What is the ideal setup?

[Bauer418]

The only crappy thing with that is you have to deal with two different resolutions. Unless you have the WSXGA+ on your laptop.

[mattocs]

I planned on doing the same thing, but I ended up letting my wife use my external LCD monitor on her desktop, so she could run a dual monitor setup, and I just use my notebook like a notebook.

Good luck. I like your mockup. Looks nice.

[L.Rawlins]

The only crappy thing with that is you have to deal with two different resolutions. Unless you have the WSXGA+ on your laptop.

I've never found that to be an issue to be honest.

[msankadi]

Sorry I am not answering your question but i cant understand why u got the M1530 laptop if you wanted to have this setup...wouldnt a XPS desktop be a better option coz it iwll have much better specs+chepaer ??

MnVn

[psygn]

Thanks all for your inputs. I really hope the laptop can wake out of sleep mode from the keyboard. That would be a real bummer if it can't.

I may try the dual monitor setup, but does that honestly look nice when next to each other? 22" and 15"? I want to go with the mockup because I don't really care for a dual monitor setup when the difference in size is that large -- plus, I can imagine myself being distracted by it while doing graphics designs. But I can't say for sure as I haven't tried the dual setup myself.

Sorry I am not answering your question but i cant understand why u got the M1530 laptop if you wanted to have this setup...wouldnt a XPS desktop be a better option coz it iwll have much better specs+chepaer ??

MnVn

Yes, like I said in my post: I wanted a NOTEBOOK replacement and a DESKTOP replacement -- basically killing two birds with one stone. I like the slim form factor and looks of the XPS -- I don't do much gaming at all, maybe once in a blue moon, and if I do this laptop has more than enough power to run that game.

[Bauer418]

I have used dual monitors like that and I can tell you it got a little annoying for certain tasks, but it was cool for other tasks. It was convenient that I could have a text document on the 15" and be doing some graphic editing on the 20". The resolution was sort of annoying though, but it really depends on what kind of things you plan on doing. You could also just go get the dual monitor expresscard or USB adapter and have 2 22" monitors at the same res side by side .

[atbnet]

Thanks all for your inputs. I really hope the laptop can wake out of sleep mode from the keyboard. That would be a real bummer if it can't.

You can wake Vista out of sleep mode by pressing the spacebar. You just can't turn them on through the keyboard.

[Lord Egregious]

Here are the best pictures I could take with my crappy camera of my current setup. I use to have a 17" monitor next to the 20" but i moved it off when i got the laptop and moved the 20" over. They are nowhere near level or color coordinated. I use to keep the 17" fullscreen and my 20 at the same height and their resolutions width wise were near identical so it worked out well. I only use the 20" for instant messaging and for video playback while on the internet. And please not everyone die at once when they see the 20" monitor. It was the best I could do last year. Hopefully I can get a more legit brand 24" soon.