Dual monitors from a notebook

This weekend I bought a couple of these:

SIIG USB-to-VGA adapters

$39.95 at Fry's. Seemed to work okay.

SIIG works in Windows 7. Somehow I couldn't get the Diamond USB Display Adapter to work in Win 7, even after I downloaded their new driver from their website.

Anyway... $40 seems to be a reasonable solution.



http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=JU-000071-S1

 

Is there a lag? If so, by how long; a second or two?

 

Not sure. I didn't notice any but for my purpose such a lag would not be important or noticed.

 

We use Dual & TripleHead2Gos at work in IT (multiple server sessions, etc) and I use at home for trading. No performance issues at all. We've used with 32-bit XP, 32-bit Vista, 64-bit Vista, and 64-bit W7. I'm currently using this connected to a docking station, but it works equally well connected directly to the laptop.

The windows machine "sees" one giant monitor and a stretched across desktop (my 2 monitor is 3840 x 1200), but the Matrox software will allow you to interact with each monitor seperately from a maximize standpoint. You can either maximize to the entire 3840x1200 monitor or set it up to maximize a window to the one that contains the highest % of the window being maximized (1920x1200 in my case).

The only quirky behavior comes with docking/undocking and putting the computer to sleep. If you undock before the sleep command completes, when you redock (assuming you haven't un-slept since then), sometimes the matrox software doesn't startup. Everything still works, but it defaults to Maximize to 3840x1200 instead of "sensing" each monitor. It's an easy fix, uplug and replug the USB cable, and two seconds later it's corrected.

Aside from the docking quirk, this is a pretty bulletproof way to get 2-3 monitors on a laptop.

 

I use two Iogear USB-to-DVIs to drive two external monitors from my laptop (three externals total, plus the laptop screen):

http://www.iogear.com/product/GUC2020DW6/

I've used the same adapters with a couple different laptops over 3+ years with no problems or failures. Works with charts, video, etc. No problems in XP or Win7/64. I spent a long time looking for a way to drive multi monitors and couldn't be happier with this solution.

Do not get the USB-to-VGA version of the same, I had tremendous problems with it. I'm not surprised that some posters seem to have issues with USB-to-VGA cards even if from a different manufacturer.

I prefer this solution to the Matrox thing because the latter is expensive, and it seems like kind of a hacky solution. The USB cards are seen by Windows just as any other monitor (can be moved around in the display manager menu, etc.), and don't require any special configuration or attention beyond installing the drivers.

 

Specterx, is there a reason that you prefer to trade from a laptop?

 

Thanks for the info. Does your laptop have a discrete graphics card?

 

i use the EVGA usb->vga adaptors. i have 6 of them...i have used them everyday for the past 2 years, they work perfectly.

 

Thanks for the link! I ordered it, and will let you know.

 

I would appreciate feedback regarding how snappy this solution is.

Say, Remote Desktop from Microsoft tends to have very noticeable lag when scrolling with a mouse wheel.