Using monitors with my new Scan system

[cactusjack]

Hello all

With my new Scan system due to arrive on Monday, I have a question re: monitor setup.

Currently, I have a Dell 2412M monitor - after getting used to the murky white colour (due to antiglare coating), it is a very nice monitor.

I would be interested in setting up 2 monitors - one for gaming and one for work to run from the PC.

1) Is it possible to have Emails / Facebook / Word docs on one monitor, and the other monitor is just dedicated to playing games?

2) What software would I need to get in order to enable the above to happen?

3) Would I need to buy a second 2412M or could I get a Benq 2420t as my 2nd monitor?

4) What cabling / connections would I need to buy to allow for the above?

Sorry - I am very new to anything concerning multimonitor setups and would be grateful for any advice!

Thanks!

[Jonj1611]

1) Yes, no problems at all
2) None, Windows can handle all of that
3) You can use any monitor you like, you may need an adapter for the graphics card depending on the monitor, ie DVI to VGA but they normally come with the graphics card and if not they are cheap anyway.
4) As above.

All the best

[cactusjack]

Thanks Jon!

[Jonj1611]

No worries mate, all the best with your new pc

[IronWarrior]

Wait, hold on...

1. You can do whatever the hell you want on a monitor, but if it's an active screen like a game... then soon as you "click" off that game, it won't be active anymore, therefore you can't see what's happening untill you switch back to it, the same is true for Window mode.

But if you are playing a game and have an other window open on the other screen like mIRC or Outlook or some web browser, that will keep updating.

But... there is software that allows you to keep it "active" even when you click off, it's called Actual Multiple Monitors by Actual Tools.

I would advise you to buy the same monitor as you already have, it looks better then to have a mix-mash of different monitors.

[Scarletsboy]

I agree, I think it looks nicer and you wont have to deal with trying to set a different monitor up to look the same as the other, which can look a bit funny when swapping from one to another as they will never be quite the same as having 2 of the same monitors.

[Jonj1611]

Apart from different monitors looking physically different what do you mean having the trouble of setting the monitor to look the same? If you had ever used a multi monitor setup you would know that it looks identical so not sure what your trying to say???

Additionally if both monitors are running the same resolution then apart from the monitor looking different on the outside what's on the screen is exactly the same as if you had the same or different monitors

[cactusjack]

Another question - my Dell is 1920 by 1200 and the Benq would have a resolution of 1920 by 1080 - is that going to pose a problem at all? - if I had facebook/work docs on the Dell and a game in windowed mode on the benq.

[Jonj1611]

Using it in the way you want to it won't cause any problems if it's a different resolution.

You need to remember not all games have a windowed mode and some games will blank a secondary monitor, but that's easy to get around you can just alt-tab out of your current game and that usually restores whats on the other monitor.

For instance my setup is my main monitor which is 1920x1080 and my secondary monitor is 1680x1050, the second monitor I have outlook open on and other bits and all my games run on the main monitor. However I must say I have tried the gaming and doing emails thing at the same time and its difficult to pull off, trying to answer an urgent email while your just about to snipe someone can put you off your sniping lol.