Now were going into new territory here folks, not only did I put three monitors on my already too crowded computer desk, but I frickin played games while doing it, giving me a whole new appreciation of panoramic.
So I got my new TripleHead2Go a couple of weeks ago and like a kid opening up his birthday present, I tore right into the packaging. But what’s this? There is no manual to be found, what the? I mean we are a society of people who power up new electronic devices and begin futzing around with them without ever looking at the manual.
Whether it’s completely on purpose or just due to the excitement of the new electronic whatchamacallit. But here, I call shenanigans, there isn’t a manual anywhere to be found! I mean, how can I ignore said manual if it doesn’t exist. I was looking forward to tossing it into the ginormous drawer of other manuals that I never planned on reading either and thumbing my nose at it when I managed to hook the thing up without nary a hiccup.
System Single VGA output connector, on a compatible system Operating system Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000 Display driver Support for 1920 x 480, 2400 x 600, 3072 x 768 or 3840 x 1024 resolution
Matrox TripleHead2Go Specifications
| supported display modes | product information |
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Sadly I understood why there was no manual, the little bugger was just too easy to set up and use. Just pop the installation disc in and then begin the hard part, moving all the crap off your desk so you can place the three monitors together. Now, just let me tell you, I do not have flat panel monitors, and if I did, chances are I wouldn’t have three of them since the good ones cost quite a bit.
What I am trying to tell you is that I now have three big-ass heavy 17 inch deep monitors on my desk. Luckily it is a big desk, but this does bring me to my first point, those of you who are seriously considering purchasing this item, should probably have those flat panel jobs. Why? Cause you may throw out your back as you try and muscle those old heavy suckers into place. But even more so, flat panel monitors do not have the large gaps where the screen ends and the case begins, like standard monitors do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still cool as hell playing games, I mean it is 3840 x 1024 if you have the graphics card to punch it up that high.
But more then that, the installation disk fires up nicely and provides you with a list of games supported by the TripleHead2Go. And fortunately for me, one of my all time favorites was on there, Doom 3. Now it’s important to mention that you must select the game you want to play from the list and then have it optimized. Doing this creates an icon on your desktop that indicates “surround” on the game you just optimized. Hit the new icon and “voila!” your other formerly sleeping monitors will pop to life and you will experience your game now stretched across three screens.
Now that the thing was actually installed and I had a game going, I realized there needed to be some serious tweaking as the mouse was now lagging behind and the screan looked like crap. Backing out I saw on the desktop icon menu that there were a few resolution selections that I could choose from:
- 1920 x 480
- 2400 x 600
- 3072 x 768
- 3840 x 1024
Now depending on your graphics card, you will need to find a resolution that works for you. The screenshots I took for this article were on a 3072 x 768 setting. But still with my configuration I noted that things weren’t as tight as I would have liked them to be. So be aware, you probably should have a really high end, kick butt, don’t mess with me style graphics card. Mine was a Radeon ATI 9550 256mb. Not as butt kicking as I would like but the box does state that both ATI and Nvidia style graphics cards are compatible.
Now the device itself is quite small, about five by three inches. The setup too was easy enough with VGA inputs designating left, center and right with one output to be connected to your graphics card. At this point I will complain about the length of the supplied VGA cords (one is a VGA to DVI cord), which was only about two feet long, and for my setup, just didn’t quite reach comfortably.
The power cord that plugs into it however did feature more then enough length. Still, after assembling my new monitor configuration, the extra mess of cords and the fact that one of them was too short, did not please my wife, of course neither did seeing all three of the house hold monitors on one desk for me to shoot alines with. But, what are you going to do.
More than just gaming…
In addition, you can actually use this device for what is called surround design, meaning, you can have three monitors independently working, displaying three entirely different desktops, and yet you can still run your mouse across the three screens as easily as you do with one, eliminating window swapping with increased productivity in your newly set up workstation.
Of course this is for programs like CAD, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC), so don’t expect to pick something like this up and hit eBay with $$$ in your eyes. At least not yet. Still, it was nice to see the folks at Matrox looking past the videogame aspect of this new tool.
Now I can really see the need for this kind of thing, I get it, I really do and I will admit that playing Doom 3 was pretty cool now that I see 60% more of what I’m doing I’m blown away, but I really have to stress the importance of having those flat panel style monitors, it makes all the difference in the world. But even with my old clunky monitors, I thought the idea was sound and the product to be of decent quality.
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