External Monitor for Macbook Pro 13"

[mercthunder]

Hi guys,

I am looking at purchasing an external monitor for my MBP 13". I was wondering will the performance of the laptop significantly reduce if i use an external display, and would 24 or 27 inch be best? I am looking at some of the low end 27 inch HDMI monitors such as AOC, Phillips or possibly a 24 inch that HDMI.

What would you guys recommend, and will i experience significant performance loss with an external display? I also have a 5 year old BenQ 22" monitor widescreen, and a Samsung 20" both of which have DVI inputs. I was looking to use a HDMI display for the added clarity, or would one of my 5 year old monitors be sufficient?

Thanks

 

[JamesGorman]

Id try them both. DVI will work just as good as HDMI for a monitor.

 

[mercthunder]

Id try them both. DVI will work just as good as HDMI for a monitor.

Thanks James, i will give them a shot. Do you happen to know if performance would suffer if i connected to an external 27 inch widescreen?

 

[ShoG]

So what do you think of the dvi screens? I am also looking for a new monitor via hdmi but I also have a dvi monitor that I haven't used with the mbp. I need to buy an adapter to use both so I haven't been able to check out the dell monitor lcd as I don't want to spend money on an adapter I won't use if I don't like the dell.

Are you going to use the apple store adapter? TIA

 

[kjs862]

i use an apple 27" display with my 13" mbp and don't notice any reduction in performance.

 

[BlueRibbon]

I use my mbp 13 with a 23inch HP monitor with 1920x1080 native resolution. It has HDMI, DVI and VGA ports. For some reason, when connected with HDMI, the monitor is recognized as a TV by MBP. I can choose 720p, 1080p, but not native resolution of 1920x1080, and things on the screen do not look very sharp. Eventually gave up and now use a DVI/mini-port cable instead and the monitor is recognized to use native 1920x1080 resolution. Everything is sharp.

This problem only happens on my new Lion though. My old C2D mpb with snow leopard connects with HDMI just fine. I don't think HDMI or DVI will make much differences in PQ, since both are digital.

 

[JamesGorman]

Performance wouldn't dip in normal tasks such as things likes web browsing or listening to music. Processor intensive tasks such as Video or photo editing should suffer any noticeable different. If you were planning to play games it could result in lost FPS (Frames Per Second) But if your not gaming you should be fine.