Laptop supporting dual screen output

mrcheez

If I'm buying a new laptop, but require that I can use two external monitors with it, what sort of video card am I looking at?

Would a €1000 laptop feature one of these cards or is budget normally higher?

_Kaiser_

Pretty much any recent-ish laptop should support this I would think, but you'll need to connect your monitors through a dock - either mechanical (eg: business-oriented laptops from DELL, Lenovo etc with docking ports on the bottom) or USB

As an example, I have a DELL E5270 here connected via a USB 3.0 dock that is driving 2 24" monitors. Works fine with an older gen E7250 as well.

mrcheez

Thanks, when you say "mechanical" what do you mean?

As in 2 HDMI outputs?

EDIT: sorry I see you mentioned a dock


Can 1 HDMI output serve 2 monitors using a splitter, or just USB 3?

srsly78

Avoid splitters and converers. Modern laptops should have display port or mini-DP. Make sure monitors also have this. Also note resolution of monitors, don't expect to drive multiple 4k ones.

Modern laptop with skylake+ cpu can drive multiple external monitors without discrete graphics card.

mrcheez

How does this quadcore i5 look?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/acer-aspire-6-156-laptop-black/340616/396.0.0


I need to buy from a B&M for various reasons I can't go into


Machine will be used for development, Visual Studio etc, so more cores are better, but doesn't necessarily need gaming power.

mrcheez

or this (has SSD for faster booting)

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/asus-k501uq-156-laptop-grey/332638/396.0.0

or this i7

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/dell-inspiron-15-5000-156-laptop-black/334949/396.0.0

mrcheez

reckon any of those 3 laptops fit the bill?

Alanstrainor

mrcheez wrote: »

How does this quadcore i5 look?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/acer-aspire-6-156-laptop-black/340616/396.0.0


I need to buy from a B&M for various reasons I can't go into


Machine will be used for development, Visual Studio etc, so more cores are better, but doesn't necessarily need gaming power.

mrcheez wrote: »

or this (has SSD for faster booting)

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/asus-k501uq-156-laptop-grey/332638/396.0.0

or this i7

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/dell-inspiron-15-5000-156-laptop-black/334949/396.0.0

The first Acer has a good processor, but I wouldn't expect it to feel particularly fast with that slow hard disk. But perhaps for your needs it would suffice.

The Asus (a good brand), but it's outdated. Processor is 2 generations out, and dual core. I think and 8th gen is worth it. It also doesn't have an SSD, despite what it says. It's more of a hybrid drive, Asus did this with laptops for a few years. It means Windows uses a 16GB "SSD" as a cache drive. Windows can store some information and apps to allow it to load quicker, but the reality is that it is nowhere near a real SSD in use. I should say that I have one of these systems, it's fine, but an SSD would be 10 times quicker.

That Dell is just wildly over priced. Old processor, slow storage and a poor graphics card. Dell online have the more recent iteration of this machine with a 8th gen i7, 128GB SSD + 1TB drive, and a GPU for 849, without the GPU it's 679. I know you need to buy quickly and in a shop but that is just ridiculous.

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5570-laptop

paddydriver

mrcheez wrote: »

If I'm buying a new laptop, but require that I can use two external monitors with it, what sort of video card am I looking at?

Would a €1000 laptop feature one of these cards or is budget normally higher?

I've been using the Dell "E" series Latitude for many years and they have dock connectors but Dell are now stopping the use of the traditional dock connections on the bottom of the laptop. The same Latitude numbering conventions being used but they have removed the "E" from the name. They are now using "Thunderbolt" based docks which connect over USB-C and you can run power, KVM, network etc via one cable.

I wouldn't look anywhere other than the Dell Outlet for great value on laptops - you can regularly get really high spec laptops for circa 50% off and often there are other additional daily discounts available.

mrcheez

I need to stick to B&Ms unfortunately.

PC World / Harvey Normans etc

mrcheez

Any thoughts on this machine for a grand?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/acer-swift-3-sf31452-14-laptop-silver/340861/396.0.0

Only SSD but 256GB should be enough for dev machine, plus it has 8GB RAM and i7?

mrcheez

mrcheez wrote: »

Any thoughts on this machine for a grand?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/acer-swift-3-sf31452-14-laptop-silver/340861/396.0.0

Only SSD but 256GB should be enough for dev machine, plus it has 8GB RAM and i7?

Torn between two options now... the one above (Acer) for €999 and this one (HP) for €480: https://powercity.ie/product/471763

Acer above has:
Intel® Core™ i7-8550U Quad core (1.8 GHz / 4.0 GHz)
USB Type-C

HP has:
Amd a6-7310 quad core (2.0ghz - 2.4ghz)
USB 3


both have 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM.

Alanstrainor

mrcheez wrote: »

Torn between two options now... the one above (Acer) for €999 and this one (HP) for €480: https://powercity.ie/product/471763

Acer above has:
Intel® Core™ i7-8550U Quad core (1.8 GHz / 4.0 GHz)
USB Type-C

HP has:
Amd a6-7310 quad core (2.0ghz - 2.4ghz)
USB 3


both have 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM.

I think you really need to tie down your requirements. You have a low-mid level machine and a mid-high. Those AMD processors are crap enough, certainly not comparable to the i7-8550u. Yes they are both quad core, but the benchmarks of the intel chip have it twice as fast.

It's also worth considering that I would expect both machines to feel very different. HP would likely be quite cheap.

Finding machines in a B&M shop can be painful, I had a look and couldn't really find anything that I would spend 1K on...

mrcheez

Thanks. Decided on the Acer. I'm assuming 256gb is sufficient for VS plus SQL Server Lite etc. Can always add a thumb drive.

TerrorFirmer

Keep in mind that the actual physical outputs available on the laptop dictate how many displays you can connect. The integrated graphics on that CPU can drive multiple displays.....but if there is only a single HDMI you will need a dock or adapters.

mrcheez

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Keep in mind that the actual physical outputs available on the laptop dictate how many displays you can connect. The integrated graphics on that CPU can drive multiple displays.....but if there is only a single HDMI you will need a dock or adapters.

Yeah so I reckon I could feed one monitor from the HDMI, and the other monitor from the USB Type C using one of these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thunderbolt-Cable-Benfei-Adapter-Gold-Plated/dp/B01NH500RV/