When geeks are dealing with their own computer setups, nothing is considered too extravagant or unnecessary. With that said, we bring you eighteen of the coolest multi-display computer setups to grace the internet…yet. Continue reading to see them all.

Multi-Monitor Computer Setups

How-To Video

Windows How-To

Turn off your PC, plug in in the second monitor and restart Windows. With any luck, Windows will detect the new display and install the drivers for you. At this point, your should have a mirror of your desktop on two screens. That’s nice, but not what we’re after here. Head to Control Panel, click on Display and select the “Multiple display” option. Adjust the resolution and orientation to suit your monitor setup.

Congratulations, you’re now rocking dual monitors. You can drag windows between monitors and adjust your windows to suit your workflow.

OS X How-To

All you need to do is plug it in, and Mac OS X should automatically recognize it. Head to System Preferences > Displays and you will see two screens pop up — one on each monitor. From here, you can control your monitor settings, add backgrounds, decide where your menus and dock will show up, and so on.

Even if your Mac does not have a graphics card with two monitor ports, there are USB-based solutions (Google “USB Dual Monitor adaptor”). These will be significantly slower than a real graphics card, but unless you’re playing games in fullscreen mode, you should be OK.

Ubuntu Linux How-To

Ubuntu’s monitor setup screen lives in System > Preference > Display. Once that screen is up, click the “Detect monitors” button, which will force the system to find your new monitor. Select all the monitors listed and click the “On” radio button.

Be sure to uncheck the “mirror” option and then click “Apply”. While the process of setting up multiple monitors in Linux is easy, finding drivers that support your monitors isn’t always easy. Before you head out to purchase a new graphics card, be sure to check with the Ubuntu forums and read up on success and failure stories.

[Sources 1 | 2 | 3]

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