Two computer monitors?

Question

Can someone explain the advantages of having two monitors hooked to one computer?

Answer 1

OMG dual screen is teh hottness! Where do I begin. Ignoring games that support dual screen like Supreme Commander and ignoring innovative office applications like a receptionist having an outward facing screen they can put information on, a dual screen environment basically doubles the size of your desktop while also giving you two different desktops.

So, every had to switch back and forth between two applications? Familiar with Alt+Tab? Now you can have one on the left and one on the right.

Want to watch a movie but also get some work done while doing it? Throw the movie full-screen on the right and do your work on the left while you watch.

I think the biggest benefit is to people that work in web development or any form of copy editing/publishing work. The productivity increase is huge. One study says a 20-30% increase in your productivity results and I would agree. When I have to work off my laptop I am sad because I know everything will take longer.

Answer 2

This will help when you are watching a video while doing something else on the computer, you can view the video in full screen and you can type or play games also on full screen. for me these are the advantages of having two monitors hooked on one pc

Answer 3

Yes that is possible. There are two ways That I know of that it can be done. One way is you would need a vga switch. Its a box with switch that has 2 vga inputs and 1 vga output. And I think most will have keyboard and mouse ports so you can use the same keyboard and mouse on the different computers also. Does your screen have both vga and dvi inputs, and does one of your computers have a dvi output? If so you can hook one computer up through the vga and the other up through the dvi and use the source button on the monitor to go between computers.

Answer 4

More than one monitor setups are usually used by people who handle lots of data at once.
Uses:
In an investment bank the analysts can have lots of different windows open to track the different stocks (some analysts have 6 or more monitors on one computer!).
People in the graphics (pictures) and movie making industries (usually movie making at home) will use multiple monitors to be able to quickly edit different images at once. It basically removes the need to constantly flip back and forth between different windows.
I expect that other designers, such as mechanical (e.g. cars or machines) use extra-large or multiple monitors to see more data or blue prints at once.

However, if complicated things are being shown (images and movie clips) then it can be very straining on the computer's processor and graphics card.

Answer 5

two monitors is a HUGE advantage, especially if you're in a web design environment like myself.

I have dual monitors set up here at the office, mainly so I can multitask a lot more efficiantly, then with one monitor!

Example, having Photoshop open, doing graphic work and having the website I'm working on to check the progress both on Photoshop, and IE Explorer... Also, makes it a lot easier to have all the Photoshop tools on one monitor and your actual canvas..

Dual monitor, I just can't live without it.. try it out and you will enjoy!

Answer 6

More desktop space to work with. Play a game on one monitor while watching a movie on another.

Answer 7

More screen area to work with. I use two at work. I have two applications running and viewable at the same time. My co-worker, who is somewhat less ambitious in his career, uses two at home for gaming. He has one displaying the game and the other displaying some other supporting software (I forget and its not worth my brain power to recall it)

Answer 8

More screen area.

For example, you can look at a reference document full screen on one monitor and edit a document full screen on the second.