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What kind of ports does the laptop have and is this even possible? What would one need in terms of ports/graphics card to run 6 monitors on a single machine?
You won't find a laptop that can natively, but if you're set on the idea, make sure you've got a laptop with at least 2 video out ports, multiple USB 3.0 ports, and 16 gb of ram. Next, buy 2 USB 3.0 displaylink adapters, make sure the ones you pick have 2 display outs. I use the Lenovo USB 3.0 displaylink hub
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi...-/154457216955?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
DO NOT daisy chain the hubs, performance won't be great as it is, and daisy chaining them will only make it worse.
Yes, by 2x2 I meant 2 docking stations, each having two video outputs. Unfortunatrly, I don't have a good recommendation. I only use these at work: a laptop-specific HP docking station and a Targus one: both dual display. Thyy gert the job done, but there are niggles, so I would look for something else personally.
Basically the docking stations have built in display adapters allowing for multiple displays to be used. The port replicators just extend the signals from the main source.
I bought and used one of the USB3 adapters with multiple devices to run dual monitors and you can connect multiples as long as you have the ports to do so. Each DS has 2 display "ports" depending on the model you choose whether HDMI / DVI / etc. These come in handy when you're using something highly portable like a Surface or iPAD as your main "computer" but need more screen real estate than a 10"-13" screen.
This is all under the assumption you want 6x different desktops and not just expanding the image across 6 screens. For extending your desktop across multiple displays it's a different approach / hardware.
How would a person use 6 monitors effectively? Watching movies from 30 feet away? I can't imagine an ergonomically correct arrangement sitting at a desk. Anyone with a limited range of neck motion or cervical pain issues would be in a real pickle. Anyone that didn't already have a problem with neck pain might develop such a problem.
One monitor in front, probably the most used, two at the sides, angled - no ergonomics issues there, plus 3 monitors on top, slightly angled downwards - meant to show ancillary info that's glanced upon from time to time. As you say, one wouldn't want to stare at the top row for too long. The nice thing about this setup is that it naturally organises your workspace. The downside is obviously the lack of continuity between the screens, so extending windows across screens is a bit awkward.
I use three curved monitors for work and spend at least 8 hours a day using them. It is better than two for many reasons. The extra work space is amazing and I use it 100% of the time. Having the primary display in the center is ergonomically superior to using two displays. It also minimizes the annoying distraction of the seams when gaming in Surround mode. I do not like using Surround mode on the desktop at all. You really need the center display to be primary. I also find productivity is better without Surround mode. It is easier to use each monitor for something different without Surround. I can drag Excel across the width of all three screens when I need to view that many columns, so that is very useful.
An instance that comes to mind would be an emergency dispatcher.
Another use would be systems monitoring while working on projects. In networking we use multiple systems for monitoring different metrics in real time to spot issues quickly. There are other options such as a program to flip through the different monitoring systems on the same display though to consolidate things into one focus point. 2-3 monitors though is more typical for working day to day using primary / project / monitoring.
It's mostly case specific though for each person / org as to how many screens are needed to keep up with everything.
Nice. I use a single 43" 4K monitor. It's great since I can seamlessly use the entire 4xFHD desktop if I need to, which is the case all the time, but would consider a curved model now, since the outer corners are somewhat less comfortable to look at.
Yes, I can see those applications. Like the movies with security staff monitoring rooms and hallways in buildings on an array of monitors taking up an entire wall. Those are usually an array of smaller displays. It would be easy to miss something important if the activity on one screen captures your attention. You almost need more than one person to keep tabs on all of them to avoid missing something serious.
Motion activated systems make this easier to trigger a particular camera to take priority on the main monitor. The scenes in movies are old technology where you needed a monitor for up to 5 cameras through a mux to switch between them. You still want multiple people monitoring systems though for both viewing more feeds but also redundancy in coverage in a secure setting along with keeping an eye on those keeping an eye.
A little late to this party, but I use 6 displays attached to my Alienware Area 51m pretty regularly without using any external GPU or displaylink powered hub nonsense.
In terms of how I use the displays, my four primaries consist of two stacked ultrawides in the center and two portrait displays on the sides. The two supplemental displays are a large confidence monitor (for viewing my OBS output whenever I'm streaming or recording) and a Wacom Cintiq. The built-in display is disabled when I'm docked.
As much as it pains me to see some of the negative changes going on at alienware, a few of their recent devices like this 51m are the only ones that work for my setup. They route the dGPU to external HDMI/mDP ports and keep the Intel iGPU enabled only to route its outputs to the thunderbolt port and NOT the internal display via Optimus. It allows for very niche uses like running 7 displays natively from a single laptop, using the Nvidia dGPU in a headless configuration for CUDA/data science applications, running MacOS with the Intel iGPU, plus the benefit of connecting additional GPUs via the graphics amplifier port/thunderbolt port.
In many ways, the area 51m is the best mobile workstation I've ever owned. Too bad it looks like AW intends to sacrifice it to the soldered and throttling gods of this thin and light craze that shows no signs of abating. Such a huge disappointment. When I finally need to upgrade, it will probably need to be to a two device, ITX + laptop solution instead.
I reviewed
this a long time ago, as you can see with the 4:3 aspect ratio monitors used in the photo. Supposedly you can do up to six monitors, but they're limited to 2048x1152 resolution.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
