cheap Nvidia cards on e-buyer., nearly all the hits were people having problems. This may be the selective nature of the internet, but it does make me slightly nervous.

    On a more positive note, I've now done a similar search on one of the cheapest ATI cards (X1550), and there are far fewer problems showing up.

    The cheapest graphics card I've ever installed cost about £400 quid (I work for a computer graphics company), so I'm not very experienced at this end of the market.

    Edit: This post seems to have been superceded, but just in case anyone else finds it useful.

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    Registered User johnthehappyguy's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Thanks DS for your latest posting, I am afraid that I did not see it before making my last posting, so i guess they crossed in the eithernet (?) / hyperspace somehow, ( i probably did not refresh my page in time )

    Anyhow,
    I did as you suggested, and here it is :

    -Property Value
    Manufacturer Foxconn
    Model Lucknow
    Version 1.0
    Serial Number UYP872114393

    North Bridge Intel i945G/GZ Revision A2
    South Bridge Intel 82801GB (ICH7/R) Revision A2

    CPU Genuine Intel(R) CPU 2140 @ 1.60GHz
    Cpu Socket Socket 775 LGA

    Memory Summary
    Maximum Capacity 4096 MBytes
    Maximum Memory Module Size 4096 MBytes
    Memory Slots 2
    Error Correction None

    Warning! Accuracy of DMI data cannot be guaranteed

    The manufacturer and model seem a bit strange as my computer is called a Compaq Presario, still if it works then that is fine.

    I will attempt to install the new card and get the monitors to work from it.
    If all goes well with that , I will see if I can still use my existing "integrated" graphics port for a third monitor, ( if memory issues are not too big an issue, ) as I have another spare monitor too, and I am sure it would be handy as well as "cool". If I can't get a third then two will be fine.

    Thanks again Nick.

    john

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    On a more positive note, I've now done a similar search on one of the cheapest ATI cards (X1550), and there are far fewer problems showing up.
    I've not owned an nvidia card for years now but ATIs I've tried have been fine for this, as you say. I would have suggested ATI to John.

    The cheapest graphics card I've ever installed cost about £400 quid (I work for a computer graphics company), so I'm not very experienced at this end of the market.
    I've bought many gfx cards in my time - the most expensive being a picasso iv - £450 that cost me...just look at those specs GFX nostalgia I'd like to hear the specs of everything you've dealt with too to be honest, but that's probably way too boring for the forum

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    Registered User David Franklin's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Nick can step in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain that means you have a PCI-e graphics card.

    I believe the Matrox G450 comes in both AGP and PCIe versions, and it is essential you get the right one for your motherboard.

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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    I checked out the Matrox that RobD recommended and have bought one ( used but guaranteed working off ebay ), delivered for £17.
    Gah...old. It may be fine though - I wont be negative now that you've bought it (and as DF says i hope you have the right slot)

    If I have unsurmountable problems, then I will be hot-footing it to Falkirk to take up DS's very kind offer.
    Just let me know


    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post

    -Property Value
    Manufacturer Foxconn
    Model Lucknow
    Version 1.0
    Serial Number UYP872114393

    North Bridge Intel i945G/GZ Revision A2
    South Bridge Intel 82801GB (ICH7/R) Revision A2

    CPU Genuine Intel(R) CPU 2140 @ 1.60GHz
    Cpu Socket Socket 775 LGA

    Memory Summary
    Maximum Capacity 4096 MBytes
    Maximum Memory Module Size 4096 MBytes
    Memory Slots 2
    Error Correction None

    The manufacturer and model seem a bit strange as my computer is called a Compaq Presario, still if it works then that is fine.
    Even badged PCs of the same model number can differ in internal components. You could get more info on Presario versions from here for example (and probably got a manual if you dont have it), but that program you downloaded will tell you about the internals.

    I will see if I can still use my existing "integrated" graphics port for a third monitor, ( if memory issues are not too big an issue, )
    It might work, but the bios will "pick" what it thinks the primary monitor should be though (it will boot on only one monitor) so you may wish to be specific after testing.

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    Registered User Beowulf's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    oh it's a slippery slope !! first it's two monitors.. then three..

    then...





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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    The Matrox has excellent 2D quality but not so good on 3D but that doesn't seem a priority for John. When I had mine installed it gave me a 2 monitor display without difficulty but that was not a Vista PC. Good luck with fitting John.

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    Registered User johnthehappyguy's Avatar
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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by David Franklin View Post
    Nick can step in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain that means you have a PCI-e graphics card.

    I believe the Matrox G450 comes in both AGP and PCIe versions, and it is essential you get the right one for your motherboard.

    Yes this has been a good learning experience for me.

    I had bought the wrong one, but managed before despatch to trade up with the same supplier.

    I got a MATROX G45X4QUAD-B 128MB DDR QUAD DISPLAY PCI for £70 with express delivery.

    My 14 year old son did all the work, I have scrounged another monitor from my gf and I have four working.

    If I don't need them all, I can just switch on what I do need.

    This is fantastic, thanks for all of your help and advice everyone.

    With 4 monitors working on my desk, I feel like a king ( or a security guard )

    Thanks again, and best regards,

    John

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    Re: Adding a graphics card for two monitors - how hard ?

    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    A local supplier (NRG computing in Stirling ), has quoted me £45 for an ASUS graphics card for two monitors, and £25 to fit it
    Quote Originally Posted by johnthehappyguy View Post
    I got a MATROX G45X4QUAD-B 128MB DDR QUAD DISPLAY PCI for £70 with express delivery.
    Was it just me that chuckled over the thought that you ended up back at the start cost?

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