Best Solution for Using Multiple External Monitors with a Laptop

Do you have any VGA, DVI, HDMI outputs on your Laptop? I used my friend's laptop for a while when I had to build a new PC and I was able to use my 2 monitors at the time via HDMI and VGA. All you do is simply attach them, turn the monitors on and hey presto.
 
On my present laptop I have VGA only. I am using it with 1 external monitor.

However, I am about to buy a new laptop. I own three external monitors, 2 with both VGA and DVI, and one with VGA only. It would be nice to use at least 2 of them with my laptop. Alternatively, I am considering buying one big external monitor for productivity. Any thoughts anyone?

Also, when I choose a laptop, what do I look for in the graphics card to make sure it can cope well with the use of external monitors? i.e. be able to nicely set resolution on each monitor. Or do I use an external graphics adapter/box thingy to hook the monitors up?

Thoughts please guys.
 
All you need to do is to simply connect the monitor up to the output of your laptop and that's it. As you already connect a monitor to your laptop then you already know how to change its resolution. It doesn't matter if you have 2 monitors or 100, just simply go to the Windows Screen Resolution options and select "extend desktop to this monitor" and set the resolution as you please.

As you have VGA and DVI only then you might have to purchase a DVI to VGA adapter or an HDMI to VGA adapter. As the resolutions won't be that high on your monitors (I assume they're 4:3 (1280x1024) then with a new laptop it won't have any issues running the resolutions at all.

I used to have to take my laptop into the office a few years ago and there were two spare monitors I wanted to use, it was simply plug and play and the resolutions I ran them at were 1920x1080 and there wasn't any problems at all, so on a new laptop you'll be fine.

May I ask what's the laptop you are looking at? Also what is the resolution of your monitors? I would most likely think that you will only have a dual output (HDMI and DVI) on newer laptops.
 
So you're saying a laptop will come with a DVI out and an HDMI out, and I can connect up both to give me two external monitors plus the laptop monitor?

On my monitor I run 1600x900 or 1280x720. I have another similar monitor, plus an older one of lower res. I used to have a Matrix Triple Head Digital, but I found I couldn't run two monitors with the high resolutions I wanted, even though the monitors could do them. I'm guessing that was a limitation of my laptop's graphics card not being able to support that many pixels??? What do I need to check for in graphics card of new laptop?

I'm currently looking to buy two laptops. One for me, and helping my sister to choose one.

Sister = £350 to absolute max of £500
Me = £500 to £800 if I think it's worth it.

Thanks
 
Not all laptops come with a DVI and HDMI connector, you will need to check the laptop on what outputs it allows, but yes your Laptop screen will be the primary and your other monitors will be extended to. It's one connector per screen. Most laptops will only have a single header so if you want to use two monitors then make sure it has two.

What you want to look for on the Laptops are these:
  • Display Port
  • Mini Display Port
  • HDMI
  • Mini HDMI
  • DVI-D
  • DVI-I
  • DVI
  • VGA
Any combination of these will be fine though if they don't have DVI then you will have to purchase a cable that converts from whatever the above is in the list to DVI/VGA.
 
Thanks for your reply.

So, are you saying that if a given laptop has say a DVI port and an HDMI port, this will definitely allow we to use two external monitors plus the laptop monitor at the same time?

Do I have to check that the graphics card is capable of dealing with the total resolution necessary to support the two external monitors?

Thanks
 
Varsh said:
Not all laptops come with a DVI and HDMI connector, you will need to check the laptop on what outputs it allows, but yes your Laptop screen will be the primary and your other monitors will be extended to. It's one connector per screen. Most laptops will only have a single header so if you want to use two monitors then make sure it has two.
Click to expand...

When my laptop is docked at work it's on the left, with 2 monitors to the right. I actually use the left monitor (middle screen) as the primary screen. The laptop doesn't have to be the primary monitor. :)
 
True true, I forgot to add that in. You can also have the laptop screen not used too, but then that would be a waste of space. :D
radderfire said:
So, are you saying that if a given laptop has say a DVI port and an HDMI port, this will definitely allow we to use two external monitors plus the laptop monitor at the same time?
Click to expand...
Yes. If you have two DVI monitors and you have an HDMI output on the Laptop then you will need to get an HDMI to DVI lead or adapter. If it has a Display Port output then it would be a DP to DVI adapter, if they were VGA monitors then it would be HDMI/DP to VGA, etc etc. All of these leads are common and widely available everywhere. These for example:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=1929&catid=1756
Do I have to check that the graphics card is capable of dealing with the total resolution necessary to support the two external monitors?
Click to expand...
Pretty much all modern laptops (even the cheaper ones) can handle 2x 1080P screens without any problems, so the resolutions of your monitors are not going to be a problem even in the slightest.
 
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