Getting Dell E6320 with I7 to work with 3 monitors at 1920x1080p x 3

laptopmultiple-monitors

I want to buy Dell E6320 which comes with Intel Core I7-2620M (2.70GHz, 4MB cache, Dual Core) with Intel HD Graphics 3000. Laptop will come with docking station. I want to connect 3 monitors to that docking station so that working at home would give me some additional boost. Docking station will allow me to connect only 2 monitors so I'm looking at following other options:

  1. Matrox TRIPLEHEAD2GO DIGITAL Edition or TRIPLEHEAD2GO DP Edition. But reading Matrox Support Page intel GPU can't run the highest resolution with 3 monitors connected, it even gets worse since it seems monitors would have to be able to work at 50hz. Also I'm not sure but it seems that Matrox doesn't split the monitors as 3 separate monitors but simply as one big space (which is a bit opposite to what I need)
  2. Buy 2 or maybe just 1 USB based monitor but it would also mean having 1 or 2 different monitors then the main one, unless I buy 3 USB based monitors which would mean more money to spend. Also I found only couple of models and most of them require USB 3.0 and no other cables to plug in (nice but costly – couldn't find decent monitor with only USB for sending signal and having power connected normally) . But docking station has only one USB 3.0 port. Can I use hub and still get it to work?
  3. Find some converters from Digital to USB (I think DisplayLink does some?)
  4. Buy different laptop but what kind? I need it to be I7, small (13"), fast and lightweight. At same time it requires docking station that I can use at home to connect 3 external monitors.
  5. Some other suggested solution…

Edit:

I need 3 monitors for work in terms of coding in Visual Studio or having word/excel/outlook open. Nothing fancy. Maybe some movie once in a while.

Best Answer

You did mention the possibility of an alternate notebook - with the docking station, this configuration will support a triple monitor environment:

Toshiba Tecra R840-S8440: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=514041

Toshiba Hi-Speed Port Replicator II: http://us.toshiba.com/accessory/PA3916U-1PRP

Guide to Triple / Quad monitor configuration for this notebook: http://support.toshiba.ca/support/TechSupport/TSBs/ALL/-TSB001574.htm

One caveat, you would have to connect one of your 3 monitors to the DisplayPort or HDMI port on your notebook, there is not enough bandwidth going through the dock connector to do all three - this is part of your Dell port replicator only supporting 2 monitors - the notebook shuts off it's on board outputs unlike the Toshiba which has enough oomph to power 3.

Lenovo also has a solution, if you get the T420s with Nvidia graphics and the i7 processor - you can have 3 monitors attached to their docking station:

Lenovo T420s: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?sb=%3A00000025%3A00002DC0%3A&smid=AA35DF77B594680023A04BD6BB1B6878

ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:ItemDetails?fCode=/catalog/product_detail.jsp&GroupID=38&Code=433830U&Name=false&from=builder&hide_menu_area=true&hide_ad_area=true

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