multiple Pc monitors

hey

looking to buy a new pc mainly for trading, prob a dell . my question is how does the multi monitors work, do you have to switch screens via a button on keyboard or do you move mouse to the next screen. also does the 2nd 3rd screen ect... load the desktop separately?

one last thing can any one recommend a dell pc, spec ect... and a card for a 2nd possibly a 3rd monitor.

thanks

regards

james

1mouse, 1 keyboard.

wow that is amazing looks very professional, may i ask the spec of your pc

James I think KillPhil is joking with you!! looks pretty impressive though. Must get a sore neck looking at all that.

I have a Dell XPS420. It has quad processors, 3 gig memory. i got the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card that has dual output so you can connect 2 monitors. I'm not sure how you would go about connecting a 3rd but with 2 you choose which one has the desktop and then just move your mouse and drag windows over to the 2nd one.

I don't think you need a very poweful PC for trading but i always tend to buy a bit more that i need to future proof a bit. Rather pay more for memory than processors. Go have a look at the Dell website and play around with the options to find something in your price range.

thanks ljr much appreciated, lol looked a bit ott

Go to the hardware section of the site mate. I googles that, I'm also looking for multi screens. Shadow ninja linked me a site for 50 quid 19" screens but the offer isn't on anymore so I'm gutted.

of luck

Heres my old office setup...was running 3 pcs for ultra redundancy...with 3 feeds....plus...another for order entry.Moved to less redundancy now having nailed how to build uber machines myself.

Btw ..Unless that guy in the other pic is a descendant of mr magoo...i dont get the setup....1 chart per screen?....and then having to stand back to view?...er...like having 1 screen.Each of my old screens had aprox 50-60 charts...covering 99% of major markets and stocks....with a central screen to see what sectors markets to trade in next....anyways.

Moved to 30" screens now ....wil post the new office pics in the summer when sorted..will be more real estate but in a far more user friendly config.

Looking for monitors myself right now, possibly 3x19"s. The guy in my local computer shop doesn't recommend widescreens as he says a lot of applications don't look right. Anyone got any experience of this? Grateful for any advice.

Just been through this myself so experiences might be useful.

The easiest option would be to buy one of the multi-monitor PC packages provided by Cube247. They do two - a 2 screen set up, and a 3 screen with the cards to expand to 4.

Personally I've just ordered a PC from Cyberpower. Much cheaper than Dell and with a greater degree of customisation available. Used the 'chat' facility on the sales part of the site to spec a PC to run four monitors - basically he recommended 2 Nvidia GeForce 9500GT cards. Total cost for PC - a bargain (I reckon) £600, and then I bought screens seperately (from morecomputers.co.uk) - good prices and next day delivery.

In terms of how to do it, XP/Vista gives you the option to configure multi-screens via the control panel. Pretty simple to set up (even I could do it). It runs one desktop across the various monitors. If you want to run more than four monitors then IIRC it gets more complex as you need specialist graphics cards which start to get pricey.

To Tennapenny above: I've no problem using widescreen (two of my monitors are 22"). As long as configured properly everything looks okay and it gives you the option to have several windows open per screen.

Jack o'Clubs,

The Nvidia Quadro NVS 440 graphics card supports 4 monitors and you can pick them up for circa £100. They have a PCI-E x16 interface and are compatible with 32 & 64-bit architectures. They are specifically designed for 2D workstations and do the job nicely. Stick 2 in your machine and you can run 8 monitors no sweat.

Regards

TMM

Tenapenny said:

Looking for monitors myself right now, possibly 3x19"s. The guy in my local computer shop doesn't recommend widescreens as he says a lot of applications don't look right. Anyone got any experience of this? Grateful for any advice.

Click to expand...

Widescreens are no problem m8, you should go for the 22" LCDs as they are about the same price as 19" .

james111h said:

hey

looking to buy a new pc mainly for trading, prob a dell . my question is how does the multi monitors work, do you have to switch screens via a button on keyboard or do you move mouse to the next screen. also does the 2nd 3rd screen ect... load the desktop separately?

one last thing can any one recommend a dell pc, spec ect... and a card for a 2nd possibly a 3rd monitor.

thanks

regards

james

Click to expand...

James,
If you want a future proof PC from dell, you should by the one with 2 PCI Express 16 sslots as all newer cards are based on this interface. I personally have XPS 630 with two nvidia 9800GTs running 4 monitors at this time. get a Quad processor for sure as it helps chart calculations to run simultaneously, XPS 630 is not very pricey than XPS 420 (which has only one PCI express 16 slot). get 4 gig ram. Vista or XP really doesn't matter. All new brokers/charts support both OS.
try buying cheaper monitors like Hanspree or Acer rather than buying dell.
hope this helps. !

joker

my 4 screen set up

core2 QUAD CORE Q9300 2.5GHz/1333/6Mb cache | 4Gb 667 RAM 2x2 | 250Gb 7200 disk | DVDRW |TWO 256Mb NVS 290 graphics cards

Just a point if interest, was chatting to the fella who sold me this, and I asked him his opinion on XP vs Vista, with my point being I have Vista on my laptop and I hate it, but was concerned that I din't know how long XP would continue to be officially supported.
First, he made a good point with Vista. Yes it can be clunky and can take up more RAM (i only have 512Ram on laptop with Bitdefender so slow as a slug). But Vista is also massively improved on the new release versions, and here's the clincher-if you have a fantastic amout of RAM, Vista using a bigger portion is NOT a problem. If you were running really heavy CAD programs then you'd want to maximise your RAM (VISTA might still be ok for this anyway), but for charting and an fx broker on 4 screens-not a problem.

Finally (and this will need verification), apparently Microsoft are not continuing to support XP after this year. So buying Vista is getting a damn good operating system that will be supported lot longer than XP. Also, the new MS op system is using Vista architecture so they will be able to fit together in the future (theretically).

I promise I'm not a techie, I hope that makes some sense and is some help.

bootsyjam said:

core2 QUAD CORE Q9300 2.5GHz/1333/6Mb cache | 4Gb 667 RAM 2x2 | 250Gb 7200 disk | DVDRW |TWO 256Mb NVS 290 graphics cards

Just a point if interest, was chatting to the fella who sold me this, and I asked him his opinion on XP vs Vista, with my point being I have Vista on my laptop and I hate it, but was concerned that I din't know how long XP would continue to be officially supported.
First, he made a good point with Vista. Yes it can be clunky and can take up more RAM (i only have 512Ram on laptop with Bitdefender so slow as a slug). But Vista is also massively improved on the new release versions, and here's the clincher-if you have a fantastic amout of RAM, Vista using a bigger portion is NOT a problem. If you were running really heavy CAD programs then you'd want to maximise your RAM (VISTA might still be ok for this anyway), but for charting and an fx broker on 4 screens-not a problem.

Finally (and this will need verification), apparently Microsoft are not continuing to support XP after this year. So buying Vista is getting a damn good operating system that will be supported lot longer than XP. Also, the new MS op system is using Vista architecture so they will be able to fit together in the future (theretically).

I promise I'm not a techie, I hope that makes some sense and is some help.

Click to expand...

You are right , Microsoft will stop supporting XP after the new windows 7 starts coming on PCs...i would asy another 6 months,.

Three Ways to Setup a Multiple Monitor Trading Computer

Here is a great article section I found at Multi-Screens.com (A beginners introduction to Multiple Monitors)

The Three main ways to Setup Multiple Monitors

1) You can buy a pre-manufactured multiple monitor computer. The best place to purchase a multiple monitor computer is at: Multi-Monitors.com.
They carry a multi-monitor computer line called SUPER-PC that can support from 2 to 12 monitors.

Multi-Screen Computer Systems

Multiple Monitor LCD Displays

2) You can get a USB to VGA Adapter, or USB to DVI Adapter that will allow you to add an extra monitor to your computer
via any USB2.0 Port. You can also add multiple extra monitors by using multiple adapters. This is a great option for viewing
documents, surfing the web, using Microsoft Office and many other business tasks. This is not a good option for intense
graphical situations such as HDTV, Blu-ray, Gaming and 3D / CAD Workstation applications. For those types of scenarios,
it is highly recommended that you purchase a high-powered multi-monitor workstation or a Matrox Dual or Triple Head2Go.

Multiple Monitor Adapters

3) You can replace or add an extra video card to your existing computer, depending on how many monitors you wish to support.
Although this sounds easy enough, this is a rather complex solution for a beginner, especially when trying to find a compatible
graphics card. For this reason, I am going to write an entirely seperate post on that topic and will link to it here, very soon.

Multi-Monitor Graphics Cards

Once you have your multiple monitor system set up and ready to use, you will need to enable all of your monitors in
your “Display Properties” Control Panel. Here is a great link to a complete and animated walkthrough of how to enable
your multiple monitors in Windows.

How to Setup Multiple Monitors (Instructions)

This is what it will look like when you are done:

Multi-Monitor Video Demo 1

Re: Three Ways to Setup a Multiple Monitor Trading Computer

Rockstartraders said:

2) You can get a USB to VGA Adapter, or USB to DVI Adapter that will allow you to add an extra monitor to your computer
via any USB2.0 Port. You can also add multiple extra monitors by using multiple adapters. This is a great option for viewing
documents, surfing the web, using Microsoft Office and many other business tasks.

Click to expand...

Anybody using a USB to VGA solution for multiple monitors? Is it sufficient for simple charting etc? I currently run a second 23 inch monitor off my laptop but would like at least one more monitor. The USB>VGA sounds lime a great solution but how does it work in the real world?

Hi,

This is one of those hardy perennials and I thought you guys might like to see this article from Life Hacker.

It's a How To inevitably and it's entitled: Make the The Most of your multiple monitors in Windows 7. You'll find the article here: http://is.gd/esy0z

Hope you find this article useful?

Cheers

Mayfly

Mayfly said:

It's a How To inevitably and it's entitled: Make the The Most of your multiple monitors in Windows 7. You'll find the article here: http://is.gd/esy0z

Mayfly

Click to expand...

Those shortcut keys are pretty handy to know, i hadnt come across those before. thanks

james111h said:

hey

looking to buy a new pc mainly for trading, prob a dell . my question is how does the multi monitors work, do you have to switch screens via a button on keyboard or do you move mouse to the next screen. also does the 2nd 3rd screen ect... load the desktop separately?

one last thing can any one recommend a dell pc, spec ect... and a card for a 2nd possibly a 3rd monitor.

thanks

regards

james

Click to expand...

Hi there James,

If you are interested in dell theres always Dell optiplex 960 with the Quadro NVS 420 grafic card option. This will support 4 screens for a rather cheap price (1300USD? Dont know the exact prices in the US). If you want more power there are several models of precision with the same videocard.

Good luck!
// Markus