Expanding Limited Display Options With USB Video Cards

Just a quick note.

At work, I use a Lenovo T520 laptop which is a solid laptop for typical corporate use. I do demand quite a bit from it with a wide variety of productivity, business intelligence and database applications used on a daily basis. It should come as no surprise that I use an external monitor to enjoy more screen real estate alongside the built-in laptop screen.

Anyway, I have put an order in for a 27″ monitor (2560 x 1440 resolution) as my current monitor 22″ (1680 x 1050 resolution) is proving to be a little limiting. It’s done a good over the last five years since I first got it but my demands have grown over the years in line with the data, reports and dashboards that I design and maintain. However, I was toying with the idea of keeping my existing monitor alongside the new one and the laptop screen.

Unfortunately, the Lenovo T520 that I have is only capable of driving two displays (the laptop screen and one external screen). If it had an nVidia display adapter in it then it could have driven three (or even four) monitors without a problem. This means that a USB video solution would have to be used for a third screen.

I’m looking around for suitable solutions at present plus I will need to work out if my laptop isn’t locked down to the extent that it would prevent the use of a USB video output solution. I guess you will need to stay tuned to hear what happens!

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