2 monitors?

sillygoose

Listening to the op who sounds a bit nervous of computer hardware....

You can just get a gizmo that plugs in a USB port and drives a second monitor, probably not the best performance but no taking the computer apart and you can use it with your next PC should you upgrade easily. Probably cheaper than a decent new dual screen graphics card.

A quick look on ebay has THIS for £40

davb

You do need to research this, as if you get a new high spec graphics card the PSU in the E521 may need to be upgraded as well - the specs show it as only 305w.

wenger08

sillygoose wrote: »

Listening to the op who sounds a bit nervous of computer hardware....

You can just get a gizmo that plugs in a USB port and drives a second monitor, probably not the best performance but no taking the computer apart and you can use it with your next PC should you upgrade easily. Probably cheaper than a decent new dual screen graphics card.

A quick look on ebay has THIS for £40

hi im not sure what sillygoose was recomending but that link is dead now....anybody know what it might have been please?

i also need info on how to run two mintors from one pc.

i only have 1 vga output and its already in use with my current monitor and i dont have a dvi output either.

i dont really want to buy a new graphics card, power supply an monitor.....so is there a cheaper solution?

isnt there a cable that acts a splitter and will let me connect 2 monitors into the one port?

thanks

tronator

If your graphics card has a DVI-I connector it carries the analogue signal too. So you would need a splitter to connect a DVI and an VGA monitor, or two VGA monitors if you buy another DVI <-> VGA converter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface#Specifications

Or to be on the safe side buy a graphics card with two outputs.

Once you used two monitors on PC you never want to go back...

Edit: just noticed that I answered to an one year old thread

@wenger08: It won't work if you have only one VGA port. You'll need a graphics card with two outputs or with one DVI-I output as described above with one of those cables.

DCFC79

tronator wrote: »

If your graphics card has a DVI-I connector it carries the analogue signal too. So you would need a splitter to connect a DVI and an VGA monitor, or two VGA monitors if you buy another DVI <-> VGA converter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface#Specifications

Or to be on the safe side buy a graphics card with two outputs.

Once you used two monitors on PC you never want to go back...

Edit: just noticed that I answered to an one year old thread

@wenger08: It won't work if you have only one VGA port. You'll need a graphics card with two outputs or with one DVI-I output as described above with one of those cables.

wenger was the 1 who replied to it at first so dont worry,

ive got a question while im here, my g/card has a vga port and a dvi port so would that enable me to have 2 monitors

thanks

tronator

DCFC79 wrote: »

wenger was the 1 who replied to it at first so dont worry,

ive got a question while im here, my g/card has a vga port and a dvi port so would that enable me to have 2 monitors

Most likely yes. What is the make and model of the graphics card?

TwistedPsycho

I would not have thought that a Dell Dimension is installed with a seperate graphics card, but integrated on the mobo. Mybe our original poster can confirm if the monitor plugs in around the main bunch of various connections (usually vertically) or seperately (usually hoizontally)

If you have not already got a card installed, then you can identify which card you need easily. If you open up your case you can compare the slots for exansion cards to the ones on this page which compares PCI-E and AGP graphics card slots (beware that the colours are not always the same though) and the graphics card is USUALLY towards the top of the exampsion port slots (or immediately below the baulky bit where all your USB/keyboard slots are)

Hope this helps.... and reading above, I hope you have not already removed your motherboard to take to the shop to check.....

S0litaire

Done a quick google search on the "Dell Dimention e521"

That Dell Motherboard has a 16x PCI-express slot for a video card. so any PCI-Express video card will do.

closed

Buy a cheap laptop instead.

tronator

closed wrote: »

Buy a cheap laptop instead.

You obviously never worked on a dual-monitor PC, otherwise you wouldn't make this recommendation...