Monitor Setup

I normally use my laptop hooked up to an old Dell 18'' monitor when I need an additional screen, usually for trading; also porn. I like to have vids on one screen and a pic slideshow on another. I just plug the VGA cable into my laptop's VGA port. My sister just got me a 26'' monitor for my birthday.

Does anyone have a link to a guide on monitor setups? I'd like to be able to have both of my monitors and my laptop going at once, but I don't know how to go about it as my laptop has only one VGA port.

And the more monitors you have, the more sensitive your mouse becomes, right? So if I have ~3 monitors horizontally, wouldn't my mouse be really sensitive horizontally, but not as sensitive vertically? How do you combat that? I imagine people with 6-9 monitor setups have the hand steadiness of neurosurgeons.

Also, at my internship, people had this thing they plug their laptop into and it allows them to close the screen and keep the laptop running, but hooked up to several monitors. I just had a single shitty laptop to work shit. How would I accomplish this setup? Ideally, I'd have my home monitors and a keyboard and mouse, and I would only have to open my laptop on the go.

I'd love to be able to do that for when I watch movies and stuff, so that I could do that on the 26'' monitor without having to move my laptop out of the way and closing the screen just enough where it doesn't register that it's closed and I have to see a strip of glowing screen out of the corner of my eye as I watch Star Trek: Into Darkness.
-------------------

I've been sort of obsesses with monitor setups since I visited a top Chicago market-making firm. They have the most baller setups I've ever seen.
I almost got shot in the face when I took out my phone to take a pic of the stack of books one of the guys had on his desk...lol

Oh, also, how much do additional monitors strain your CPU?
I have an HP Envy dv6 (INTC i5 processor, 750GB HD, 8GB RAM, 1.9 GHz A-Series Quad-Core A8-4500M).
Can this thing handle 3-4 monitors running like 6 tabs in Chrome, OptionsHouse, Oanda, TOS, Excel, sometimes a torrent client, and sometimes VLC Media Player?

General monitor/desktop setup thread as well. Post and discuss your setups!

6 Comments
 
Best Response

A lot of the things you referenced are just settings on your laptop. I believe under your power controls you can set what occurs when you close your laptop. You can make it hibernate, sleep, do nothing, whatever. Has nothing to do with your hardware hookup.

Same holds true for mouse sensitivity. This is a setting in your control panel.

Also, consider hooking up your second monitor with an HDMI cable. Your monitor and laptop do have an HDMI slots ... right? Once it is hooked up, right click on the desktop and go to "Screen Resolution." From there you will be able to not only position your monitor configuration, but also change the resolution on each. Check it out.

If your processing power isn't enough to support the monitors, you'll see the screen freeze or perhaps lag intensely. I think it would be tough to watch an HD movie on your 26" while simultaneously doing stuff on the other two monitors. That's outside my area of expertise though. Goodluck.

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A lot of the things you referenced are just settings on your laptop. I believe under your power controls you can set what occurs when you close your laptop. You can make it hibernate, sleep, do nothing, whatever. Has nothing to do with your hardware hookup.

Same holds true for mouse sensitivity. This is a setting in your control panel.

Also, consider hooking up your second monitor with an HDMI cable. Your monitor and laptop do have an HDMI slots ... right? Once it is hooked up, right click on the desktop and go to "Screen Resolution." From there you will be able to not only position your monitor configuration, but also change the resolution on each. Check it out.

If your processing power isn't enough to support the monitors, you'll see the screen freeze or perhaps lag intensely. I think it would be tough to watch an HD movie on your 26" while simultaneously doing stuff on the other two monitors. That's outside my area of expertise though. Goodluck.

Yeah.

When a plumber from Hoboken tells you he has a good feeling about a reverse iron condor spread on the Japanese Yen, you really have no choice. If you don’t do it to him, somebody else surely will. -Eddie B.
 

I don't think a laptop can handle more than 1 output. I used to hook my laptop to an extra monitor, but it never worked when I inserted an HDMI cable as well.

Just do what I did and invest in some high quality parts to build your desktop tower. The process is actually pretty easy and neat to know that you put everything together. I've only got a dual monitor setup, but there's plenty of setups that can output onto 4+ monitors. It just depends on the type and number of video cards you have installed.

 

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