So... yeah... I'm addicted to multi-monitor usage now.

[wolfwings]

Current work layout is generally quad-head at this point, the two 22" 1680x1050 screens from my company workstation, another of the same driven by my laptop, and my laptop's internal screen, those two VPNing in from inside the building over the DMZ wireless link; initially over my cellphone tethered over bluetooth.

I'm enjoying it enough I started to seriously consider buying the advanced dock for my laptop for home use, then I re-checked my old figures... and my jaw proceeded to hit the floor. Undocumented features of the T61p model:

• The DVI port on the Advanced Dock supports DVI-DL on this video chipset
• This video chipset supports 1xDVI-DL to 2xDVI-D splitter cables to drive two screens
• This video chipset supports single video modes up to 8192x8192, most cap at 4096x4096
• This means the Matrox 1xDVI-DL to 3xDVI-D splitter boxes could be used with 3x1680x1050

So... um... in theory if I do get the advanced dock, and the $180 video card with the same exact chipset as my on-board video chipset and 2xDVI-DL ports, my laptop could drive a six-screen configuration by itself. And that's before considering trying to hunt down Matrox 1xDVI-DL to 3xDVI-D converter boxes. And said dock works with the next (current) generation of ThinkPad's as well, though I'd possibly have to swap video cards depending on what's on-board 3 years from now.

Or I can just say 'forget all that' and buy the mini-dock for $150 or so, and 'settle' for only 3 screens. =^.^= That's definately the more sensible choice... but this really puts into perspective just what a $3500 'portable workstation' laptop is capable of, even if I scored mine for only around $2500 with almost a better warranty than my car has.

Comments

[vyl.livejournal.com]

I run a quad-screen setup, all hooked to a single PC. It has two video cards. In a nice contrast, they are an 8600GT and an old 6200.

The leftmost screen is usually used for IRC. Right is a VNC session to my server for linuxy stuffs.

Center is also the KVM-connected screen I can use as a larger display for my tablet when it's in the dock, but usually it's just for the PC.

[uplinktruck.livejournal.com]

Just three screens? Lordy, lordy, how are you planing to get by?

So I have to ask how do you keep track of all three monitors at one time?

[vyl.livejournal.com]

Practice.

And headaches.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

Nah, no headaches from non-synced refresh rates. One of the joys of LCD. =^.^=

[vyl.livejournal.com]

No, the headaches come from trying to keep track of so much activity at once... I'm really into multitasking.

Keeping track is easy.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

The extra monitors are mostly to keep various monitoring and testing applications loaded when working on software, such as having all three major browsers up and running while working on a website, so I can visually glance between them, see how they compare.

Or if I'm testing a game, I can have the source code on one screen, and the old and new versions of the game running on the other two.

It's less "constant use" of all three, and more convenience to monitor multiple stages or aspects of a process while leaving one screen uncluttered to focus on actual work being done.

Six, I entirely admit, would generally be showing off. I make regular use of 3 at work, 4 I sometimes have a use for, there's a couple people here at work that make good use of 5 almost constantly.