Dave Naylor was asking me today on our Daily SearchCast podcast about whether he should stick with one monitor or jump to two. My response? Go for three! I’ve used three monitors for about two years now, and I’d never go back.
It all started when I bought a new computer with a video card that had two outputs, digital and analog. I used the digital for my new 17″ LCD, but I wondered if I could get an old monitor going on the analog card. So I set my old 20″ CRT to one side, plugged it in and was amazed at how I could expand my desktop.
Honestly, if you’ve never used a multi monitor setup in Windows, it really does feel like magic. Using the Settings tab of your Display Properties, you can choose to extend your primary desktop onto the other monitor. And then that’s what happens. You have a super big desktop, where if you pick up something, you can drag if from one monitor and drop it onto the other.
The only problem with using two monitors I found was that my neck started hurting from looking only ahead or to the right. I figured if I got a third monitor going on my left hand side, I’d be moving my head around in various directions, avoiding any pain.
The alternative, I suppose, would have been to have had two monitors right next to each other in front of me. But I disliked this idea, because then my main natural viewing area directly ahead would be gone. I’d always be looking slightly to the left or right.
My bright idea meant purchasing two more 17″ LCD monitors plus another video card, so I’d have three outputs in all. It was worth the money. I couldn’t believe how much more productive I was. In my middle screen, I could write. On one of my other screens, I could read about something new happening. And on my third screen, I could test out what was being described. It was fabulous.
I recently graduated to 20″ LCDs for reasons I’ll explain more below (along with twin Nvidia gaming cards, handy if I ever want to link them together and run them as a single super accelerated card for games. I’ll never do that, but it’s nice to know I can). Here’s how the current setup looks:
I quickly found I needed two more purchases to make things fly to really do well with a multimonitor setup. The first was Ultramon, which I’ve written about before. It allows me to have a taskbar for each of my computer screens.
For example, currently on my main central monitor, I have FrontPage open. I also have my Outlook email window open. Both show on my taskbar on the middle screen. If I select one of the applications, I can switch to it.
Without Ultramon, Windows stupidly would put the applications I have open on my left and right monitors also on my main central window’s taskbar (my Outlook Calendar, Firefox, Paint Shop Pro, a few others would all show up). That’s because my other monitors wouldn’t have their own taskbars. Ultramon corrects this. In addition, it makes it easy to shoot any application from one screen to another. For instance, look at this:
See the two buttons to the left of the normal minimize, maximize and close window buttons? If you click on the one with the little arrow, that Choose Monitor window pops up that you can also see. Then click on the monitor you want to send a window to, and it magically moves over there.
The other key element is a good monitor stand. I’m appalled at the state of LCD stands. The new 20″ Dell monitors I bought late last year can’t be elevated to the height to match my eyes for good viewing. My old 17″ LCD monitors were worse. After some searching those years ago, I ended up going for an Ergotron base, a DS100 Triple Monitor Desk Stand. They aren’t cheap. I could have bought a fourth monitor for what I paid for mine, especially considering they up the price in the UK for no apparent reason other than the usual rip-off Britain pricing mentality.
I love the base except for two key problems. First, there’s no storage on it. Moreover, it’s got this weird peaked shape. If you look at my picture above, you’ll see the junk I’ve piled on it. Each pile leans slightly downhill. I wish they’d just made the thing flat, so my stuff wouldn’t slide off.
More important, the monitors can’t be tilted naturally in the way I’d like. Look at this:
– sorry, the picture’s now gone from the Ergotron site –
OK, that’s from the Ergotron site and shows you how they think the monitors should be set-up. Look nice a pretty, all seamless, right? And I can make my monitors look this way. The problem is, while it looks pretty, it’s uncomfortable to view them. The left and right hand monitors can’t be viewed directly straight on. In other words, I can’t turn my head and be looking straight at one of the side monitors. I literally have to turn in my chair and lean slightly to do this, to get a more comfortable viewing angle.
Here’s a closer up example from my own setup, before adjustment:
You should be able to see what a very slight bend the right monitor is on. It’s not tilted/angled in a way that both your eyes can look at it from exactly the same distance. Trying to look at it just isn’t comfortable. Now the monitors can be adjusted. You can set them up so that you can tilt them inward or outward from you, IE, adjusted horizontally. But look at this picture:
Notice how the top of the monitor leans more forward than the bottom? It’s incredibly annoying. Nor is there any reason for it to happen. These are standard VESA mounts. A monitor on them should be perfectly aligned between the top and the bottom. There should be no lean at all. OK, so why not just tilt the top back a bit. You can’t. The mount can either tilt horizontally or vertically, not both. Here’s an example with the vertical tilt setup:
If you go with this, sure, you can make sure the monitor doesn’t lean forward. However, then you’re back to the original problem of the monitor not being comfortable to view because it’s not tilted properly toward you horizontally.
I contacted Ergotron originally about this, but they were no help. In the end, I figured it must be a problem on my end and solved it by using washers. I shoved a bunch of washers under the bottom part of the mounting plate to help adjust for the bad angle. It works OK, enough that I’ve lived with it.
A few months ago, I upgraded my monitors, as I said. I discovered in doing so that it wasn’t a monitor problem on my end. Once again, the monitors leaned forward. This is just a badly designed mount. I ought to be able to adjust in all directions, horizontal and vertical. At the very least, if the monitors are set up with the sliding-bow pivot you see here, then they certainly shouldn’t be tilting forward as they do.
It’s also not just me. I was visiting a friend in California a few months ago. She had a dual Ergotron mount and her monitors did the same tilting thing as mine, tilting forward at the tops. She was also just as annoyed as me. But also like me, she lived with it because overall the mount is good compared to the relatively few other choices that seem to be out there.
I did contact Ergotron a second time after getting my new monitors in place, but once again, there was no help. I’ve been meaning to write up this up to visually explain it to them, so maybe there will be more luck.
FYI, top of my tech wishlist? I’d like a laptop that has a second screen that you could unfold. Forget tablet PC. Give me a laptop with two monitors, one that you can swing out when you have extra space but fold away when on an airplane. Going back to one screen is so hard — a laptop like that would be awesome.
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Totally agree with the multimonitor recomendation! I’m sitting in front of 2 monitors right now and am dreaming of a third!
I also agree with the UltraMon recommendation. The Smart Taskbar feature alone makes it worthwhile. I also love the keyboard shortcut options that allow you to reposition applications on different monitors without using the mouse. I have to admit though that the nVidia drivers are approaching the level of functionality provided by UltraMon. (At least for my use.) If it wasn’t for the Smart Taskbar feature in UltraMon I’d seriously consider using just the nVidia drivers since they’re free. (Obviously this is only applicable if you use one of their cards.)
Lastly, the reason I made this comment is I wanted to point out a cool looking utility: http://www.maxivista.com/
I haven’t tried it myself yet but it looks like it quite possibly might be a cheap way for me to get that third monitor!
That…is a wicked setup.
Man fate likes to punch me in the stomach sometimes. I literally just ordered a third LCD today, and the only way to fit them all on my desk was with the Ergotron desk stand, the very same model you have. And just like you, I like to tilt my monitors up a bit, but also very much inwards.
Now I have noticed something, I was looking at the technical drawings, and the pivot that attachs to the poll DOES swivel in all directions (correct me if I’m wrong), but I’m pretty sure it does, at least that’s what the diagram seems to suggest here.
Now assuming all your monitors have this lean problem equally, that will tilt them all straight again, but man, what a bitch!
I think I’m going to order it all anyways as I’d love the third monitor… Why they don’t use a ball joint is BEYOND me.
Regards,
Sean Murphy
sean@cerdonis.com (feel free to email me)
I had my laptop hooked up as a second screen but having to unplug it every time I wanted to take it out of the house was a pain so Santa brought me a dual monitor from DoubleSight this Xmas! I noticed TigerDirect has them on sale for $799 – Check it out here
(note: I have no affiliation with any of these products)
Neat setup. I only have two physical displays, but I’ve essentially just doubled that into 8 via virtual desktops.
Went into details here for anyone unfamiliar: http://www.revenuegirl.com/how-to-simulate-multiple-displays-and-dramatically-increase-productivity/
You may find that the ErgoMounts M3 Series Multi-Stand would fit you set up.
http://www.ergomounts.co.uk/product-details.asp?cid=3&scid=6&pid=68
I have an nVidia card with the vga and dvi interface ports, so I can use two LCD screens, but when I connect the third one to my normal intgrated vga port on the dell desktop, nothing happens and looks like the computer does not see the standard vga port (does bios disable the regular port when nVidia is set up?), what did you have to do to get all three to show at the same time, did Ergotron manage it for you ?
Thanks …. Mark
You might need to right click on your desktop, get Display Properties, then in settings see if you see a third screen that’s all grayed out. If so, check the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor option.. Otherwise, yes, bios might be disabling it. Ergotron is just a monitor stand — nothing to do with the monitor output.
ATI has very good multidisplay option FireMV
i am using it
I too want to buy a new system which includes a 256MB NVIDIA 8600GT. I want to connect three monitors, 19” flat panels with VGA inputs. The use is strictly business, no gaming. I want all three monitors to operate independently to use different applications, so I am not interested in the third monitor just being a mirror of one of the other two. I have been told I need a second video card to achieve this result. If so, what second card should I get? Also, for my use is the 256MB overkill? Will the 128MB do the job?
I just bought the Stand and 2 monitors with the TripleHead2Go digital addition. I connected everything the way that it told me is suppose to be set up to my laptop. But for some reason only one monitor is turning on like if it was the only one connected directly to the laptop.
Can you help me out? I’m not sure if i did something wrong or still need to purchase something else that i didn’t know about.
Email me at ss_got3nkz@yahoo.com
I work with the military overseas so i might be on at different times.
Thanks Anthony
Hi,
I am in the phase of buying a new laptop and would like to know if there is a possibility of connecting 3 monitors to the laptop. I am currently thinking of buying a Toshiba or a Dell machine. Highly appreciate your views??
Thanks. Tarun
Tarun, see this post that I did, Multiple Monitor Solutions For The MacBook Pro
your 3 monitors are attache’d one to the other one and plug in one to the other one and then separately plug into the wall? do you know where they sell them?
No, the monitors are each separately plugged into the computer. In the setup above, I had a desktop computer. That desktop computer had outputs that ran up to four different monitors.
I’m preparing myself as well to mount a 3 screen monitor setup. The wait is killing me but it’s almost here.
Setting it as 3 24″ LCD’s manufactured by Asus, it’s a dream come true.
I have a ATI HD4870 Video Card with two DVI outputs.I can extend my desktop but what i realy want is the horizontal stretch so it can be for example 2 monitors 1024*768 = 2048*768 desktop so i can play Flight simulator X on both extended.
i’v played FSX on extended mode but it only displays in one monitor and i cant extend the image to 2 monitors , only transfer it from one to the other.
Any clue how to do it??? Basicaly is to do what Matrox Triplehead2Go does.
The solution to your problem with the viewing of the monitors is to replace it with 9X Media Triple Monitor Desktop Stand. As you can see from the animation, you can tilt the screen anyway you want. The monitors can be tilted 360 degrees….heck you can even flip the monitor backwards, spread the system wider or flip the screen to show to a seatmate in an instant without any loosening any bolts of using any tools. They are a bit more expensive because they are made of black annodized aluminum unlike the Ergotron stands which is made of Chinese Steel Tubing. The stand is also a bit heavy for more stability. And because of the ability to “spread” the arms, you can use different size monitors up to 32 inches! Awesome isn’t it?
I just happened to stumble onto your site and I noticed something. The mounts on the back of your screens aren’t all on the same way. I have deployed several of these dual-mounts from Ergotron and they will work out much better if the mount that holds the LCD to the long arm of the ergotron unit is the same on each LCD. If you look at your pictures, one of yours is laid horizontally (bolt going up and down), and the other is vertical (bolt going left to right).
Try moving them all to the same orientation and see if that helps.
Let me know if that doesn’t make sense.
How do you split 4 outputs from one computer? Do you use 2 graphic cards or single graphic card with 4 output?
I had two graphic cards, and each card had two outputs.
Hey, that is pretty awesome. I’m thinking about getting setup like that when I head off to college.
As far as the laptop thing, check out thinkgeek.com. They have a thing where you plug in a usb screen thing that lets you expand it. It even tilts and stuff like an iPhone. I don’t have the time to give you a link, but it shouldn’t be hard to find.
I would really appreciate more information on the multiple video cards. I have been running dual monitors for years and finally see that I want a third one since I have gone to Windows 7 Ultimate and it will let you choose the monitor to output TV to. I am trying 2 video cards, one a PNY dual monitor PCI-E and the other a BFG Tech PCI vga single. I can only get one card to enable at a time, when it is the single PCI vga card, then I only get one monitor with video and it’s not the one attached to that card. The motherboard is an MSI P43 Neo.
Hi,
Thanks for the great post. It inspired me to set up 3 monitors on my Dell Inspiron 530. I have an integrated graphics card that allows for one output, so I bought an MSI R4350 with three outputs (DVI, VGA, and HDMI).
Doesnt seem to like when I plug in one to the integrated and two to the MSI card, (only one or the two others work, but not all three at once)
Is it ok to run all three monitors off one video card? It has only heatsink, no fan – will that risk overheating?
My motherboard only has slot for one video card. Any guidance/advice you can provide will be so helpful.
Many thanks!
Phil, it might be that the DVI and HDMI are effectively the same digital signal, so you get to use only one or the other.
If you could get all three to go, I can’t say on the overheating. But I’d expect them to warn against it, if it was a problem.
Danny,
I came across this post because I was searching for a way to connect 4 LCDs and one monitor to a single computer. My father in law wants to run some ads in his store and control them as needed with the application running on fifth monitor somewhere in the back. I was thinking to buy ATI Sapphire HD4850 X2 with 4 dvi slots and plug the fifth (smaller) lcd to motherboard integrated graphic card. I need all 5 monitors to be independent from each other but i am not sure if it will work as I expect. Also a 4 slot graphic card is little more expensive do you think a two graphic cards (w/ 2 slots each) will do the work as well? Is it even possible to do something like this? Thank you in advance for your reply.
i want to know about connect one pc to multiple monitor. which device is needed for that work.
Hi! I’m also interested with 3 monitor setup. Right now I have a GeForce 8400GS, has 1 x VGA port and 1 x DVI port. If I will connect 1 monitor to the vga port, then connect a 1-dvi input to 2-dvi output (Y-CABLE) and connect the 2nd and 3rd monitor there, will I have 3 independent monitors showing 3 applications or the 2nd and 3rd monitor can show the same applications only?
thanks!
Akhilesh, you need to have a video card that has at least two outputs or two different video cards. That’s the first step.
Miro, if you have 4 different outputs, however you do it, they should work all independently. But you want to ensure you’ve got a good return policy on the off-chance there’s something unexpected that happens.
Clorenz, you have two outputs. If you split one, then you’ll simply mirror what comes off the split. Make sense? Think of it this way. Each hard output is like a different TV channel. If you split an output, you don’t get a different channel. You get the same channel twice.
I have a 36 inch monitor that I would like to have the ability to have it divided into 4 mini windows that are all visible. Is there a virtual desktop program that someone can recommend.
Cheers
heya @DGB, i believe the software you’re looking for to subdivide space on a monitor is MaxTO – http://maxto.net/
I’m just wondering how much would this kind of set up be? Do I need to increase the specs of my CPU to have this kind of set up? What I mean is should I increase the capacity of my RAM and Processor etc. Thanks
I would want to have this kind of set up. By the way nice to know you Danny 
Actually, a DVI or VGA splitter does allow you to get 2 separate signals. I’m using one right now to give me 2 monitor displays – primary and secondary – using the “extended desktop” feature.
I didn’t know it could be done, either, until a couple months ago. I do not know whether you can use a splitter to give you 3 displays, but I do know that if you only have 1 output on your tower, you can use it to give you two individual signals. Windows recognizes it as 2 monitors.
Anyway, thought this might help…
Hey Danny,
Pretty incredible that this thread alone has been running for almost 4 yrs. Anyhow…
I currently have a dell inspiron 537 slim w/2 23″ dell hd monitors hooked up to it. One via the HDMI slot and the other with an HDMI to DVI cable using an ATI Radeon HD 4350 video card. To my surprise, the quality is excellent. Now, I need to order and additional Dell pc for my office. I’m looking to set up 3 of these same monitors but need a little help with the specs. What type of video card would you recommend to handle the 3 monitors? And finally, do you have any suggestions about minimum system requirements to run a set up like this.
Thanks in advance,
BTG
Brett, I recently went looking for a single card that could do three monitors. There are a few, but they’re meant for gamers and expensive. And some modern PCs amazingly don’t seem to have a lot of free slots for a low end card. But that’s really the choice — one card that can do three, or two cards that each can run up to two monitors. However, USB options also work. That’s what I’m doing for my MacBook. See here: My MacBook Pro Goes Multimonitor: 4 Monitors At Once!
seems windows 7 pro won’t work with a mix of pci and pcie cards like xp did so if your boards only got 1 pcie slot youre limited to 2 monitors(or 3 with a hugely expensive game card). my intel board automatically disables onboard when theres something in the pcie slot.
all other cards get shown as a std vga video device that fails to start
I havnt been able to try with both cards from the same manufacturer, anyone else?any thoughts?
Hello
Have you played games on 3 monitors? I’ll realy love to play F1 with 2 additional monitors, I think it would be great.
that looks really good mate of mine has 5 LCD screens all 20″ its amazing
im at work right now and im trying to hook up 2 more screens to make 3. i have my main screen plugged into the graphics chard which only has 1 DVI port and i have a splitter plugged into the onboard VGA, the other two screens appear as extended desktops but they are mirrored. does anyone know how with out downloading any program make it so my 2 extended desktop screens are not mirrored, they are just to seperate exteneded screens.
hi, i have some questions about a triple monitor setup.
i currently have a:
Lenovo Y530
Intel Core Duo 2
Mobile Intel GM45 Express (integrated)
i have a HDMI AND a VGA port
i currently have a HDMI monitor connected to the HDMI port, and i am wondering how i can get a triple monitor set up (including the laptop monitor).
getting a second video card would not be an option, since it’s a laptop. what are my options? replies would be very thankful!
Can you give me some guidance how you actually hooked up the three monitors to your Dell Inspiron 530. I was told by tech support that I would need a new power supply to do this. Is that true?
Absolutely agree with the multi monitor recommendation. I’m currently using dual 22” Acers in Horizontal span mode. Instead of dualview, which grants you only the one taskbar, horizontal span mode gives you one gigantic desktop; basically instead of 2 monitors of independent resolution I have one desktop running at 3360 x 1050, stretched across both monitors. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities- instead of choosing which monitor you want to view something on, you can also choose to view it on both at once! I watch HD movies and play games in Ultra-mega-wide screen!
Naturally, 3 monitors with this setup would make for the best gaming experience currently possible with affordable technology. I’m holding out on that dual SLI setup (and hence, three monitors) until I can afford top of the line cards… you know the feeling.
With horizontal span, there is no longer a need for Ultramon, thanks Nvidia!
I forgot to add… there is some confusion I have seen on various sites regarding dual and triple monitors for gaming…. some less savvy gamers have made the claim that you are not actually seeing more in game, but are instead just widening the existing image.
This is true for older games, before, say, 2003-2005. For newer games, though, once you have your desktop resolution set right (my 3360×1050), you can then choose that resolution in the options of a game, and the game will comply. It does not know you’re using 2 monitors, but the video card does and will do a great job splitting the images.
Just had to get that out there because in one particular case, someone refused to believe there was an advantage to be had.
I have nvidia setup along with vedio cards.
currently using dual display ,both dell monitors are hooked to Laptop docket station.Want to use laptop display as the third one.
What is required?
Thanks in Advance
I have installed the radeon video card with 2 slots and have 2 monitors working on them but now I want a third will it run from the default already there or do I need another card for it
Thanks for the useful post. There actually is a dual-monitor laptop! Your idea about this seemed funny to me at first, but then I came across the post on a site called CTOVision dated August 28, 2009. If you google “Finally: A (real) Dual Monitor Laptop” it should come up. Enjoy!
Hey guys, I’m also going for three monitors – for increased productivity and also gaming (obviously not both at the same time…).
ATI has brought out some new tech with their 5xxx series Radeon cards – it’s called ‘Eyefinity’ and allows you to run three monitors off one card (2 x DVI & 1 x DisplayPort). I’ve seen an online demo and it looks great, really seamless and easy to set up.
Check it out, as these cards should meet most people’s needs for three monitors (apparently they are bringing out a card which will run 6 monitors).
There’s also TripleHead2Go, which is older tech, not sure exactly how it works.
when you 1st got your machine, did it just have onboard graphics? I too have a 530, and just picked up a geforce 210 video card which has 3 locations to plug into, hdmi…dvi…and vga. however, you can only use two at a time. can I use hdmi and dvi from the card, and then vga from the stock graphics??
I have a 32″ 1080 in the middle. a 20″ dell floating to the left of it, and a lonely 20″ waiting for some love on the right side.
to run three displays you have to have two of the same model graphics cards that use the same driver
Check out the Matrox TripleHead2Go. Takes one video input and splits it to 3 outputs. Analog (vga) or Digital (dvi) available.
I’m currently finishing off my new ‘multi monitor’ setup I have 3 Samsung 23″ (SyncMaster 2333sw) monitors and want to add a 4th smaller Samsung (19″) that is more like what my clients would use, not sure yet about video cards to run it all or a bracket to mount them, I think I’m going to get a friend to fabricate something specific to my needs. I’m still looking at video cards but I think tht (2) Asus ENGTS250-DI may do the job
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