I was looking to have two monitors running off of my same pc. Does anyone know if I need any special equipment to do that?

There are two possible approaches: adding a second graphics card to your existing setup, or replacing the existing card with a single card that provides dual-monitor support. Although plenty of people have taken the first option, it's not without problems due to possible conflicts between the two cards, and the fact that you'll need at least two IRQs.

Of course it makes sense to make one of the cards an AGP model to minimise use of the PCI buss, but the second will always have to be an older PCI model -- which, as many of us will remember, can give rise to audio glitches when sharing the PCI buss with a soundcard. Using two PCI cards is therefore not recommended for musicians, but if you do want to try this, you'll need two dissimilar models, so that their drivers don't conflict (just like multiple soundcards). Some motherboards only support graphics cards in a couple of specific slots (check your manual), or demand that you place them in adjacent slots. It may also be possible to use a single graphics card alongside an integral motherboard graphic chipset, although here again there are various restrictions, so you'll have to play it by ear.

For the most common combination of one AGP and one PCI card, you'll need to choose which of the two cards becomes your 'primary' graphic controller, and which the 'secondary'. During Plug and Play configuration, the PCI and AGP slots are initialised in a specific order, and the first display adaptor to be initialised receives a complete set of VGA and accelerator resources and become Swapping Graphics Cards
Your current graphics card may have dozens of driver files, as well as various references in the Registry, so when replacing it with a dual-head model it's important to do this as cleanly as possible. The safest way is first to remove any graphic card utilities. These appear either as an icon in the system tray on your Taskbar, or as extra tabbed options in the Advanced section of Display Properties in the Control Panel. If your card has these, there should be an appropriate entry (probably starting with the manufacturer's name) in the Add/Remove Programs list. Click on this, followed by the Add/Remove button, and then follow the instructions to reboot your PC.
Next, in the Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter page, click on the Change button, select the option to choose from a list, and then click on the 'Show all hardware' radio button. Now you can highlight the topmost entry labelled 'Standard display types', and then select 'Standard PCI Graphics Adaptor (VGA)'. You'll be prompted to restart Windows, and when it reappears your screen display will have a low 640x480 resolution with 16 colours.

Reboot your PC, hold down the Ctrl key, and choose Safe Mode from the list of options that appears. You can now safely delete all files relating to your old graphics card from the following folders: windows/system, windows/system32/drivers, and windows/nf/other. Hopefully they should be fairly obvious -- all the files for ATI cards start with the letters 'Ati' for instance. If you want to be thorough, you can now use Regedit to remove references to the old card in the Registry, but as always, be extremely careful, and make a backup before you start. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/
Software and delete the entire folder relating to your graphics card. You can now power down and install the new card and its drivers, knowing that no trace is left of the old one.

Some graphic card manufacturers provide a far quicker and safer way in the shape of a dedicated uninstall utility. Matrox have one on their web site (the Powerdesk Uninstall utility), so see if you can download one of these before you start, as using it provides fewer opportunities for mistakes to be made.


s the Primary display adaptor. This is the one that will display the Windows startup logo when you first boot, and any log-on screen

This makes it a little simplier:

Sometimes two is better than one
It is becoming increasingly more common to see people using two towers with one keyboard, video and monitor. This is accomplished through the use of a KVM switch - as you probably already guessed, KVM standard for keyboard-video-mouse. This is great for people who need more computing power than they can get with one machine. A good example of this would be in a graphic design environment where you are consuming a high percentage of your available RAM and CPU power to run heavy editing applications.

Sometimes you need more room to be productive
For some people computing power is not a huge issue, but they could use more desktop space: enter the dual-screen setup. This allows you to have two monitors that essentially share your desktop. You can drag items from one monitor to another and if you have a long window you want to view, you can sprawl it out across both monitors. This is great when you need to use another screen as a reference or you want a static window that you can always check (with stock symbols, sales figures, etc.).

It's not that hard to do
A lot of people see dual-screen setups and they think that it's hard to do - it's really not. First of all you need a dual-monitor video card. Do not try to use two single-port video cards - you will probably have IRQ conflicts that will keep you from using both at the same time - special software is bundled with all dual-port video cards that allows both ports to peacefully co-exist.

DVI vs. VGA
For some reason most dual-port video cards have one VGA port and one DVI port. I am not saying that dual-port VGA or dual-port DVI cards don't exist, but I have never seen one. This can be kind of a pain because you might have two VGA monitors or two DVI monitors. Don't worry - there is a solution. You can easily find a DVI-to-VGA adapter or a VGA-to-DVI adapter from just about anyone who sells you a video card. Be aware that if you have two DVI monitors that your DVI signal will be downgraded to analog, but the quality loss is almost unnoticable unless you have a huge monitor. Also, using a VGA-to-DVI adapter will not upscale your signal to a digital signal - it will pass an analog signal through the DVI port.

You will need to install included software
Regardless of where you buy the card from there will be some software that you will have to install to get your new setup to work. As I mentioned earlier, this will resolve any IRQ conflicts that would otherwise arise and give you some cool options for your desktop such as specifying which monitor should be the right-side of the desktop and which should be the left.

Be sure to uninstall your old card first
Whether you choose to use an AGP video card or PCI, you should definitely remove your existing video card first (and disable any software related to the old monitor). This will remove the possibility of a driver conflict and make you and the computer much happier in the long-run.

I thought it was harder to do than this I think you have sold me on the idea if I only could find space on my desk

Use wall mounted LCD monitor(s) if the desk is close to the wall.
Also the net LCD TV sets have very good high resolution. Think of using the TV as a secondary monitor if there is such in the room.

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I like this idea it saves room!