Dual monitor setup

ok, i got a question, most of you guys use the 2209WA as their main monitor, my plan is to use it as my second monitor.

is this any problem? i have a video card that can run 2 monitors at once, but would i have any problems running dual setup in general, also in calibrating? this would be my first dual monitor setup and i want to know if im gonna run into some problems

the videocard that i have is the NVIDIA GTS240, the card that came with the dell XPS8000. PSU rated at 350watts, is that gonna be fine or should i upgrade it to 500-650watts? i only said 650watts since i have future mods in mind, but without the future mods in mind, will the 350W hold up or am i stretching that PSU too much?

Power supply is not an issue, if you're only going to run that one video card that you've been using until now. What OS are you using? I don't believe XP will allow you to separately calibrate two monitors from one card. That would be the only problem you'd face, and I don't really regard it as a problem--just do your editing on your primary monitor.

I have always run my additional monitors each from its own card, but that does require a heftier power supply.

windows 7 and the graphix property of the video card supports dual monitors

Panda_stunter wrote in post #9287133
ok, i got a question, most of you guys use the 2209WA as their main monitor, my plan is to use it as my second monitor.

is this any problem? i have a video card that can run 2 monitors at once, but would i have any problems running dual setup in general, also in calibrating? this would be my first dual monitor setup and i want to know if im gonna run into some problems

the videocard that i have is the NVIDIA GTS240, the card that came with the dell XPS8000. PSU rated at 350watts, is that gonna be fine or should i upgrade it to 500-650watts? i only said 650watts since i have future mods in mind, but without the future mods in mind, will the 350W hold up or am i stretching that PSU too much?

Your 350W PSU is actually fairly good, works as well as most 450W PSUs thanks to a larger 12V rail (sacrifices 5v, 3V is non existant, and -12/-5V are pretty much dead too, but 99% of things out there only use +5V and +12V anyway). You only need a new PSU if you plan on running larger video cards, but your current card works just fine for dual monitor 2560x1600 if you want to, perfect for dual 1920x1200, and more than needed for dual 1680x1050 like your 2209WA.

If you want to later replace your card or overclock anything, you should look into a better PSU down the line, the thermaltake TX2 black widow 750W 80+ PSU has been recommended at dell tweaking forums across the board (or the antec earthwatt 550). Both of these are the same size as the xps8000 and studio xps 435MT psu (black widow is 2mm longer, but plenty of room to spare anyway). The other nice thing about an upgraded PSU is that you can get a large, low rpm fan to decrease temps across the board, and lower noise as well. Not that it's needed for your graphics card, but helpful if you get yourself a geforce gtx 285 (or even overclock an ati 4850... even 5mhz overclock in core means random freezes for my 4850 due to the power supply)

basroil wrote in post #9287552
Your 350W PSU is actually fairly good, works as well as most 450W PSUs thanks to a larger 12V rail (sacrifices 5v, 3V is non existant, and -12/-5V are pretty much dead too, but 99% of things out there only use +5V and +12V anyway). You only need a new PSU if you plan on running larger video cards, but your current card works just fine for dual monitor 2560x1600 if you want to, perfect for dual 1920x1200, and more than needed for dual 1680x1050 like your 2209WA.

If you want to later replace your card or overclock anything, you should look into a better PSU down the line, the thermaltake TX2 black widow 750W 80+ PSU has been recommended at dell tweaking forums across the board (or the antec earthwatt 550). Both of these are the same size as the xps8000 and studio xps 435MT psu (black widow is 2mm longer, but plenty of room to spare anyway). The other nice thing about an upgraded PSU is that you can get a large, low rpm fan to decrease temps across the board, and lower noise as well. Not that it's needed for your graphics card, but helpful if you get yourself a geforce gtx 285 (or even overclock an ati 4850... even 5mhz overclock in core means random freezes for my 4850 due to the power supply)

basroil FTW again!

yeah, the thermaltake TX2 black widow is what im looking at.

thanks basroil!