Extending CRT desktop with an LCD

C

char507

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 1, 2004
Messages
159
right now I have a CRT NEC 17' (16' Viewable) MultiSync 77F
Product Link http://www.necmitsubishi.com/products/ProductDetail.cfm?Product=196&ProductGroup=CRT

I'm running an ATI 9800 Pro and I was wondering what would be the harm in running a second monitor which would be a 17' LCD like this one
Product Link: http://www.necmitsubishi.com/products/ProductDetail.cfm?Product=317&ClassificationFamily=1&Classification=1

Would it work ok to have an extended desktop and use the LCD as my main monitor for browsing the web etc and use the CRT for gaming, or would I be much better off with two identical CRT monitors?
 
It'll work fine, but you may want to set the CRT as the primary display since I can't think of a game that will play on your secondary display.

Now that I think about it there may be some issues where you'd want to put the CRT on the DVI port using an adapter because games may run on that connector because I think ATI treats that as the primary adapter. It's hard to exaplain but I'm also not sure, so hopefully someone else knows.
 
on the ati cards, i believe you can specify which monitor is primary through the settings tab from desktop properties, not sure tho, you might need to get ATI's multi-monitor software, i believe its called HydraVision or something, or maybe im out of date, who knows
 
I do exactly this at home on my main machine.
I have a Dell P991 19" crt and a Viewsonic VA520 lcd, both hooked up to my 9700Pro.
There are no real downsides to this, the ATI drivers can let you specify which monitor is primary, secondary, extend the desktop and everything nice like that. I like using the lcd to watch videos and keep my foobar player on as well as some system monitoring software. When it comes to games though, my crt get's all the play.

I have only ever had one issue and it was with one game. When I installed Halo, only my lcd was connected and when I connected the crt it would only run on the lcd. No trickery of setting the primary/secondary display would work, at all, not even with ultramon, it required me to reinstall the game.

I really can't think of any other issues with using and crt and lcd at once, none that I've come across.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top