Adding Laptop screen for dual video??

[sq764]

I have an old laptop that has a faulty power supply and it’s simply not worth it to replace. However, I have heard of people using the laptop screens as a second screen for dual video on their desktops.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how this can be done?

Thanks

[bigmack]

Don't bother. You'll need a special vid card and it's not worth it.

On a similar note everyone should have a dual monitor video card and be using at least two monitors for playing this game. The v-cards are fairly inexpensive now and monitors are laughably inexpensive. Being able to look at two, (if not more) screens while playing is very advantageous towards successful play.

[headhawg]

sq,

You might want to try MaxVista. Here is a link to a review about it:

MaxVista (http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/reviews/maxivista/)

The dead power supply is going to be problematic, though.

[Dave Schwartz]

1. Buy nVidia GeForce 5700LE.
It will support 2 monitors and a high resolution very nicely. As cheap as $49, but the 256mb version is nicer. (As much as $140 or so.)

2. Buy a ViewSonic 20" monitor at Costco.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11127078&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

$299

or the 20" wide version for $349.

[bigmack]

1. Buy nVidia GeForce 5700LE.
It will support 2 monitors and a high resolution very nicely. As cheap as $49, but the 256mb version is nicer. (As much as $140 or so.)

2. Buy a ViewSonic 20" monitor at Costco.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11127078&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

$299

or the 20" wide version for $349.
Good call on the ViewSonic @ Costco Dave. May I ask how you configure your set-up?

I have my data on one screen, betting outlets on another, full screen live totes on another, and misc on another while getting vid through the telly.

[Dave Schwartz]

http://www.horsestreet.com/BBSImages/3Monitors.jpg

I use two computers, each with the 5700 LE. Thus, machine "A" uses the two monitors on the left, and machine "B" uses the two monitors on the right.

Obviously, they share the center monitor.

My satelite system is attached to machine "B" and I use it on the 3rd monitor.

Notice that the left 2 monitors are actually of the "wide" variety.


Dave

[bigmack]

Nice. I have a chum that got me a great deal on the 21" Wide Samsung SyncMaster so I run 4 of those off 2 dual processing systems. When I "go to work" I feel like I'm in a war room. (Which sometimes it feels like)

See you also go with the Creative Audigy which really is a smashing sound card.

Thanks for the info.

[sq764]

Dave, can I come over??

[Dave Schwartz]

Big Mack,

Nice. I have a chum that got me a great deal on the 21" Wide Samsung SyncMaster so I run 4 of those off 2 dual processing systems. When I "go to work" I feel like I'm in a war room. (Which sometimes it feels like)

I wish I had the room for that. I bet it is a great system. Maybe send along a pitcure?

I know someone who has both RTN and TVG/HRTV systems. They have six 46" monitors on the wall - just fills the room.


The Audigy system is fantastic. My wife also got me the Klipsch system for Father's day about 3 years ago.

http://www.horsestreet.com/BBSImages/promedia51_large.jpg

http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=372

It was a massive amount of money for a computer sound system.

We bought our college kids this system...

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2173,CONTENTID=9372

... which is (amazingly) almost as good for 1/4 the price.



Dave

[JustRalph]

Dammit Dave!! Now you got me planning a whole new office!

[Dave Schwartz]

Scott,

Dave, can I come over??

Yes.

You are in charge of bringing the lobster.


Dave

[Dave Schwartz]

Ralph,

Tom is going to join our little music club, btw. <G>


Dave

[JustRalph]

Ralph,

Tom is going to join our little music club, btw. <G>


Dave

excellent!

[sq764]

I just sent that picture to my wife and told her that my birthday was coming up in June.. Her response was "so this means you will be spending even less time with me"?

I am not sure if that is a good or bad response..

[Dave Schwartz]

SQ,

Was she smiling when she said it?

Uh, I mean was she ecstatically smiling?


Dave

[PaceAdvantage]

I have an old laptop that has a faulty power supply and it’s simply not worth it to replace. However, I have heard of people using the laptop screens as a second screen for dual video on their desktops.

Wouldn't you still need to find a power supply for the monitor on the laptop?

[sq764]

Well my dillusional plan was to somehow detach the monitor from the laptop and 'reconnect' it to my desktop to run dual video..

Thankfully some of the guys here have tactfully told me I am an idiot for thinking this could happen..

I need that every now and then.

[Dave Schwartz]

Well, the home racebook improved again today, thanks to Costco.

I returned my two 20" wide monitors (to Costco) and took home two 22" wide monitors! (And Costco was kind enough to give me $100 back as well!)

What a country!

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11163877&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=


Regards,
Dave Schwartz

[bigmack]

What a country!
What a company.

Article of interest
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6449_7-6548193-1.html

[Dave Schwartz]

That is why I don't take them back until there is actually something wrong with at least one of them.

Today one had blown up a few pixels that were glowing in the dark.

When one adds a new monitor to the mix the difference between the new and old (because of degradation) makes the system unuseable.

That return policy is amazing, however.


Dave

[bigmack]

I returned my two 20" wide monitors (to Costco) and took home two 22" wide monitors!
In light of your 22's I now feel sheepish about my 21's. The gauntlet has been established. Forget about the Joneses - "Keeping up with the Schwartz's"

[DJofSD]

In light of your 22's I now feel sheepish about my 21's. The gauntlet has been established. Forget about the Joneses - "Keeping up with the Schwartz's"

Some one has to be the alpha dog.

[Dave Schwartz]

LOL - Costco, Costco, Costco...

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi DJofSD,

You wrote "Some one has to be the alpha dog."

When it comes to monitors, that would be me. ;)

A picture of my system is at the link below. There are a total of eight monitors at 1200x1600 resolution for 15,360,000 pixels.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/gallery_browse.asp?ID=636&date=desc&nummon=true&mon=desc

BTW, anyone who uses multiple monitors should check out ultramon by realtimesoft. It's a very handy utility for multiple monitors.

Mike Nunamaker

[DJofSD]

OMG - I'm jealous! What do you do with a set up like that?

I bet you don't need to run the heater in the winter time!

[highnote]

Nice desktop photo

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/gallery_browse.asp?ID=759&date=desc&nummon=true&mon=desc

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi DJofSD,

You asked "What do you do with a set up like that?"

I primarily use it to never minimize windows. For example, I currently have 16 programs running. 12 of the 16 are completely visible.

The analogy I like is how big was your desk in pre-computer days? If all your work in on the computer, the total available screen area should be almost as big as the pre-computer desk size. That's how big mine is and it makes a _world_ of difference. I've had this monitor setup for two years now, and I've never felt so comfortable with a system. Working on a laptop these days pretty much drives me crazy.

As far as not needing to run the heater, I had to put in a special cooling system for my office. Between the monitors and all the number crunching computers I have, I have very very low heating bills in the winter!

Mike Nunamaker

[Dave Schwartz]

Michael,

You have clearly won the monitor wars here. :ThmbUp:

I think my neck would get tired looking up at the top row.

I used to have a 4th monitor but I found I did not like being totally surrounded by monitors with no desk.

My 3rd monitor is a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of wide screen because I need something to look at what a piece of software will look like on most computers.

Dave

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi Dave,

Looking at the top row primarily involves moving the eye instead of the head. Indeed, if it weren't for the fact I wear glasses, I could use the top row without moving my head at all. I just did an experiment, and my chin moves up 1/2" to completely see the top row. And this is with the monitors in portrait mode!

The top row is slightly farther away than I would like for extended working. So what I wind up doing is the work at hand is on the bottom four. Programs not currently needing my attention are on the top four (think of the top four as the world's largest Windows taskbar). If something up top needs some attention, I'll move it down to the bottom row if I need to work on it for more than a minute or two.

Mike Nunamaker

[Dave Schwartz]

Michael,

Pretty impressive.


Dave

[speedking]

Thanks for all the fantastic info, guys. I was about to ask how to set up multiple monitors when I saw this thread. Simply amazing!


speedking

[bigmack]

I primarily use it to never minimize windows. For example, I currently have 16 programs running. 12 of the 16 are completely visible.
I was mildly OK with DSchwartz's set-up but after viewing the pic of your operation a deep depression has come over me. One word for your configuration comes to mind and it bears repeating. Hubba, hubba.

Can you say more of ultramon by realtimesoft and how you work with it?

Also, why the vertical stack vrs horizontal?

Thanks Michael,

Green with envy,
Mack

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi Mack,

You wrote "Can you say more of ultramon by realtimesoft and how you work with it?"

Ultramon allows me to do the following:

1) Ultramon adds two additional boxes in the upper right hand corner of every application. These maximize across all monitors and move to the monitor of your choice. Moving to the monitor of your choice is accomplished by putting up a small outline of one's monitor setup. I simply click on the monitor I want the application to be sent to, and Ultramon will move it to that monitor. I use the move monitor feature many many times a day.

2) Hot keys to move between monitors. Between Ultramon and a Logitech gaming keyboard, I've set up eight of the G keys to center the mouse cursor in each of the eight monitors. This makes it trivial to pop the mouse cursor to the center of whatever monitor I wish to use. This is important because it is pretty easy to lose the mouse among 15 million pixels!

3) Ultramon makes it trivial to have wallpaper span all monitors. Windows XP by itself can't do this easily. While not a big deal, it is fun.

You also asked "why the vertical stack vrs horizontal?"

Because I am pretty much just reading and writing all day long. I never play games on this system, and I don't watch movies. For example, say I'm editing a program I've written (one of my most common activities). With the monitor in portrait mode, I'll see 125 lines of code in my text editor. Each line is 147 characters wide. Almost all the lines are blank for about 1/3 to 3/4 of the right of the screen. If I had the monitors in landscape mode (the way most people have them), I would see about 91 lines of code and each line would be 196 characters wide. Virtually all the extra line width would be blank space. The result is that the amount of code I could see without scrolling would decline by 27%.

The same thing happens with most web pages. I can read significantly more without scrolling.

Prices for everything involved in my setup have fallen dramatically over the years. Since no gaming is done, cheap $30 video cards are fine. 4 of these are needed. Two Ergotron DS100 quad panel mounts are needed. Those can be found for $240 each at Amazon.com. The panels are the big expense. To get my 1600x1200 resolution, the cheapest panels I could find at newegg.com were $354 each. That would bring the total cost to $30*4 + $240*2 + $354*8 (plus any shipping and taxes). So, for $3432 anyone could come pretty close to duplicating my setup.

Mike Nunamaker

[JustRalph]

But Michael, Flight Simulator has got to be killer on that setup? come on? Tell us you have tried some game on it?

[MichaelNunamaker]

Hi Ralph,

You wrote "Flight Simulator has got to be killer on that setup? come on? Tell us you have tried some game on it?"

Nope. Most games simply don't support multiple monitors. Now you are quite correct that Flight Simulator is one of the few that works (and works well) with pretty much as many monitors as you want to throw at it.

The problem is that I am using dirt cheap video cards. While this works _extremely_ well for what I do with the computer, any game would suck. Since I'm using PCI video cards, the maximum bandwidth to the cards is 133 MB/s. Since there are 15 million pixels with a color depth of 32-bits, that means it takes 60 MB of data to refresh the entire screen. That gives a maximum frame rate of 2.21 frames per second. I'll pass.

However, my machine is a few years old, and I'm going to upgrade it when Vista comes out. AMD is coming out with something they call the 4x4 platform, which will support 4 PCI-e video cards. This should drive all my monitors with modern high bandwidth video cards (I believe a total of 12GB/s). That would give a maximum frame rate of ___200___ frames per second for the entire display. Once I get that new computer, then I'll try out Flight Simulator. And you are right, I'll bet it will be killer. :)

Mike Nunamaker