Dual Monitors

dvdfan

Hello,

I have a Dell Optiplex 2.4gh 256mb ram with 15" flatscreen and i want to upgrade it to 2 monitors. Im also going to bring the ram up to 1gig. The computers about 2 years old maybe 3 tops and im not sure what the graphics card is as im not at the pc at the moment.

My question is can i just buy a monitor of komplett.ie and connect it up to my pc or what other hardware will i need. Im thinking of buying a 19" widescreen lcd monitor for €215 on Komplett, will this lead to problems with the other screen being only 15"

I basically want it for poker where i can play the game on one monitor and have stats programs and other stuff running on the other one without having to keep switching from one to the other constantly or tilling the programs and making them all too small to see.

Would i be best to ring dell and ask them what i need or can i just buy the equipment through komplett???


Cheers

Cuddlesworth

What optiplex model?

obrienb

What gfx card is in it? It might only have one VGA port. If it has two ports that doesn't mean you can use those two monitors though. Your gfx card will have to work so hard to output to two monitors it might not handle it. Especially if you go from a 15" to a 19". When Dell sell a computer at it's basic level it does what it's supposed to do and no more, that's why they're cheap. If it's made to drive a 15" with res of 1024x768 and then has to drive that + a 19" with res of 1280x1024 it could just give in. Also, you really should use same size screens and resolution. I sometimes plug my 17" (1280x1024) crt into my laptop 17" WXGA (1440x900) when I need the extra space for panels in certain programs. It can be difficult to work with.

dvdfan

This wasnt a cheap model, its Dell Optiplex GX270, there is waht appears to be another monitor connection on the flatscreen itself and another on the pc tower both are 15 pin connections so i assume these are for monitors maybe not.

The Graphics card is:
NVIDIA GeForce MX440 with AGP8X

I dont want to use to 15" flatscreens even though that would be ideal to have 2 of the same resolution, and ive my mind set on getting the 19" widescreen, but i dont mind upgrading the graphics card to do this but is there any other special equipment i would need and also wheres the best place to buy the graphics card etc, through dell where theyll be able to tell me if its compatible or through komplett where ill get them cheaper??

Thanks for all the help so far.

p.s its actually a 2.60ghz with 512mb ram but im still going to boost it up to 1gb is this enough or should i go more. It can take up to 2gb

obrienb

Make sure from the Dell website that it can actually take 2GB and don't assume that it can because it has enough slots. I explained what happened with my girlfriends PC in another post today.

Yeah, the geForce 440 should be able to handle it as long as you're not going to be doing anything too intensive.

dvdfan

obrienb wrote:

Make sure from the Dell website that it can actually take 2GB and don't assume that it can because it has enough slots. I explained what happened with my girlfriends PC in another post today.

Yeah, the geForce 440 should be able to handle it as long as you're not going to be doing anything too intensive.

Yeah ive checked it out before but ill checka again before buying. I wont be doing anything too entensive but hopefully it wont start freezing on me and stuff, if this was likely id rather get a better graphics card.

I tried to ring dell but surprise surprise i got the run around from reception to monitor sales to grpahics card sales, back to reception and then to techinical support and then to optiplex technical support to which an automated voice said "techinical support is closed, @ 12.30pm??? and they hung up. Great service

8T8

Personally I thought the 2D output wasn't that great on the GeForce 4 MX series but it may be worth a small graphics card update to something like this to counter that.

You at least get 1 DVI output (digital connection to your display for sharper picture) from that as well if you one of the new displays you buy has a DVI connection connection.

Bar that the dual VGA outputs on the GF4-MX should be okay to drive both displays.

Also XP's multi-monitor features are woefully basic, invest in a copy of Ultramon if you want to make them better.

dvdfan

Thanks for the replies,

I got onot to Dell and they claim that it will support dual monitors but i would need a "split cable", where will i get one of these, my local Cantech?? Is it just like a double adaptor where both connection go into the one connection.

I have myself a 19" lcd monitor now which has a 15 pin connection and also a dvi-d connection. The current 15" monitor also has both connectors.

So should i be getting a split cable for the 15pin or a split cable for the dvi-d connection.

Lastly when i get the split cable will windows 2000 auto pick it up or will i need to change settings and update the driver etc???

dvdfan

After ringing around Athlone nobody seems to have one in stock but they seem to think its a VGA splitter that i need to make this work. Is this correct

8T8

Split cable

Split cables are used for KVM switches & the like not sure what Dell mean by that.

Anyway you don't need a "split cable" if your graphics card has dual outputs whether they be of mixed analogue/digital or the same type. If both displays have DVI connections and you want to make use of them you can acquire graphics cards with dual DVI outputs but at a higher cost.


With your existing setup if you have dual VGA outs on your GeForce 4 MX all you need to do is plug both monitors into each port.

Update your graphics card driver, I'm not sure if you get the newer control panel under Win2K or not but inside it will be a multi-monitor display wizard that will basically run through the options for setting it up like putting it into span or clone desktop mode etc.


If your graphics card has only one VGA out (15-pin) then you need a new graphics card.