Comments on: Mac Setups: 5 Screens & a MacBook Pro

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:32:01 +0000

What is holding up the MacBook? I have a similar set up with three 19″ monitors. I need it for health informatics, so much easier with three monitors.

By: MEDDAH Julien

MEDDAH Julien — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 10:25:34 +0000

Four USB-to-DVI DisplayLink adapters are in use here, but because of USB they’re quite laggy when it comes to animations and videos (I’ve disabled Spaces switching transitions for example). One of these may be good enough for your projector, it maxes out at 1920×1200 (or 2048×1152) and it’s quite cheap.
I can’t think of other solutions for your setup (neither Matrox XXXHeadToGo nor VIDock eGPU would do), but if you can get another Mac (or PC) around you give Teleport (or Synergy) a try.

By: AppogeeTim

AppogeeTim — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:41:41 +0000

@MEDDAH Julien – what hardware are you using to drive all of those displays? I have a non-ThunderBolt iMac that I’d like to use to drive a 24″ Wacom AND an HD projector at the same time. So I’m thinking that what you’re using might do the trick.

By: MEDDAH Julien

MEDDAH Julien — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:39:13 +0000

@Mac Paul
Software Development

@Steve Ballmer
You’d need three 1920px wide monitor to match the width of this setup (5*1152×2048), and as @The One Behind You pointed out, it will be only around half as tall. Plus there’s all the wasted space when in landscape, at least from what I’ve experienced.

@Joseph
Thanks for noticing, but this is not the space I use the most so I have a bit of a free room in this one to waste. I do spread my main app on all five monitors in the other space.

@Casper
So I can always have one at arms length. It doesn’t really matter (to me) if I use one of the two ten times more than the other.

@Wolf
The Magic Mouse is for colleagues, most of them aren’t accustomed to a left-handed mouse. I do use a single mac (with 4 DisplayLink adapters) and I might add more input sources in the future. Even if I had other machines to control, I’d rather do that with Synergy or derivatives

By: Wolf

Wolf — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:04:35 +0000

I count four input devices – two track pads, one Magic Mouse, and one third party mouse. If that MBP is powering all five monitors, why would it need four pointing devices? Seems like a bit of overkill, unless they’re controlling auxiliary machines.

By: The One Behind You

The One Behind You — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:15:40 +0000

@Steve Ballmer

nope.. in landscape with 2 monitors the height would be smaller.

By: Casper

Casper — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:47:04 +0000

Why would he use 2 magic pad’s?

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:58:12 +0000

Full screen Activity Monitor? lol

By: Steve Ballmer

Steve Ballmer — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:40:03 +0000

Listen this is just stupid. Stacking two monitors side by side in landscape orientation would achieve the same objective.

By: maccase

maccase — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:38:44 +0000

congrats on buying five monitors

By: MacPaul

MacPaul — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:03:27 +0000

For what use? None at all, except for bragging.

By: Gerky

Gerky — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 02:30:37 +0000

That’s excessive but I’d love to geek out with that