Dual Monitors with Laptops | The Coffeehouse

JeremyJ
The pioneers would be appalled!

I am trying to set up development laptops with docking stations. I want to be able to have 2 external monitors that are both hooked up with DVI.

For some reason I thought this setup would be common but my initial search has come up empty. I haven't been able to find a single docking station that supports dual DVI outputs.

This seems odd to me because it is easy to find a laptop video card that has dual DVI outputs.

Has anyone tried a setup like this or may know of some products that would allow me to accomplish this?

bhamdeveloper

I was thinking that you could push two analog monitors with a single DVI output and a splitter. You could use a cable like those found here.

Could save you some time anyway.

Simo
With me it's a full-time job.

It's not a docking station as such but are the Matrox products DualHead2Go and Triple Head2Go of any use?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/gxm.cfm

JeremyJ
The pioneers would be appalled!

I am really looking for dual DVI because analog on an LCD is not as crisp as I would like it. Money is not a real concern because it is not my personal machine but for my development team at work.

MB

The Matrox devices are currently the go with this... and gets rave reviews.

Basically... the box tells your computer that you have a huge screen connected... and it then breaks out to multiple monitors.

MB

Of course... depending on the capability of the notebook and/or docking station... and if money truly is no object...

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/tech_info/pdfs/RGU_whitepaper.pdf

Might be worth a look.

They have have an express (pcmcia) adapter available.

JeremyJ
The pioneers would be appalled!

The Matrox device takes an analog output and turns it into 2. I am looking for digital (DVI).

jwignall

I use a Dell D/Dock which has one DVI port and then plug a Matrox G550 DVI PCI card in the expansion port on the dock to give two DVI outputs.

Total cost was about £400 (er $600ish?) at the time.

Obviously only useful if you have a Dell but this setup has served me well for a couple of years no problem. Only one (small) downside is you can't hot-undock but I very rarely want this functionality.

Clifford

I know this is a bit old of a topic... but... don't jump on me.

Frequently I use laptops with the internal monitor open + an external monitor, giving the semblance of dual monitors.

I did try the Dell with Dock with dual port PCI card. It crashed something... I don't remember what, but I ended up re-imaging.

However, The IBM/Lenovo/Thinkpad "Advanced Dock" supports a full PCI-Express Slot.

Somewhere I saw an article about running the Advanced Dock with Quad Monitors.

I believe that it could also be cobbled together with the Dell 30" Monitor to provide truly spectacular graphics (I haven't tested it, but theoretically it should work).

Check out the articles:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=7429843&Main=7407680

http://www.tradersworld.com/computers/ThinkpadT60pwithAdvancedDockingStation1.htm

Oh,

There are also some PCMCIA Adapters that you could look at. But, personally, I'd go for a native dock solution.

http://www.digitaltigers.com/sidecar-fxelite.shtml

And, of course,
The Apple MacBook Pro's all support the Apple 30" Cinema Displays.

smartgirl150

I just got a docking station from dell with a Dual monitor option. TWO DVI-D ports. However, my monitors are DVI-I. I had to purchase some DIV-D to DVI-I adaptors. Cheap on ebay. I still am not sure I will be able to hook them up correctly. Please if there is anything special that I have to do with my Latitude E6400 from dell and my dual monitors, please let me know. i was hoping I could just plug it in.

Thanks