This device uses an internal DisplayLink chip to enable resolutions up to 1920 x 1200. Since most of these devices stop short of that res., I opted to spend the extra for it.
They issue the external 19" monitor to all developers, but I opted to pick up the 28" on sale last Black Friday as my new primary. I should have picked up 2.
I also bought an ATI 5970 for the new home desktop, but I’ve only the one monitor there so far.
Michael Csikos: My tone may have seemed a bit off. I’m just like that. Have you tried virtual workspaces? I don’t know how it is on windows, I’m a linux guy. In the land of X, virtual workspaces have been around since “the beginning,” when smart people realized they needed “multiple monitors” but the things were so darned expensive and heavy that it just was not practical to do so. Some things have changed, some things have not.
I’m certainly not going to buy 8 monitors, and that’s how many “spaces” I need. So what would I do with 2 monitors? 1,2,3,4 are on monitor 1 and 5,6,7,8 are on monitor 2? Maybe. It could work. Maybe this isn’t absurd
I also ordered a 8400GS for my old 22" (226BW) but the brightness didn’t match with the new 943’s… so I’ve decided to just use the 2 for the time being. Multiple monitors FTW.
I realise that the chances of you reading this comment are slim, but I’m going to try anyway. I’m a software developer and for years I’ve worked with only one screen. Years ago on 1024x768 without any problems, then on 1280x1024 and now on 1680x1050. Both at work and at home, with no problems at all.
I once tried to work with two screens but I found that it took a lot of space on my desk and I didn’t really like that.
But most of all, I didn’t know how to work with multiple screens productively. When you have the time, could you please dedicate a post on how to actually work with multiple screen productively?
Multiple monitor setups work best, in my opinion, with 4:3 monitors. I don’t like widescreen for these kinds of setups. I have a dual monitor setup at home (2x Syncmaster 930bf @1280x1024) and a triple monitor setup at work (same monitors, but triple).
I tend to work on the right-one, not the middle one (for the triple setup, you smart-asses). My VS2010 window layout looks like this: http://slash14.nl/cndsa
For applications that don’t make extensive use of multiple monitors (like word processing, browsers etc.) I usually use a monitor to keep my Email open all the time (Outlook, left screen), some application I regularly switch to but am not working on primarily on the middle screen and the application I’m working with on the right screen.
As an electrical engineering student, my mouth kinda fell agape at the ‘USB gets more power closer to the PSU’ comment. Then i lol’d.
Realizing I, an electrical engineer, am a member of some of the worst yet most prolific programmers out there. We write device drivers, which are known to cause many if not most of kernel panics across all OS’s, so really I have no room to talk here on a programming blog.
Still, we fail at programming (I’m reading this blog to try to get better), and sometimes programmers fail at electrical engineering
(PS the power delivered to USB devices is standardized in the specification)
Personally, 2 monitors usually suffice. Recently i started to make use of my nvidia graphics card’s nView feature: multiple desktops. I divide my desktop into workspaces - one for design stuff, and one for programming for example. It’s working out pretty well thus far.
For developing with Delphi i also wanted to use three monitors, but the old graphics card would only support two.
So i chose the Radeon 5770, paired with the Apple Active Adapter (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/A . All well and good except for one thing.
Apple has chosen to use Mini DisplayPort, but the Radeon 5770 only uses the normal size DisplayPort interface. After searching around the net for an adapter, i finally came across this one: http://www.dinodirect.com/Forum/SKUA17220000A
When it arrived i was a little worried if it would work or not, but after plugging it in, it has been working flawlessly ever since.
One minor issue is that the monitor connected with the Apple adapter, sometimes needs to be turned off and on, to pick up the signal from the computer.
Another option would be the active adapter from Dell, that will do the same without the extra adapter, but where is the challenge in that :o)
I tried for many hours to achieve the above set-up with older systems but hit a lot of problems. I found out many others had also hit problems when I sought assistance on the web. For the benefit of others, this is how I setup MSI MS-6728 (MSI 865g /p/pe neo2 ) with 3 monitors – using NVIDIA AGP FX 5600 & PCI FX5200 video cards. I hope this helps.
Have only the AGP video card installed with 2 monitors connected.
Delete all reference to existing Nvidia drivers. ( Use Control Panel > add/remove programs OR CCleaner ).
Restart Computer – do not accept M/soft to look for P&P drivers.
Restart Computer and initiate the Bios with the DEL key. Make sure PNC/PCI configuration - Init. Graphics Adapter Priority is set for AGP/PCI as per this photo… Save on exit by pressing F10.
Restart Computer - do not accept M/soft to look for P&P drivers.
If you use virtual desktops, three monitors aren’t necessary…
There are exceptions. Like, I’d never use anything less than two monitors if I’m doing some electrical design work or any serious graphic work because the number of tools that you need to use simultaneously.
For programming OTOH, one high quality display can easily be enough if you have a good virtual desktop setup.
I currently use Linux Mint with 4 virtual desktops setup. One for coding, one for internet browsing (research/code reference), one for revision control, one for unit testing. If 4 isn’t enough I can add more as I need them.
The trick to using them effectively is having a good key combination setup. I use:
Ctrl-Left Ctrl-Right to cycle back and fourth through the desktops (I think this is the default in *nix).
Ctrl-Up for the compiz ‘Scale’ plugin which is the equivalent to Expose on Mac.
*Ctrl-Down for the compiz ‘Desktop Cube’ which shows you the desktops in relation the current one in a break-out view so it’s easier to see where everything is.
That on a 15" laptop screen with 1920x1080 is perfect for my needs. If I had multi monitors visible at any given time it would only distract me from writing code. It’s much easier to focus on one desktop at a time.
My monitor doesn’t have DVI input (although it has everything else), so I just bought a $8 cable off Newegg that has DVI on one end and HDMI on the other end.
wow… I was just musing on this topic this morning and stumbled on this accidentally. thanks! my dual monitor (two 1600x1200s) setup is just getting too crowded since I need both full monitors to display code on, plus another to display the results (i.e. application i’m building). so i either need to go with one large monitor (1920x1200+) and one modest-sized (1600x1200) or split it up into three displays since i really don’t switching back and forth. grrr… dilemma, dilemma.
I’m with @Vincent O’Sullivan - having an extra (2nd or 3rd) “Joe User” monitor running at 1280x800 can be very useful to ensure that your design works well on a constrained browser. This is also a great use for a netbook - they take up very little real estate, have a 1024px width, and their constrained height makes you really focus on what’s “above the fold”.
As a primarily Windows developer, I find this to be a great use for my Mini 9 Hackintosh - I design for my Windows box and sanity-test in Safari on the Hackintosh. If it looks good on a 24" screen in Windows and also on a 9" Mac browser, then that’s good enough for me.
I had an XFX 5850 for several months, but never used triple monitors because of not wanting to buy a $100 cable to make it possible. Eventually, I figured that $100 wasn’t so bad, and purchased a set of 3 matching monitors.
It’s not usb-powered, and as I came to learn, the USB powered dual-link active DisplayPort adapters are only needed when the monitor it’s hooked-up to is going to run a resolution > 1920x1080.
However, my monitor wasn’t recognized when using this cable. I figured the cable was faulty, RMAed, and it still didn’t work with the replacement cable. On the third attempt, I bought a different brand of cable, an Accell, and still it didn’t work. It was then that I contacted XFX, and it turns out the DisplayPort on my videocard was faulty. XFX sent me a replacement, and I can now run Eyefinity setups.
I’m going to jump on to the end of a fairly old thread to add - getting your monitors off of your desk makes just as much of a difference.
I’ve had two monitors at work, for quite a while. I just the other day set up a second monitor at home. At work, I’ve one of those long, ell-shaped cubicle desks. At home, I have a 1930’s gray steel office desk. With two large monitors, there was far too little desk space.
So I stopped by the local computer store and came home with a pair off flat screen wall-mount brackets. The ones I got have a jointed extension arm that lets me position them anywhere from 4-12 inches out from the wall, and provides for considerable lateral adjustment.
So now I have them positioned about 8" in from the back of my desk, about where they were before, but with the entire surface of the desk as a usable work area, underneath.
The difference is huge. With the monitors hung from the wall, wireless keyboard and mouse, and the computer itself on the floor in the corner, the only piece of computer hardware that is on my desk is my USB Doomsday Device, which serves as a convenient USB hub for my assorted mobile toys.
It’s been a very long time since I had a clean desk, without unavoidable electronic clutter, to work on.
