Matrox DualHead2Go...other options?

[Matt Bowden]

Just got a long term contract job and I am purchasing a few things to make editing easier. I'm buying two Dell Ultrasharp U2410 monitors. I am editing on a late 2011 macbook pro and am looking for alternatives to the Matrox DualHead2Go to connect both monitors to the laptop. Any ideas? I'd like to keep it relatively "inexpensive" $300 or so since I'm dropping $1000 on monitors....any ideas?

[Johnny Friday]

I've got the 2410 and do not like it...in fact i prefer my older 2407wfp Not sure of any other options for dual display from your laptop and cost....i run with a matrox mxo2 LE the box and take on the go...but more more expensive. but i do think the 2410 is way over-rated....and i switched my dual monitor to the 2407 as main display as it seems to have better colors. For monitors there really is no way to go cheap ive found after doing same for years.....i finally broke down and went with an FSI monitor....but via the matrox works nice. Good luck

[Matt Bowden]

@Johnny...that's disappointing! I've heard nothing but great things about that monitor. Anyone have any other options for no more than $500 a piece. I def. do not consider this price range to be cheap at all. Not everyone can afford to spend $5,000 for a monitor like an FSI. I live in a small town, do smaller projects, and get smaller paychecks. To me $1000 for two monitors is a S&$%# load.

The matrox mxo2 looks nice but might be a little overkill for my needs atm. I just need something that will allow me to extend my desktop over two monitors with at least 1920x1200 on each.

[Matt Bowden]

bump?

[Mark Holmes 7]

Matt, Sapphire have a product called the Vid-2X which sounds like it will do what you want. DP (miniDP) input and output to two DVI monitors ...... max 3840 x 1200 (1920 x 1200 x 2) Price is currently around $189 from NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814999036) so fits your budget requirements too.

Any reason why you don't want to go with the Matrox offering ??

Oh, and I run a Dell 2410 monitor and love it :-) Crisp, clear, plenty of inputs and didn't cost a fortune .....

[Richard Tran]

Matt, Sapphire have a product called the Vid-2X which sounds like it will do what you want. DP (miniDP) input and output to two DVI monitors ...... max 3840 x 1200 (1920 x 1200 x 2) Price is currently around $189 from NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814999036) so fits your budget requirements too.

Any reason why you don't want to go with the Matrox offering ??

Oh, and I run a Dell 2410 monitor and love it :-) Crisp, clear, plenty of inputs and didn't cost a fortune .....

Interesting.
Another option is buy a usb external monitor adaptor / $60 macsales.com, and just run another off your MDP.

Or do both, and you could potentially have 4 screen real estate.

[Mark Holmes 7]

The problem with the USB adapters, whilst a cheaper option, is that they are effectively a 'software emulation' of a graphics card and therefore hammer the CPU massively. The Vid-2X will make use of the GPU to drive the extra screen real estate so application performance will be better all round.

[Rick Allen]

What is the performance like of the DualHead2Go? Does it calibrate well?