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I've been using 2 monitors for a while now. One is my original 20" LCD that came with my Dell, and the other is an Acer H213H "22 inch class" wide screen monitor. Despite the difference in aspect ratio and hight from the desktop I've been able to use them well with my aging Windows XP setup. But as part of my migration to Windows 7, I decided to add another video card and connect a 3rd monitor - the 17" LCD that has been sitting mostly idle for the last couple years.
My first impression is "Wow- lots of pixels!" And my second impression is that I should have done this long ago, since XP supports multiple cards and I've had all 3 monitors for nearly a year now. But my most recent observation is that I have yet another VGA port sitting there unused. So I'm looking for a 4th LCD to plug up that hole.
I think that another 17" will do fine. That's partly due to the fact that I'll run out of desk space unless I get some kind of mounting rack, but also because I only want to use the 2 17" displays for auxiliary apps like Tweetdeck, IM, and gadgets.
I'm still working through deciding what apps to put where, and I'm sure that things will move around quite a bit before they settle - or maybe they'll never really settle. That's really ok with me. For now, I'm sliding windows from one display to another as it seems right, and as they fit. But I think I've pretty much settled on putting the gadgets on the far right 17" display. I'll probably change which gadgets go there, but for now, I have a calendar, clock, CPU usage and basic weather. I also have my Yahoo! Messenger or another IM client there. And I'd put Tweetdeck there as well, but because it's not possible to resize Tweetdeck, and because I use 6 or 7 search columns, Tweetdeck just plain doesn't fit. (Tweetdeck - please make it possible for me to change the basic horizontal shape of your display!)
A note about setup and configuration. There was none. Despite some other learning curve issues I've had with Win7, the only setup I had to do with these monitors was to tell Windows which one was on the left, right, and center - a simple drag/drop operation in the display control panel. So far, even my aging desktop seems able to handle the load, though sometimes I can almost hear the processor groaning. It doesn't seem to be because of the displays, but usually when processing video one way or another.
The only real problems I have with the setup as it is now, is that my pointing devices haven't been properly adjusted (yet). I have:
- Mouse
- iGesture finger pad (discontinued product)
- Wacom Graphire
- Logitech Nulooq (discontinued product)
The mouse, sliding across the desk, works fine, but the iGesture, like any pad device tries to restrict movement to the size of a normal display. That means having to motion several times to get from far left to far right. So this is leading me to a change - probably a good change - toward using the mouse more frequently.
Looking forward to finding my bargain priced (maybe in the $15 range) 17" display soon. I'll check garage sales and Salvation Army locations. However, as you can see from the picture, I'm not really sure where I'll put it.
Decisions, decisions, decisions...
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