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Penryn MBP + 2 external monitors help needed

S

skiffx

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 5, 2008
681
10
Hey, Im thinking about getting Matrox Digital Triplehead2go but the only thing thats stopping me right now is that Ive read on the forums that Matrox box will treat all monitors as one big one, and Id really want for the opposite for all displays to be treated separately (even something simple like being able to place different background on each one of them...) My current setup is 2.5 mbp 15" matte and I have 2 external lcds (24"& 19"). I might possibly add a 30" one within a year as well and if necessary will drop the 19". I do want to run all the displays at their max resolutions, as it comes to my understanding triplehead will allow right now. So I guess my question is whether or not there is any other products out there and is there a workaround for triplehead2go so all monitors are treated as separates.

Thanks in advance.
 
You're going to need a desktop (e.g. Mac Pro) for that many independent displays. The Matrox Graphics eXpansion Modules only do spanning.

Not to mention they're single link DVI at best.
 
Eidorian said:
You're going to need a desktop (e.g. Mac Pro) for that many independent displays. The Matrox Graphics eXpansion Modules only do spanning.

Not to mention they're single link DVI at best.
Click to expand...

are there any USB/FW videocards that perhaps could?
 
Eidorian said:
I believe that there are some ExpressCard based solutions that would be much faster.

You should be able to pull it off with DisplayLink once the products are out for OS X.
Click to expand...

any idea which expresscard based solutions are available that would work with mbp?
 
ya i would like to know also as to add it to my thread and when i add a 3rd monitor as either to replace or use all three
 
skiffx said:
Whats your current setup?
Click to expand...

mbp and a 17in monitor
i had purchased a 19 in a while ago but the screen was 1440 by 900 and it was clearly bigger than my 15in mbp screen but it made everything super big on the 19 so i returned it and kept my 17in crt monitor from 98 which works pretty well
 
ok I emailed a couple of vendors and they are all coming out within a month with solutions for mbp's to have external monitors setup either via expresscard or usb

first is ViDock Gfx http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/techspecs.html (expresscard)
second Sewell and Gefen will support macs as well within a 2 week period (both working on osx driver support right now and are in the beta stages) http://www.displaylink.com/shop.html (both of them are there, USB to DVI)

personally I think ViDock GFX will be the best solution since it will allow you to use 2 monitors with their max resolutions so if within a year you decide to get that 30" it will drive it no problem as well as your existing ones.

Matrox is not a viable solution due to the fact that it sees all connected monitors as one big screen.

So I guess within 2-3 weeks we'll all be able to use 2+ external monitors w/o any problems. I know there were a lot of threads on the subject matter, hopefully this will be the final resolution. :D
 
skiffx said:
ok I emailed a couple of vendors and they are all coming out within a month with solutions for mbp's to have external monitors setup either via expresscard or usb

first is ViDock Gfx http://www.villagetronic.com/vidock/techspecs.html (expresscard)
second Sewell and Gefen will support macs as well within a 2 week period (both working on osx driver support right now and are in the beta stages) http://www.displaylink.com/shop.html (both of them are there, USB to DVI)

personally I think ViDock GFX will be the best solution since it will allow you to use 2 monitors with their max resolutions so if within a year you decide to get that 30" it will drive it no problem as well as your existing ones.

Matrox is not a viable solution due to the fact that it sees all connected monitors as one big screen.

So I guess within 2-3 weeks we'll all be able to use 2+ external monitors w/o any problems. I know there were a lot of threads on the subject matter, hopefully this will be the final resolution. :D
Click to expand...

so your screens will and can be different sizes?
 
Hi all, I've been looking for the same ability for some time.

As I mention in my other post - I have a DisplayLink usb video adapter (the usb2dvi from gefen) attached to my MBP driving a 20" 1680x1050 display. It's still a beta driver, but it definitely works 'well enough' see my other post for more details.

:D

Jay
 
jayk806 said:
Hi all, I've been looking for the same ability for some time.

As I mention in my other post - I have a DisplayLink usb video adapter (the usb2dvi from gefen) attached to my MBP driving a 20" 1680x1050 display. It's still a beta driver, but it definitely works 'well enough' see my other post for more details.

:D

Jay
Click to expand...

Thanks, will check out, however right now my 19" lcd just went byebye on me, so Im going to end up getting a 30" LCD (in addition to 24" that I currently own) and the only thing to drive that is VTidock
 
UPDATE ON VIDOCK:

ear Sir,

Many thanks for your request.

We are proud to inform you that ViDock Gfx will be ready for delivery from May 5th 2008 !!


Due the huge amount of pre-orders, in case you still interested to get the product by next month a pre booking is strongly recommended.

ViDock Business $ 299
ViDock Pro $ 399
ViDock Mac $ 499


Waiting for your reply

Vincenzo Coccoli
Marketing Director


Mac version costs $100 more, and has 256MB of VRAM compared to the top line Windows one with 512mb of VRAM that costs $100 less, wtf?! What a rip-off ...
 
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