Jaysi Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Hey guys, So I found some monitors from my campus surplus store (19" and 20" for $5 each, but vga) and I'm trying to connect BOTH to my laptop. I was trying to find a cheap way to have both monitors and my laptop monitor working with different screens. Worse come to worse, I would accept having just the two monitors working and either my laptop screen off or mirroring. What are the cheap methods to do this? I've seen some devices that will do this but they cost $150-300... I'm looking like under $50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EterNity Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Unless your laptop has duo output, it will not work. Unless your laptop is high end, it is not recommended. Unless you just want to do minors of your main screen, it is not achievable without a considerable amount of budget and gadgets. Darkr 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkr Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Never go VGA. Ever. Also, check how many monitors your graphics card supports. Mine supports 6 (yeah!!!) Windows 7 64bit can support up to 32 as far as I'm concerned. No way you can do it with VGA. Go with DVI. That's the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EterNity Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Duo monitors is no use for most of people unless they are intended to look cool or nerd one way or the other. The most legit use I see in the field are for graphic designer, programmers, and in hospital. I've tried to use second monitor as mini map but the tunnel vision gets the best of me. Most of the game does not support duo monitors the last one u tried is Commander and that was 3 years ago? It is just too much work for nothing and running on a laptop is just not ideal. Get a proper PC will be the money best spent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaysi Posted December 15, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Hmm... Well i've checked my graphic card specs (Intel HD 3000) and figured out that it does only support 2 monitors. I guess I will just settle for mirroring on one monitor and extending to the other. Thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamantium Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Duo monitors are great Eternity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EterNity Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Duo monitors are great Eternity. I don't like it personally. I ended up having 2nd computer and a 3rd laptops on my desk. Why spit the computing power when you can just have two machines! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamantium Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 I love having a monitor hooked up to my laptop. I often watch TV on one while playing a game or doing work on the other. While I could do that on separate machines, not only is that way more money but I like having that unified experience and being able to drag things around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adversary Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 I don't see a problem with having 2 monitors, whether you want to be browsing the internets on one screen and playing a game on the other, it really isn't a problem. Just gotta plug it in and try it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adamantium Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Never go VGA. Ever. Also, check how many monitors your graphics card supports. Mine supports 6 (yeah!!!) Windows 7 64bit can support up to 32 as far as I'm concerned. No way you can do it with VGA. Go with DVI. That's the best. I use VGA. Why no VGA? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EterNity Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 VGA is subjected to noise. DVI is newer but still has flows. HDMI is currently the best and support 4k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martY Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 (edited) I've been running dual monitors for at least 8 years at this point and I'm probably never going back. I browse on my 2nd screen and use it as a quick reference for my calendar, 3 days worth of weather and clock. At work, emails/IMs are up on one monitor 100% of the time while I use my other one for research. As far as what kind of cable to use: VGA isn't bad per say, but you get substantially more noise at higher resolutions (which these days is pretty much the standard). Like right now at work, I'm running identical monitors, one VGA and one DVI. At 1440x900, I'm seeing a little bit of blur on my VGA monitor while my DVI one remains crystal clear. I could reduce the noise if I just lowered the resolution on my VGA monitor, but who wants to do that :) Anyway, at home I'm strictly on DVI at my desktop w/ HDMI for the TV. DVI and HDMI give you pretty much the same quality, so it's really a matter of what your personal preference is, what cables you have available and what devices you're trying to hook up. Play with it and you'll come up with something you enjoy. Obligatory plug for r/battlestations EDIT: Apologies, I never answered the original question. A reasonably cheap USB dock would probably solve your problem, but you need to be careful and pick the right one. And don't buy a VGA --> Dual VGA splitter. That will only allow you to run a mirror setup, which really gives you no benefit. Edited December 16, 2014 by martY Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaysi Posted October 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 So I recently bought a USB dock from plugables off Amazon ($90) and it has allowed me to use tri-monitors with my lab top and 2 additional monitors. Sadly, now that I am out of school I probably have no need for them... lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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