Adding an external monitor to a laptop?

efeezy

efeezy

Well-known member
Oct 5, 2007
5,249
136
63
51
My wife has an Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop that she wants to add an external monitor to, to use in conjunction with the laptop monitor.

What I'm wondering is is there any constraints on what monitor size and resolution I can use with this laptop based on the native screen resolution of the laptop itself. I don't want to get a monitor that won't work when in dual monitor mode and have a funky stretched out screen resolution.

I haven't done this before with a laptop and I know many of you guys have. Any suggestions would be great.

Here's the laptop specs. Dell Inspiron 1720 Specs - Laptops - CNET Reviews
 


I just set my laptop a few weeks ago with an external monitor.

The only thing you will need is a HDMI cord (thats what I used) to connect the monitor to your laptop. Then, open display options and you can play with the resolution of the monitor. My laptop screen has a resolution 1366 x 768 and on my monitor its 1920 x 1080
 
efeezy said:
What I'm wondering is is there any constraints on what monitor size and resolution I can use with this laptop based on the native screen resolution of the laptop itself. I don't want to get a monitor that won't work when in dual monitor mode and have a funky stretched out screen resolution.
Click to expand...

as long as the video card can output the monitor's native (or a reasonable) resolution, you'll be fine. took a look at the laptop specs, you'll need either:

Male VGA to Male DVI cable
Male VGA to Male VGA cable

im not really sure, but i'll assume that a VGA to DVI cable can't 'upgrade' the quality of the signal so either way you'll be operating on VGA quality.
 
Great thanks. I'm going to go with a 23" widescreen. I think that will work well.
 
According to the pdf docs for the Intel graphics media accelerator x3100. which is what that spec sheet you linked to said it has as the graphics processor.

The GMA 3100 supports a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 through VGA.
Click to expand...
So whatever monitor you buy has to be at or below 2048x1536 max resolution and it'll work just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom