[Tfug] Dual headed W2K hardware

[Bexley Hall]

My windows box doesn't see much use (indeed, a SCSI
disk crash has it currently running in NO power 
mode!  :>  ).  But, I run my primary Sun workstation
"dual headed".

And, one of the monitors that it uses is shared
with the W2K box (monitor has a built-in A/B switch).

So, it seems only logical to hook the "B" side of
the second monitor to the W2K box, as well!  :>

This leaves me with the decision as to how *best*
to do this (and, seeing as how I know little about
PC hardware -- and wish to remain blissfully
ignorant of same -- brings this question to your
eyes!  :> )

I think the machine has an ATI Radeon 7000 AGP card
in it.  This works fine with the single monitor
configured at 1280x1024x32 (I do a fair bit of
3D CAD work so having lots of pretty colors is
a win :> ).  But, adding a second monitor would
mean adding a second video card which would have
to reside in a PCI slot (I believe there are a
few slots open so this isn't a problem, either).

But, I am always nervous trying to get various
bits of hardware (and associated software drivers)
to "play nice together" in the MS world.  :<

Another approach is to use a dual-headed video
card (AGP or otherwise -- though I imagine moving 
away from the AGP slot will mean a perfoemance hit
of some sort).

To that end, I have a Matrox G400 AGP card that
*seems* like it will do the trick for me.  It is
annoying in that it appears to have some
arbitrary (?) restrictions on the second monitor
(e.g., the first can go above the 1280x1024 but
the second can not, etc.) that I *suppose* I
could live with.

I think the Radeon card is 32MB -- as is the Matrox.
Of course, the Matrox is more accurately described
as 2x16MB but I don't see that as posing any real
problems, either.

I don't play games, watch TV (movies) on the PC, etc.
A deep color palette is a big asset (for the CAD
stuff) but most of my applications are compute bound
(those that aren't are *brain*-bound) so being able
to render 87.2093 gazillion polygons in a femtosecond
doesn't make my heart go pitter-patter.  :>

Since it is always a PITA to load new drivers and
*not* end up making a mess of things under Windows,
I'd like to get this right *before* experimenting
with it :>  (though I have my trusty full backup
handy for the inevitable wedge that results from
this sort of tinkering).

Advice?

Thanks!
--don

P.S. I *assume* Windows will cooperate if I chose
NOT to power up both monitors at all times (i.e.,
assuming I have placed the things that I always
"want" to see on the "left" side of the desktop
and always power up the *left* monitor...)


       
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