[vcf-midatlantic] OT: One modern PC, two screens

[Ian Primus]

You can either just replace your existing video card with a dual
headed one, or stuff another video card in there to drive the other
monitor. Five years old is quite a bit newer than anything I have, so
I'm not sure if you have PCI or PCI Express slots - figure out what
kind you have, find another video card that fits in that sort of slot,
and add it. Shouldn't cost much at all, especially since I know you
aren't going to care about 3D graphics. Pretty much any video card
will do.

And, of course, you'll need another monitor. Used ones are pretty much free now.

You can easily do this for less than the price of a case of beer.

Having two monitors is really great - it lets you keep reference
material and code on the screen at once, keep tabs on online
conversations while doing other things, etc. Not distracting at all,
if anything, it's less distracting, since you can keep work areas
separate.

Or, you can get around the whole video card problem entirely, and plug
a VT100 terminal into the serial port, and use that as an extra
console. If you spend as much time in the command line as I do, it's
pretty much the same thing as having another monitor ;)

-Ian

On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 9:40 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic
<vcf-midatlantic at lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
> Starting to think I need a second computer monitor. My PC is 5 years old and
> only has the one VGA port (no DVI/HDMI), so do I need to get a video card?
> For those who've done it -- do you find it distracting to have your display
> spread across two screens? A priority is to spend as little as possible.