Monitors question.

[Gary86]

Is there anyway for a 2010 MBA to run two external monitors if the MBA lid is closed? What I would like to do:

Have two 20" Monitors on my desk and the MacBook Air closed sitting in the cradle I bought from Twelve South. I have a VGA adapter but that only connects one. Could I buy a splitter?

EDIT: Found this on eBay, would this work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-VGA-SPLITT...item3a7904a7c5

Thanks everyone.

[orangezorki]

No, all it will do is show the same image on two displays.

As far as I can see, the only way to use two displays with a Macbook Air, assuming you don't want a slow usb device, is to have a 2012 version, and hook up two Thunderbolt displays in series - pretty expensive!

David

[Gary86]

Originally Posted by orangezorki

No, all it will do is show the same image on two displays.

As far as I can see, the only way to use two displays with a Macbook Air, assuming you don't want a slow usb device, is to have a 2012 version, and hook up two Thunderbolt displays in series - pretty expensive!

David

Yeah, forget two Apple displays. Very expensive. So there is an option if I use a USB device? Could you elaborate?

EDIT: another option I'm looking at is a Mac mini. Could the new ones support 2-20/22" monitors. Not mirroring but for productivity.

[micrors4racer]

Originally Posted by Gary86

Yeah, forget two Apple displays. Very expensive. So there is an option if I use a USB device? Could you elaborate?

EDIT: another option I'm looking at is a Mac mini. Could the new ones support 2-20/22" monitors. Not mirroring but for productivity.

Yes you can use a usb to hdmi/dvi/vga graphics dongle and it will work but not very fast so playing videos and games on that monitor would be out of the question. But it should work for productivity.

And yes the mini does support dual monitors. Had a setup running 2 24inch displays on a 2011 mini before. You'll need a thunderbolt to dvi or vga or hdmi (whatever your monitor supports) and the mini comes with a hdmi (it also has hdmi built in if you wanted to use it directly) to dvi adapter.

What inputs do your monitor use?

[Gary86]

Originally Posted by micrors4racer

Yes you can use a usb to hdmi/dvi/vga graphics dongle and it will work but not very fast so playing videos and games on that monitor would be out of the question. But it should work for productivity.

And yes the mini does support dual monitors. Had a setup running 2 24inch displays on a 2011 mini before. You'll need a thunderbolt to dvi or vga or hdmi (whatever your monitor supports) and the mini comes with a hdmi (it also has hdmi built in if you wanted to use it directly) to dvi adapter.

What inputs do your monitor use?

They have HDMI/DVI and VGA ports. Thanks for all the info.

[skiborsy]

In a similar situation and been looking at one of these since they apparently have Mac drivers for USB 3.0. Can't find any reviews though. They also have a dock which looks interesting. http://www.j5create.com/our-products...ters-usb3.html

Hopefully DisplayLink makes Mac drivers soon so we get more USB 3.0 choices.

[wditters]

Originally Posted by Gary86

Is there anyway for a 2010 MBA to run two external monitors if the MBA lid is closed? What I would like to do:

Have two 20" Monitors on my desk and the MacBook Air closed sitting in the cradle I bought from Twelve South. I have a VGA adapter but that only connects one. Could I buy a splitter?

EDIT: Found this on eBay, would this work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-VGA-SPLITT...item3a7904a7c5

Thanks everyone.

You could always go with the Matrox DualHead2Go DP or ME editions. I use the DP edition with 2 x 24" Lenovo screens. Works fine! It gives me a 3840x1200 desktop spread over 2 screens, but the Matrox software allows maximising an application to one screen :-)

[Bigmacduck]

I have just installed a USB display adapter that works very well for my configuration.

The product comes from J5create
http://www.j5create.com/our-products...-adapters.html

My configuration is a MBA 2012 11" 1.7 GHz Core i5 with 8GB RAM operating an clamshell mode (display lid closed). On the mini display port I have a 27" Apple Cinema Display and on the USB port I have a HP w2408h (1900x1200) 24" monitor connected via HDMI cable to the J5create JUA 250 USB 2.0 HDMI Display Adapter.

J5create has USB 2.0 and 3.0 adapters with three different monitor interfaces:

• JUA 210 USB 2.0 VGA Display Adapter
• JUA 230 USB 2.0 DVI Display Adapter
• JUA 250 USB 2.0 HDMI Display Adapter
• JUA 310 USB 3.0 VGA Display Adapter
• JUA 350 USB 3.0 HDMI Display Adapter

I was first tempted to buy the USB 3.0 HDMI adapter instead of the 2.0 version, but the JUA 350 has higher CPU and memory requirements, so I decided for the USB 2.0 version. This works perfectly well with resolutions up to 1900x1200 for office productivity. I am perfectly happy with this one.

The installation of the driver was smooth and flawless, I had no issues at all. Just important to install the driver package and reboot BEFORE connecting the USB adapter for the first time.

If you would want to display video on the USB display then you would go for the USB 3.0 versions

BTW, the J5create states that the adapters should be connected directly to the USB port and not via a USB hub. On OS X two such USB monitors are supported. The products also run on Windows PC or Apple BootCamp where under Windows 4 such USB monitors are supported.