Best budget monitor advice please? IPS/TN?

timmy17

Member
Hi, need some help/advice please. I've been searching and reading reviews for monitors over and over, and im just so confused. There are so many out there and i don't know which one's i should go for!

I'm looking for a dual monitor set up, I'm not a gamer but i do like to stream movies/sports. It is mainly for work that i need the dual monitor set up.

I was thinking about spending around £80-100 per screen. Do you think that is enough?

I need the screens to be 1920 x 1080 miniumum.

My PC has 2 display port inputs but no HDMI. It does have a DMS-59 port which comes with a two DVI-D splitter cable.

Should i go down the refurb route?

Do i need to get myself IPS monitors, even though im not a gamer?

Any recommendations would be great as im lost and wanting to order something ASAP.

Thank you
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
You can easily get 24" 1080p monitors for £80-100. It won't take long looking on google shopping or specific vendor websites to find them.

Just buy anything that has decent customer reviews from a store with a returns policy you're comfortable with.

As for inputs, most (though not all) monitors will have HDMI inputs. A DP to HDMI cable (to connect DP outputs from your PC to HDMI inputs on monitors) is only about £5.

IPS doesn't really matter. Depending how you have your monitors, you may prefer an IPS panel for the better viewing angles. You can sometimes find budget IPS monitors for £100 new.
 

timmy17

Member
You can easily get 24" 1080p monitors for £80-100. It won't take long looking on google shopping or specific vendor websites to find them.

Just buy anything that has decent customer reviews from a store with a returns policy you're comfortable with.

As for inputs, most (though not all) monitors will have HDMI inputs. A DP to HDMI cable (to connect DP outputs from your PC to HDMI inputs on monitors) is only about £5.

IPS doesn't really matter. Depending how you have your monitors, you may prefer an IPS panel for the better viewing angles. You can sometimes find budget IPS monitors for £100 new.

Thanks mate, i didnt even know google shopping existed! So thanks for that tip. Never heard of some of the stores/vendors though. I was sticking with Amazon when searching before because they have such good customer service and returns policy (and staying away from Ebuyer, becuase they have shocking customer service!). Any tips on how i can work out if a particular store/vendor is reputable?

Since the monitors won't always be sitting infront of me (more to my right, while i work/browse on a different PC, which is directly infront of my eye line) do you think it's worth getting IPS for that reason?
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Any tips on how i can work out if a particular store/vendor is reputable?
Trustpilot, other review sites.

Since the monitors won't always be sitting infront of me (more to my right, while i work/browse on a different PC, which is directly infront of my eye line) do you think it's worth getting IPS for that reason?
Quite possibly. You can always google for professional reviews of monitors you are thinking of buying. Some sites like https://pcmonitors.info/ do videos of the screen showing you the viewing angles (moving the camera around the screen). Or some random dude on youtube with a tiny hardware channel might have done a video with the same.

Although there are a thousand and 1 different cheap ~£100 monitors out there, so you may not necessarily find a video. Tbh at this price range, many may well be about as good as the next one along.
 

timmy17

Member
Thanks mate, sorry for the late reply. Ive still been searching for a good monitor and like you say they all seem much of a muchness around my price range.

I think i am going to go for these ones:

Dell P2214HB Widescreen 22" 1920 X 1080 FHD Flat Panel LCD Monitor

There seems to be conflicting reviews about whether or not it is an IPS PANEL

Was just wondering if you could find out for sure if it is or not? I have been reading up on it but some say it is and some say it isnt, so hard to know for sure?
 

timmy17

Member
I've bought my two monitor set up for my PC, using windows 10, both monitors connected via DVI

They are both displaying windows but if i go for the "duplicate these displays" option in windows 10, the monitors just mirror each other. So if i move my mouse it then moves it on both screens and everything i click displays on both screens

If i go for the "Extend these displays option" then it only shows on the primary monitor

BUT if i scroll across to the 2nd monitor and click on google chrome for example, it will open it on the Primary monitor and display there.

Is there no way when i click on the 2nd monitor it only opens the program there and if i click on the 1st (primary) monitor it will only open there?

So i have i kind of have 2 different desktop displays, one on each monitor?
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
They're both connected via DVI? Have you got 1 connected to your graphics card and 1 connected to your motherboard or something?

They are both displaying windows but if i go for the "duplicate these displays" option in windows 10, the monitors just mirror each other. So if i move my mouse it then moves it on both screens and everything i click displays on both screens

If i go for the "Extend these displays option" then it only shows on the primary monitor

BUT if i scroll across to the 2nd monitor and click on google chrome for example, it will open it on the Primary monitor and display there.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. You're saying that if you click "extend these displays" things only show on the primary monitor. But then you say you can see and click things on the second monitor.

It's not very clear what end result you are looking for?

Is there no way when i click on the 2nd monitor it only opens the program there and if i click on the 1st (primary) monitor it will only open there?

So i have i kind of have 2 different desktop displays, one on each monitor?
Just drag the window over. If it's a game, you can often tell the game which monitor to display on in the game settings.
 

timmy17

Member
They're both connected via DVI? Have you got 1 connected to your graphics card and 1 connected to your motherboard or something?

I'm not sure what you're saying here. You're saying that if you click "extend these displays" things only show on the primary monitor. But then you say you can see and click things on the second monitor.

It's not very clear what end result you are looking for?

Just drag the window over. If it's a game, you can often tell the game which monitor to display on in the game settings.

Thanks mate

My computer has this graphics card:

Nvidia NVS 315 1GB graphics card, which is a pro card with a single DMS-59 port

Then i have a DVI splitter cable attached to that DMS-59 port which i then use two seperate DVI cables to run to each monitor

So on the first monitor, right now, i can see windows and all the icons on the left hand side (chrome, firefox, recycle bin etc)

On the 2nd monitor, i see none of the icons and only the taskbar at the bottom

This is in "extend display option"

So is the only way to get something on the 2nd screen to drag it across from screen one?

Can i, for example, download "malware bytes" and have that icon ONLY show on the 2nd monitor and only work when i move my mouse to the 2nd monitor and click on it?

Or is it ALWAYS a case of having to drag thing over from the first monitor to the 2nd monitor and then working on them that way?

Because, at the moment, i have chrome + firefox pinned to the task bar, so when i am on the 2nd monitor and i double click chrome, it opens the page on the first monitor until i drag that whole page across. Is it not possible to get that chrome page to open on the 2nd screen when i am clicking it there?

Also, Do all the downloaded programs only ever stay on the first monitor as well?
 
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Oussebon

Multiverse Poster

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
If you drag an app to the second monitor, it should stay on that monitor so next time you open it it will default to displaying on the monitor you dragged it to.
 

timmy17

Member
That's how it works

But see: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...n/ebc1d56d-8b75-47d4-91b8-64ea71cc206a?auth=1

If you download them to the desktop, the desktop is where they go...

You can try things like Displayfusion if you want

Thanks

I was actually reading that article you sent a link for last night already. It seems like this is a known windows 10 problem then?
It's really frustrating that you can't just get a program like google chrome to open in whatever screen/monitor your mouse is located in and for the program to always open there.

I will have a look into displayfusion but from that article it didn't seem like it worked very well
 

timmy17

Member
If you drag an app to the second monitor, it should stay on that monitor so next time you open it it will default to displaying on the monitor you dragged it to.

Thanks

Yeah, i had a play with this last night. If i drag the chrome icon/app onto the 2nd monitor it will stay there but it also removes it from the first monitor. So then im stuck with it only opening and working on the 2nd monitor unless i drag it back.

It all seems very limited

Somebody else said i can do what im looking for in "TASKVIEW" but I'm not sure how that works, i did watch a video on it last night, but couldnt understand it's benefit in regards to what i want.

I always thought, with a dual monitor set up, it was like having two desktops on each screen and whatever i wanted to open just depended on whatever screen my mouse was located in and it would just open the program there. Seems alot more fiddly doing it this way!
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks

Yeah, i had a play with this last night. If i drag the chrome icon/app onto the 2nd monitor it will stay there but it also removes it from the first monitor. So then im stuck with it only opening and working on the 2nd monitor unless i drag it back.

It all seems very limited

Somebody else said i can do what im looking for in "TASKVIEW" but I'm not sure how that works, i did watch a video on it last night, but couldnt understand it's benefit in regards to what i want.

I always thought, with a dual monitor set up, it was like having two desktops on each screen and whatever i wanted to open just depended on whatever screen my mouse was located in and it would just open the program there. Seems alot more fiddly doing it this way!

All multiple monitors means is you have one desktop stretched over multiple monitors. Windows operation remains normal, it’s up to you how many instances and where they lie.
 

timmy17

Member
Thanks mate

I have realised this now. Dual monitors is just like having one big desktop. I thought it would make each monitor almost act like its own desktop

Whats more annoying is that programs always open on the same screen and not from the screen the mouse cursor is in at the time, still can't get my head around why we can't do that. Seems like something easy to do and obvious.

Oh well, i guess it just can't be done!
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Bit of a necro here. Just advertising the blog?

It's also a smart idea to check reviews on expert websites, like PCmonitors.info
 
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