regarding your monitor - dunno, probably some setup option in your graphics drivers..

Your SSD - let me guess, it's brand new ? In that case, it doesn't contain any partitions/volumes. Therefore, you cannot see it in Explorer. Instead, rightclick "My Computer" and choose "Manage". Click down under "Disk Management" and you will find a list of your physical drives, as presented to your OS by your hardware. (in case of raidoptions and stuff)

Now, find your SSD in the list, initialize it and create a partition or volume as needed. After formatting this, it will be available in Explorer, with the driveletter you assigned. You can easily change the driveletter, if it messes with any network drives, cardreaders or similar.

Some people might tell you, to just do a "quick-format" - DONT!!!! EVER!!! DO!!! THAT!!! - at least not if you want performance. A quickformat just enables the partition, and gives it the right amount of sectors. It doesn't actually write the sectors on the drive. This is then done later dynamically, when you add data to the drive. So everytime you write to a new part of the partition, it has to format the sectors. And you end up with a drop in performance. Do a full format, and let it take the time it takes.