Mobility with 6 monitor capabilities (laptop or small form case)

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KuJaX

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I would like to start a discussion concerning mobility and multiple monitor configurations. I have a client that is in need of a six (6) monitor capable mobile unit. He flys around the country and does presentations and live shows of what he sells. He was leaning more towards a laptop rather than a desktop with a micro-size case because he said that he doesn't feel comfortable taking the micro-case with him everywhere with the fear of having something come lose inside of it. He said he just feels more comfortable with a laptop based system.

He needs the capability of running six (6) 24 inch monitors. I am sure five 24 inch monitors and the laptop screen would be suffice, but he is really leaning toward six 24 inch monitors and the laptop screen (essentially 7 screens total). I don't know of any solution that fits this profile right now. He also needs cases for the 24 inch monitors to protect them during the road trip or airline flights.

He mentioned a few times about IBM and a dual core processor. I am unaware or unsure exactly what he was talking about there. He said that it was planned to be released August 3rd.

Any suggestions, recommendations, discussions pertaining to this? :)
 
some sort of splitters is what I'm thinking of. I am pretty sure that no notebooks out right now will support 6 monitors out of the box, I don't even think there are any desktops that supports 6 monitors out of the box right now, most is 4 with 2 vid cards sporting dual dvi each. correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Well, I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to run each screen independantly (ie, each showing different information), it's relatively easy to have them all doing the same thing. Just find a active vga distributer.Like these ones here
 
Yes, each monitor has to have different output (different screen data on each monitor screen). This is obviously very capable with a desktop, but haven't ventured into the laptop world in doing this. Would love some more discussion.
 
um...maybe with a PCMCIA graphics card, but you are going to need to run at tiny resolutions to fit 6 screens through a single VGA output. An e1705 has a DVI too, which may be required. At this point in time, I dont see this as being practical through a single laptop.

You can run 3 screens off of one DB15 plug with that triplehead thing, but you are still 3 short. And its resolution limited as well.
 
First off any chance in hell of using like 2 or 3 notebooks if they are just looping stuff? Also do we need to full res of said 6 monitors(1920x1200)?

I'm thinking a 17 or 19 inch laptop with a matrox tripple head 2go and like 2 usb to vga adapters if you don't need 1920x1200 that most 24 inch screen will draw but I question how well the system would run using 2 usb adapters. Maybe throw a vtbook pcmcia video card or something. If you could get away with said lower res maybe a tripple head off the laptops external vga port and a double head off the vttech if it would support it(that would be a question for them).

This would be nice an expensive but I have seen some of the real expensive toughbooks(not panasonic but some other brand) that have an ability to attach a pci expansion base to them. You could add some video cards. I will try to look it up. I'll try to find out the brand later.

I'm pretty much getting to the point it may be possible but I think I well built pc would be a better choice.
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/th2go/home.cfm
http://powernotebooks.com/product.php?itemId=486

Edit:
http://www.stealthcomputer.com/portables_notebook.htm

That was the bad boy I was thinking of. You can get an expansion base that will give you 2 pci slots. You have to get 3/4 height cards which may be an issue but it should not be that hard to find a dual display card that will run 2 24 inch screens. Put 2 of them in and run the 5th off the laptop. If you could fit a matrox 3 way or 4 way video card in there you'd be set but if not 5 24 inch screens should work. Mind you this would be nice and pricey. BTW that stealthcomputer makes some heavy duty normal machines. They also make what they call a "StealthBOX" which is kinda a mix between a pc and a notebook. I have seen others that make these cheaper too but the names pass me. They may be the best bet. Anyway I hope I gave you some ideas. Too lazy to do more research tonight.
 
How's this:

You'll need
Two: Matrox triple head2 go
One: * ThinkPad T60, T60p, * ThinkPad Z60m, or Z60t
One: Thinkpad advanced dock
One: pci express card that fits in the above dock.

Whole system (less monitors) should cost under $4K


Ref:
Advance Dock supports: "One half-size PCI Express card slot - Supports half-size PCI Express cards, including graphics adapters that enable multi-monitoring"



You can do the same thing with dell, and may get more graphics Umph on the laptop, but the dell docks just support PCI not PCI express.
 
Or - laptop screen, a VTBook Video Adapter (powering 2 external monitors) and a triple Head 2Go powering 3 additional monitors off the VGA adapter on the notebook.

That would be 1 + 2 + 3 which last I checked was 6. Try to get a beast of a video card in your machine.....
 
Dell Inspiron M1710 or 9400 with two TripleHead2Go's. Both of these laptops have one DVI and one D-Sub/VGA port. Find out if it's DVI-I or DVI-D; if it's DVI-I, you can use a DVI-VGA adapter and you're set.
 
VTbook web site says it only supports horizontal Max Resolution
1920x1440, not enough for two matrox 2go 1024x768 displays.


Is that a limit of the DVI-I to VGA converter? If so the same would apply to DVI-I to VGA on the dell.
 
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