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Double take Whether you are a gamer out to conquer the world or a manager sweating over a financial report, you need to act fast. Read on to find out how to improve your computing speed with products available from Frontier Electronics. [Johannesburg 27 July 2006] - Serious gamers do it. Business people do it. Have you ever been tempted to add a second monitor to your system? Some quite innocuous occurrence could sway you towards the double display set-up. For example, you may acquire a new monitor, but do not have the heart to chunk out the old one. Or you may want to put to use the dual-head feature of your new graphics card (after all, you paid for it). In either case, once you try working with two monitors, you will be hooked forever. The single most important reason why people opt for second screen is speed. Among the earliest converts to dual displays were - unsurprisingly - video game enthusiasts. After all, when you are out to conquer the world, haste is crucial. With a single monitor, you can jump between applications with a mouse click or a keyboard command, but not nearly as fast. With dual display, you simply sweep your mouse from one screen to the other. Numerous surveys show that, whether you measure your productivity in facts researched, alien spaceships vaporised, or articles written, adding an extra monitor will give your output a considerable boost: 20% to 30%. And no wonder. Just picture yourself writing a financial report on one screen, while the second displays a spreadsheet with all the relevant data. Then picture yourself editing aunt Sarah's portrait in one view and checking the copy against the original displayed on the extra monitor (you're bound to notice immediately if you go overboard with teeth-whitening). When you are shopping on the Web, you can compare products from two shops. When you expect an important message, you can keep your e-mail program open on the side monitor. Some dual-display devotees dedicate one monitor to portrait mode, and the other to landscape. They say that portrait is perfect for PDF files, word processor and Internet, while landscape is for CAD, some spreadsheets, and other general stuff. There are several ways to enjoy dual display, but a dual-head graphics card is the easiest route to take. The options are numerous, so some pre-purchase research is indicated. In Frontier Electronics, you will find a variety of dual-head AGP and PCI-E cards, with the prices ranging from reasonably affordable to extremely affordable. While the installation will depend on the type of the card, some basic rules apply to all. First, you will want to make sure that the electric static discharge you emit does not harm your computer (to prevent this, wear a grounding strap or ground yourself to the metal chassis). Second, you will want to make sure that the electrical current from your PC does not harm you (switch the computer off, or, even better, unplug it from the wall socket). And, last but not least, if you are not sure what to do, leave the whole thing to Frontier Electronics' technicians. They will do it expertly - for a fee, mind you. Browse Multimedia pages and choose the graphic card that suits you. Also, remember to take a look at LCD monitors. Useful as dual display is, it might get a bit overbearing on your desk if you stick to the bulky CRT monitors! |
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