Regarding closing the macbook with external display: You could take these steps to
avoid going to sleep and wake back up:
1) install
insomniax. When started it will display an icon in your menu. Select the first option of the dropdown ("Enable insomnia") to prevent your macbook from going to sleep when closing the lid.
2) Go to the displays preferences pane and check the checkbox next to "Show displays in menu bar".
3) Attach the external display.
4) Close the lid, the laptop will stay running.
5) Select the display icon in the menu and choose "Detect displays". Because the macbook's lid is closed, the display will no longer be detected thus only the external screen will be used.
Remarks:
1) You can still let the macbook go to sleep by using the menu or the insomniax icon.
2) Insomniax also gives you the possibility to hibernate ("go to sleep but write the contents of the ram memory to the hard-drive in order to not use ANY power anymore"). You could also use the
deep sleep widget for this purpose (click on it to hibernate).
@phobic99: I think you should check for yourself what you actually use each computer for and if you need them at the same time.
If you use your pc for small things you might want to use a vnc solution. I sometimes use
ultra-vnc server on my windows pc and
Chicken of the vnc on my mac to go on my windows pc from my mac. The interface looks a little bit like a virtual machine.
Teamviewer is also an option in this category (I use it to connect from outside my local network).
If you use your pc at the same time, dualscreen can be really nice. I use
Synergy to share the mouse/keyboard on my mac with my pc. This is a software-solution that goes over the (local) network (works fine over wireless) to send the "move commands" to the other computer. You can even copy/paste text. Use
SynergyKM as a preferences plugin on the mac.
If you use your pc completely seperated from your mac (for example pc for gaming, mac for work, never the 2 together) there's little point in having 2 big displays. Maybe you can use one to watch movies?
I have a stupid question. If I bought a MACBOOK or MACBOOK PRO - I know that I connect it to my monitor and use it in that manner. Is it possible to close the notebook and still use it with a separate mouse and keyboard without it shutting off? Thanks!
