Thinkpads Forum

I would like to purchase another monitor and setup dual monitors to my x60 tablet running vista business. Im thinking of purchasing the Matrox Graphics DualHead2Go http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo ... me.php#gxm

My question is, What determines if you use the Digital or Analog setup. I have not purchased my second monitor yet. Im thinking of some type of 19 or 20 inch widscreen. Any recommendations?

Will my x60 laptop support 2 external monitors? I believe the max resolution is 768 x 1024.

If you have a dual setup, how is yours setup? What brands/types of monitor do you use.

thanks

The Digital model has DVI connectors and the Analog model has VGA/D-Sub connectors. Most decent monitors these days will have both. When buying a monitor, DVI is the preferable connection. I would recommend Samsung LCD monitors.

Why?

Just get a 42" westinghouse LCD which will take a VGA connection and run at 1920x1080p. Use anydvd and now you can watch HD-dvd's / blurays as well.

ymarker wrote:Why?

Just get a 42" westinghouse LCD which will take a VGA connection and run at 1920x1080p. Use anydvd and now you can watch HD-dvd's / blurays as well.

A 42" display does not accomplish the same goals as a dual-monitor system. First of all, if one were going simply for size, why not get a 24" LCD that runs 1900x1200? It would be easier on the eyes than trying to use a large television as your computer display. In any case, getting dual monitors gives you a more flexible workspace than just having one, even if the one you have is very large or high-resolution.

In general, I think two 4:3 displays offer more flexibility than one large widescreen. I've seen references in other forums to utilities that help make multiple window management on widescreens easier. However, multiple window management on dual displays is what everyone's used to since windows size to their respective display. Two 4:3's also allow you to have one screen in traditional landscape and the other swiveled to portrait mode. Viewing pages in portrait mode is almost like reading sheets of paper.

At work I use two 17" 4:3 screens in 1280x1024 mode. One in landscape one in portrait. When I view pdfs in full page mode, the page is just a tad bit larger than an 8.5"x11" paper, with little wasted screen. At home, I use two 20" 4:3 screens (Planar 2010M) in 1600x1200 mode. When viewing pdfs in full page, portrait mode, a single page looks enlarged, to say the least.

Gotta be honest, I think the two 20" screens are a little too big, especially since they only sit 2.5' from my face. I couldn't find a 19" in 1600x1200. I've pivoted a widescreen before, and didn't care for the wasted screen space.

At home, my main desktop is currently connected to both monitors via the DVI connections. I hope to soon consolidate space and connect my server to the VGA of the left screen, and then have my laptop connected to the VGA of the right screen. With a KVM, and selective use of the DVI/VGA input controls of the monitors, I hope to be able to pick and choose which combination of screens to computers I want to use at any particular time.