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Connecting 2 External Monitors to a Laptop?

I'm interested in hardware solutions allowing 3+ monitors on a laptop. I'll describe my setup below - it's not ideal, though, and I'm looking for alternatives.

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marked as duplicate by TheTXI Jul 19 '09 at 1:10


look at the related column to the right ==> this has been asked before ;-) –  fretje Jul 18 '09 at 19:38
Basically the same question: superuser.com/questions/656/… –  Albic Jul 18 '09 at 20:27
Voted to close. Duplicate. –  Diago Jul 18 '09 at 22:04
Why did you continue your question in an answer? –  raven Jul 18 '09 at 22:05
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6 Answers

Matrox's DualHead2Go. And for three monitors there's TripleHead2Go

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With a laptop you don't have a lot of options. Two monitors are easy; just plug an external monitor into the VGA/DVI port and use the laptop's display as a second monitor.

Beyond two you'll have to use something like Sitecom's USB to VGA adaptor. From the reviews I've read, they will work well enough for doing just about anything but gaming (or other things which stress the video card similarly).

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You can get laptops without screens:


  1. You can add in new cards to support lots of screens
  2. You can replace/mix&match screens


  1. Also a detached keyboard/mouse setup
  2. Bit larger case
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Sorry - what? Laptops without screens? –  Herb Caudill Jul 18 '09 at 19:50
@Herb ... Not really getting the written joke there :P –  Aiden Bell Jul 18 '09 at 19:51
To be fair Aiden, it was very subtle. But I like subtle, so +1! –  avstrallen Jul 18 '09 at 20:12
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You could buy a new ThinkPad W700ds. It looks like it can support multiple external monitors and includes an extra pull out screen on the laptop.

The ThinkPad W700ds features a retractable 10.6" screen that expands the display area by 39 percent. Dual-screen functionality enables users to work in multiple applications simultaneously without switching views, for enhanced productivity.

The ThinkPad W700 allows you to connect up to two high-resolution external 30" monitors via next-generation DisplayPort technology and dual-link DVI digital interfaces, providing clearer, crisper images and a larger viewing area.

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I have a HP8530 with three 22" (1920x1200) monitors connected, in addition to the laptop's monitor which is also functional. I use the built-in DVI output for the middle of the 3 external monitors, and two Tritton SEE2 Extreme USB-to-DVI units for the other 2 monitors.

Drawbacks of this arrangement:

  • USB-to-DVI is slow; there's a significant lag when moving stuff around on the two monitors connected by USB.
  • I have to turn off Vista Aero effects because the USB units can't handle it.
  • On the two monitors connected by USB, I can only have 16-bit color depth.
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Another alternative is the Sidecar docking station made by Digital Tigers. This looks really promising - it's an external dual graphics card connected via a PC card - but it did not work at all on three high-end laptops that I tried it with (Dell XPS 1730, Sony Vaio AW150, HP EliteBook 8530w), even after hours and hours and hours of attempts by Digital Tiger's head of support to get it working.

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