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Doublehelix 24 December 2001

Most of the engineers I works with use W2K, and they all have dual (*huge*) 21" monitors (I am *so* jealous!).

Well, I have an old 14" monitor laying around collecting dust, and would love to go to a dual monitor system if I can.

I currently have a 32-MB AGP video card, and they say with W2K, all I have to do is to add another PCI video card, and voila!...instant dual-monitors! Is this true? Do I need to worry about the speed/configuration of the second card?

Any help, info would be greatly appreciated!

DH

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Comments

Opus2000 Mon, 12/24/2001 - 07:58

I truly reccomend that you dont add a PCI card to obtain dual monitors. it will greatly effect your performance. You can do it if you want to but I think you'll notice a slight decrease in horsepower when you use Cubase or any other recording program. Plus the potential for pops and clicks is greater at that point...get a Matrox dual or an Appian dual AGP..best way to go my friend
Opus

SonOfSmawg Mon, 12/24/2001 - 14:13

I just got an Appian Jeronimo Pro from http://www.cc-solutions.com/frcatalog.html ...
Quite possibly the deal of the century for $53 plus shipping. It comes as "card only" in an anti-static bag, but packed REAL well. You download the driver and Hydravision software off of the Appian site.
BTW, for some reason that cc-solutions link causes an error with Internet Explorer and shuts it down, so access it on a different browser.

SonOfSmawg Thu, 12/27/2001 - 17:52

Yeah, I do hunt for deals on everything I buy. If you get the best bang for the buck, you accumulate more gear, faster. I have to build my studio a piece at a time, but that affords me the time to research and shop for each item. When I "went digital" two years ago, I made some bad buying decisions, mostly due to inexperience, but I learned from it. With a little patience and searching, you can get what you need without breaking the bank, and with less buyers' remourse.

anonymous Thu, 12/27/2001 - 18:56

My understanding is that you'd want to keep your video entirely off of the PCI bus to free up the bandwidth there for audio.

You can get dual head AGP video cards that work fine. I use a Matrox G450 (I think that's it). I understand there are some cards that do 4 monitors.

Whatever you do - DO use dual video. I would never want to go back. To save cash, go to your local Computer Renaissance, and you can probably find an extra 17" monitor $129 or so.

Shane

Jon Best Thu, 01/03/2002 - 18:37

Of course, 'not good for 3D graphics' is relative- I would think most of the current Matrox cards are better than everything that was 'killer for 3D graphics' a year or two ago. If you're gaming that hard, build a different computer for it! :)

Originally posted by SonOfSmawg:
Yeah, there are pros and cons to everything. My Appian card is on the PCI bus, but those Matrox boards are known for poor 3D graphics. Seems like everything "on a budget" has it's drawbacks. The Matrox boards are great for DAWs because they are compatible with damn near anything.

Opus2000 Fri, 01/04/2002 - 05:43

Ahhh...no wonder you got that card so cheap Smawg...it's a PCI card..what are you thinking?!! lol!! I got the AGP version..much better performance on that route
If you want better graphics go with the GeForce card..thats the one Computer Animation experts reccomend when using a Maya or 3D Studio Max(heaven forbid if you use 3D tho!! lol) system
Of course with Graphics and video games..build a seperate system for games!!
Opus :D

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