How Hard Is It to Add 2 External Monitors to a Laptop?

[JohnnyHumongous]

I'd need a special kind of video card right? Is this something that can be easily added to the laptop at any time or should I really worry about getting it included when I buy a new laptop?

[astroglide]

you can get cardbus display adapters (expensive) and whatnot, but generally speaking this is not a remotely common situation and there are little ways to pull it off without a hack like converting your svideo out to dsub with an adapter and that sort of thing. if this is something you really want, look for esoteric brands that are purpose-built for this sort of behavior.

your best chance with standard stuff would probably be with a docking station/port replicator that might have dual video outputs, but you can't assume that just because something has dvi and dsub outputs that it will actually produce 2 separate displays. more often than not it's going to be 1 output signal with 2 choices of connection.

[astroglide]

www.matrox.com/graphics/dualhead2go

just received that press release, heh. NO idea on quality/behavior, but they do have a list of compatible systems.

[smoore]

neat product, too bad it only does XXXX x 1024

a bit expensive but this is the only way i've seen to do this. http://digitaltigers.com/sidecar-prohd.shtml

[smoore]

woh.... cool

yeah, too bad about that price... you could buy another 1600x1200 laptop and maxvista for that.

[FatTony21]

Much cheaper:

http://www.villagetronic.com/e_pr_vtbook.html

I use this plus the VGA port on my laptop to run 2 flatscreens at 1600x1200