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posted by janrinok on Sunday August 21 2016, @09:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the over-to-you dept.

It's been a while since we ran a story about some facet of people's home computer systems and I got to wondering what kind of monitor setup other Soylentils have at home. (If you have multiple systems, feel free to enumerate each setup.)

For example, I run Win 7 Pro on a Dell laptop which has a Mobile Intel Core 2 P8700 Duo processor and which sports NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M graphics. Instead of using the built-in laptop display, I have a several-year-old Gateway monitor with 1920x1200 resolution @ 59Hz and 32-bit color. I do not do any gaming, so I don't need the latest graphic card/monitor.

Some time down the road, though, I'd like to get a new computer and am thinking about a multi-monitor setup. I'd like at least 1920x1200 across 3 screens, though I'd not mind it if I could afford 3 x 4K screens. I'd like it to be compatible with some flavor of Linux or *BSD, preferably without systemd. Does anyone here have experience with that kind of setup? What OS do you use? What graphics card? What monitors and resolutions do you run?

I know there are some gamers on the site, as well. Here's a chance to brag a bit about your rig!

And, of course, please share any horror stories and/or triumphs, too!


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  • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday August 21 2016, @11:27PM

    by shortscreen (2252) on Sunday August 21 2016, @11:27PM (#391330) Journal

    Nothing to brag about here. I've tried running dual monitors before but in general it doesn't seem to be any better than having two computers with one monitor each. Having to reach back and forth between two keyboards is not fun, but that usually doesn't happen. Usually the point of having the second screen on is just being able to refer to something without having to juggle windows on the first screen.

    Sometimes my ass hurts and I don't feel like sitting at a desk, in which case I take a laptop to bed. Kind of tough to deal with multiple monitors in bed, unless maybe I had some elaborate multi-jointed telescoping wall/ceiling mount. Thankfully this hasn't been a problem for the past couple years.

    So I have a low-power system which is on all the time, right next to a higher-spec system. They both have 16" CRT monitors. I was running 1152x864@70hz, but one of them started making an annoying noise so I bumped it up to 1280x960@70hz and the noise went away (or became inaudible at least). It's not a very high resolution compared to what is available now, but it's good enough. I run old software that wasn't designed for high res, so going beyond 100dpi it becomes difficult to see WTF is going on. (and then there are the fixed-width web pages that were designed for 800- or 1024- wide screens...)

    I don't watch TV/movies much, so that isn't a concern. But I thought it might be nice to have a larger, higher-res screen for looking at photos. Unfortunately it seems that 2048x1536 displays are not too common (did you know that NEC offered a laptop with this resolution back in 2003?). So I ended up buying a surplus 20" 1600x1200 LCD. It looks good via DVI (rubbish over VGA) but the plastic stand that came with it is a piece of crap and because of that I have not been sufficiently motivated to swap it in for the venerable CRT.

    16:9 aspect ratios are banned at my house and DRM-encumbered tech (ie. HDMI) is also not looked upon kindly.

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