Vostro 1520 with external monitor

Hi, I'm looking to buy the Vostro 1520. When in the office, I want to connect to an external monitor (which I haven't bought yet, so can be flexible with size), probably a 22" 1680 x 1050. I am using this for text work, e.g. financial applications, spreedsheets etc, not games or multimedia. My requirement is to be able to have several apps open at once with their windows open side by side across the screen.

I contacted Dell online support this morning and asked if this was possible with the built-in Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD video card, they said, "The onboard graphincs card would not be sufficient, I would recommend you to choose the 256 MB graphics card to do the same". He continued, "we have had customers not very happy with the on board graphics when connecting to external monitors requiring higher resolution".

I think he's referring to the 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce 9300M GS Graphic Card that is a £60 upgrade option.

I have no experience with this stuff but have spent hours looking at websites, Intel etc and am thoroughly confused. The Intel website says that the X4500MHD video card will support vga monitors up to 2048x1536. Can anyone enlighten me to what is going on here? I'd sure appreciate it!
Matt

 

Dell reps are generally considered to be technologically incompetent. The 4500MHD has no problem running dual monitors at 1920x1200 each. The 4500MHD supports two DVI monitors at 1920x1200, or two VGA monitors up to 2048x1536.

I've tried it.

For desktop application work, ANY graphics card out today will be able to handle this kind of configuration without a problem. Any card supporting dual link DVI will also be able to handle single or dual 2560x1600 monitors no problem.

The only time a graphics card really matters now is when using applications that utilize 3D rendering (games, CAD, etc).

 

Wow, that was quick! Thanks very much for your advice, it's good to know this is possible - and without spending another £60!
Regards,
Matt

 

Happy laptop hunting. Let us know if you need any more help!

 

OK, thanks to your help I decided to buy the Vostro 1520 with the 4500MHD card a while ago and it's working well for me. It's now time to buy the external monitor setup.

What I need is as much screen height as possible, so a monitor that replicates the 900 pixel height of my laptop display would be of no advantage to me. I see that monitors of 1200 pixel height are generally more expensive, but I found the Samsung 23" SM2343NW 5ms LCD TFT for £150 which is my preferred budget. This has a resolution of 2048x1152 which is almost as good. It has a 15-pin d-sub connection which I believe is what my laptop has.

Firstly, I've read about "native resolution", will my laptop work at 2048x1152 native resolution? I think this is 16:9 aspect ratio. Does it matter that my laptop works at 16:10 ratio? I would ideally want to use the laptop display to display other stuff to the main display (i.e. extend the desktop). Will this work?

Secondly, I am limited to VGA monitors or should I consider getting a DVI one? Would I need a USB to DVI to do this? I don't use this laptop for playing games, my use is for financial apps, spreadsheets etc.

Lastly, should I consider getting 2 external monitors and use them in portrait orientation side-by side? That would give loads of height! Would I need a usb adapter for the second monitor?

Thanks for any advice you can give.