[thelist] Monitor

[Paul Cowan]

> > 2 monitor setups are pretty keen too - one with browser and one with
> > whatever tool you're using to develop.
> 
> Plus 1 from me.

Make that plus 2 then. I find a very useful setup to be (for me, obviously):

Monitor 1 (good monitor): IE/Mozilla, SQL Server Manager, Terminal Clients,
etc.

Monitor 2 (crap monitor - only 256 colours in my case): Outlook and Textpad
(all code editing done in Textpad).

Of course, the monitor itself isn't that crappy, it's the video card. Well
worth it, anyway, and leads me to a (very long):

<tip type="Dual Monitor Setups" author="Paul Cowan">
Working for a dot-com or other tech company that has shed staff? When people
leave, assuming your company doesn't lease their PC equipment, steal as many
monitors as you can. Choose the biggest, sharpest ones you can, before
anyone else does. Sony monitors, say, will be snapped up quickly, so get in
fast.

Get two monitors (or more, if you're that way inclined), and then try and
find some video card setups that will let you do twin-monitor work.
Dual-head cards like the Matrox ones are ideal, but the company probably
won't have any, and you might have a hard time convincing them to buy you
one. Instead, assuming you have an AGP card, you should be able to slot a
PCI card in as well. But -- be very careful with the card. PCI cards may
need to be the "primary" card in your BIOS. Some BIOSes will not support
this configuration, in which case you might be screwed. Even more
importantly, a lot of REALLY "el cheapo" cards, which are a dime a dozen,
won't work in a multi-monitor setup: I had terrible troubles with s3
virge-type cards. In the end I got a $A8 ($US4) Cirrus Logic card at a swap
meet -- but it can only do 256 colours. Fine for email and TextPad though.

Put the PCI card in PCI slot number 1 (closest to CPU, usually). Set up the
BIOS right, boot Windows, and choose "extend my desktop onto this monitor"
(or equivalent). Magnifique!

Finally, be sure to check out http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/ which
has an excellent searchable database of compatible configurations that
others have tried, FAQs, etc.

Trust me, it's all worth it, for the envious looks from your co-workers
alone.
</tip>