If you go with NT, you will be quite limited in your options re: multi monitor setup. That is because NT doesn't natively support it. There are only a few video card vendors that have created drivers that will do it, and they involve multiple PCI cards. So, if you go with 4 monitors, you will probably not have enough slots available, depending on what other cards you have in the computer. Diamond Vipers and some of Matrox's cards have the support for MM in NT. There may be others.
I would definitely recommend NT for stability, as I use it for my trading station, and it's a a world fo difference from the 95/98 model. Also, though others may disagree, I would advise 128MB of RAM, since streaming data uses an enormous amount of memory, and you'll probably have many other types of windows open simultaneously. NT has a steeper learning curve, but IMHO, it is the way to go. (NT 5.0 will supposedly support MM as 98 does, but it may not be released for a year, the way MS has been pushing the dates back).
If you decide on 4 monitors, one (or two) of the Appian or Colorgraphx cards might be the way to go to save PCI slots. Also, Matrox has just released (this coming week) their own MM card, so that's another one you can investigate.
All the MM drivers allow you to select whether windows will span one screen or both, and the same for maximized windows. Your windows, just as they do now, would also stay where you last had them, when you boot up. (Keep in mind though, that there are exceptions. Using two Vipers, for instance, I find that any Notepad type of file opens up spanning almost the entire horizontal space of two monitors. No matter how many times I resize them, they return to the other way. I'm told that this is how the program was written, before MM was thought about. Certain help files do the same thing. Many dialogue boxes also open up right in the middle, splitting both screens.(The 'dialing' box from DUN, for instance). Also, when installing programs, most of the installation sequence does the same thing, and you need to keep moving them over to read them and respond, etc. Also, at least in my case, browser windows only open in the place the last browser window you closed was in at the time of shutdown. Subsequent windows need to be put in their preferred place on the desktop).
Hope some of this helps.
Len |
