This triple head setup is too cool not be posted

[UtwigMU]

A friend who writes and researches a lot used to use 3 computers. Old 10y old laptop for playing music, Thinkpad R60 for writing and desktop with 17" LCD for research.

Once desktop died I suggested him 3 monitors instead of 3 computers. Setup is:
Thinkpad + Advanced dock
Radeon X1300 in advanced dock driving one HP ZR24w
onboard Radeon X1300 driving another HP ZR24w via DVI on dock

Performance-wise R60 is adequate for what he does, he just needs more screens to be more productive. It was cheaper to obtain used dock + videocard compared to new desktop or laptop. If Thinkpad dies, he can get R400 or R500 to use on dock or buy a desktop. Screens are LED so they are good for a few years.

[Umfriend]

Kewl! I like the desk as well.

[Jammrock]

I can't work on less than two screens anymore. Here's my work setup. Four screens across three video cards. Sorry for the bad lighting, I sit right by the windows.

[dZeus]

Did you find out why the HD 6450 did not work in the dock at the same time as the integrated X1300? Was it a driver problem (i.e. do you need the exact same driver version for both cards to work at the same time)?

[UtwigMU]

I didn't find out about the 6450 since I'm super busy and friend has already waited a bit since I assumed wrongly all monitors on the market have VGA input and at first I thought mini dock + 2 screens will do.

Then he also desired to have laptop open - onboard card can drive only 2 screens. So after waiting 2 weeks to obtain the dock, spending 2 days fiddling with dock, drivers, BIOS settings on my T60p I just bought X1300 listed online for 15 EUR. It worked right out of the box, back I went and finished assembling the setup.

With HD6450 it worked if I set BIOS to use PCIe but then onboard card would not get detected (I was trying this with T60p and FireGL - X1600 equivalent).

I read on forums how HD6450 should work.

If I started with onboard HD6450 would get detected but wouldn't start. If I installed AMD drivers (I also tried Asus drivers) the laptop would BSOD.

I didn't try the HD6450 with brother's T61 with nVidia graphics - the card would not get detected. I think the problem is that drivers aren't the same or at least I didn't find the way to make it work. For example with Matrox cards you had drivers for original Millennium even in the post Parhelia G-series drivers even if Millennium wasn't listed.


I like the advanced dock + multiple screens setup, so I may get one for myself but I have some other stuff higher on the IT budget.


Jammrock - nice setup, most developers at development company where I worked had desks similar to yours - corner desk, some roundy edges, different types of screens and one book. Other books and boxes used to prop up screens.

[Jammrock]

A good, inexpensive way to add monitors to a computer are DisplayLink USB graphics adapters. I've only used one on USB 2.0, but it works well. Sometimes I get lipsyncing if I watch video on that display and audio from another USB device, but otherwise no issues.

Just make sure you get one with a good amount of on-board memory. The more you have the less you have to go back over the USB link to update. 512MB per display seems to work just fine in my limited experience.

Newer ones are USB 3.0 capable, which I would assume would be even more responsive due to a larger pipe and better polling rates. They can even support multiple displays on a single USB connection.

http://www.displaylink.com/usb3/index.php

http://www.startech.com/AV/USB-Video-Adapters/USB-3-to-HDMI-DVI-External-Video-Card~USB32HDDVII