About two months ago I was in the market for a new LCD monitor for my setup. I had been using a 17 inch LCD from BenQ for about four years and an upgrade was in order. Though there we no problems I had from the BenQ monitor in the four years that I used it, the area of the 17 inch monitor was becoming an issue with the amount of work that I was doing on my computer on a daily basis.

When I first began looking for a replacement, I was eyeing up 22 inch displays such as this one on Newegg.com. I wanted the ability to do more work in less time since time is a scarce thing for me. One 22 inch display gives you the ability to see more text at the same time, and perhaps two windows at the same time if you take the time to re-size each window so it fits on the screen. I quickly realized that going with one large screen wasn't going to accomplish the goal of saving me time and making things easier for me. One large display is designed for those who play games on their computers, or those who like to drive around big SUV because they have an Oedipus complex.

Once I figured that one large display was not my cup of tea, I did some more research online and found out that going with two monitors will do everything and more that I wanted. Fortunately for me, I already had a video card with VGA and DVI ports to facilitate dual displays. Had I not already had a video card with the ability to go dual, I probably would not have made the upgrade. It's important to figure out before buying two monitors that your video card and the drivers you are using support dual displays. It's always a good idea to check your video card manufacturer's website for this information.

After I was certain that my video card could do what I wanted, I was ready to pick out two displays for my setup. My goal was right around $380 since I figured 22 inch display would cost right around that. I was able to find two Hanns G 19 inch displays that fit the bill perfectly. They got decent reviews, and they were priced reasonably, too. I also made sure that the monitors had both a VGA and a DVI port as one would have to use a DVI cable in my setup. Luckily for me I figured out that the monitors did not ship with DVI cables, so I purchased one at the same time to save me the hassle of having to wait an extra week for the cable to arrive.

When the displays arrived I carefully inspected the screens as I took them out of their boxes to make sure there weren't any obvious signs of abuse - there were none. Installation was easy, and setting them up in Windows was a breeze. Restart your computer, then you can simply right click on your desktop, go to "Properties" and over to the "Settings" tab, the rest should be fairly obvious as Microsoft has done a great job in making dual displays an easy upgrade.Overall, I would say that have dual displays has made me a more efficient computer user. Right now I am typing this article on one screen, and on the other I have Opera opened viewing the forums to see what's going on over there all without the need to flip back and forth with the mouse.

One important tip is to adjust the speed of your mouse since you have a lot more ground to cover now. You might even lose your curser from time to time when your first make the switch!

Before the conversion:

After the conversion:

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