Computer Questions...

[yooperchick]

Ok...I have a few questions for everyone....

1.) Anyone familiar with Dual Monitor cards for the PC? I may be getting a job that requires me to have dual monitors. It's not in the sense that it is one continuous desktop, it'd be like you could have Word open on one screen and Excel open on another. Could I buy a cheap desktop from Walmart and add one of these cards?

Any help would be appreciated. I have no idea about the dual monitor thing, and when I do a search, I am just coming up with the actual cards, not just general information about them.


2.) There is a Kelly Blue Book to find out a used car's value. Is there something similar to that for computers? I may be needing to sell my PC laptop, and I am trying to figure out what I should ask for it.

 

[Wrecked]

1.) yes. as long as you have an ample supply of power and a mother board that would be able to handle it, yes. i have a GeForce 5500 and it supports dual monitors. the card costed ~$100.

2.) not that i know of. your best bet would just to ebay it or post the specs here and maybe one of us could put a $ value on it.

 

[yooperchick]

How could I know the motherboard/power supply could handle it?


As for my laptop, here is a link to the model

http://laptopmag.com/Review/HP-Pavilion-ze2000.htm

Basically, it has

15-inch display,
.4-GHz Intel Celeron 350 processor
40GB Hard Drive
DVD/CD-RW drive,
802.11g networking,
4-in-1 memory-card slot

I just bought it in July. I did think of eBay-ing it, but I've never really sold something before and just don't want to go there. My old boss was mentioning something about getting a laptop, and if she hasn't yet...I may approach her. I'd just like to make sure I had a decent asking price for the both of us.

 

[Mirage]

You won't find a laptop that can support dual monitors... however all laptops have an SVGA out on the back, which you can use like dual monitors. The laptop screen as Monitor #1, and the actual monitor as #2.

I wouldn't recommend that though.

For dual monitors, I'd suggest:

512 MB Ram.
32 MB Video Card (Minimum, and depending how big the monitors are. 64 MB or higher Recommended)
Pentium 4, 2.5 GHz or higher, or Athlon equivelent (Athlon 2500)

You can build a system that supports dual monitors for about $400 (with nothing extra like DVD burner or decent size hard drive) for a decent one. I'd recommend going higher though and get a decent hard drive, dvd burner, etc. You don't NEED a sound card, but if your motherboard doesn't have integrated sound, I'd recommend getting a 16bit sound card. You can find them for $10-$20.

Then you could always take the route of getting a widescreen monitor, but that's going to cost much more than an entire dual monitor setup, and compatible computer. Expect to pay $1,000 and more for a widescreen monitor that's any good and big enough to make it worthwhile.

 

[yooperchick]

Thank you guys for your posts

A lot of it is still not making much sense in my head because I do not know much about the guts of computers.

I did look up on hp.com and customized a computer and it ended up being around $639. What I hope is that the money I can get from my laptop will get the desktop that I need. I don't think I'll get that much from my laptop.

Are there any other good computer companies to check out for customizing desktops?

 

[Wrecked]

i know at Dell.com you can customize the computer you want to buy. upgrading or downgrading parts rises/lowers the price and it tells you how much it would cost extra or how much would be given back if you up/downgraded parts.

as for pricing, i wouldn't know.

your best bet is to find one of your computer savey friends build you a computer. newegg.com is one of the cheapest places to buy computer related things. and if you build your computer this way, you save a good amount of money.

 

[yooperchick]

Ok. Is anyone familiar with this thing. It's a Computer Video Adapter.

From what I can gather, it would allow me to use my screen on my laptop (which could be outputted to a bigger monitor) and then hook the adapter up to a USB port and then run another monitor.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1487991&sku=P55-1018

Anyone hear of these before?

 

[yooperchick]

Wrecked - how hard is it to install that card that you mentioned?

I tried getting help from the Chat thing at Dell and they were no help at all. I found out today that I got the job, so I need to get a computer ASAP.

This is basically what I need to have with my system:

Ethernet (for DSL)
Dual Monitors (both 17" screens)
512 Ram

And that is it. It doesn't matter the amount of hard drive or even the CD drive (we have other computers for that). This one just needs to be able to get on the internet and support the dual monitors.

 

[Mr_Snipes]

Well a company that does build brand new computers is http://www.dealsdepot.com. You can customize the computer to you specifications. It also shows the price of the system as you customize it.

 

[Thermal]

You can also use two regular video cards, windows uses PCI slot 1 for primary.