Chris Baxter
09-18-2008, 03:00 PM
<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1218660595.usr18870.jpg" border="0" alt="Figure 0" title="Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition" width="400" height="300" /><br /><strong>Product Category:</strong> Video Hardware<br /><strong>Manufacturer:</strong> <a href="http://www.matrox.com" target="_blank" title="Matrox Website">Matrox</a><br /><strong>Where to Buy: </strong><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomethoughts-20/detail/B000QRTHX8/102-5174205-8838556" target="_blank">Amazon</a> [Affiliate]<br /><strong>Price:</strong> $215.30 USD<br /><strong>System Requirements:</strong> Single VGA output connector, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows XP-64 bit, or Mac OSX 10.4/10.5, Display driver supporting 2048 x 768 or 2560 x 1024 resolution, and Powered USB connector.<br /><strong>Specifications:</strong> Dimensions: 10cm x 14cm x 32.cm, Weight: 235 grams, and Connectors: HD-15 (analog) x 1 (input); DVI-I (digital) x 2 (outputs), USB.</p><p><strong>Pros:</strong></p><ul><li>Easily connects two monitors to a PC or laptop;</li><li>Quick and easy setup;</li><li>Powered from USB port.<br /></li></ul><p><strong>Cons:</strong></p><ul><li>Pricy;</li><li>Limited resolution support with some Intel graphics chips.<br /></li></ul><p><strong>Summary:</strong><br />Have you ever seen those movies or TV shows where the main characters inevitably have to go see the IT guy or the neighborhood computer guru and he has a cool setup utilizing multiple displays which he uses to show off his super hacking skills? Have you ever thought it would be neat to run more than one display or would just like to put that old monitor back into use again but don't know how? Well Matrox has the answer for you in the form of their DualHead2Go Digital Edition Graphics Expansion Module. It allows a PC or laptop with only one VGA output to connect to two monitors. That is pretty cool, right? So now you may be wondering how easy it is to setup and just how well it actually works. Well I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on one to play with and I can answer those questions and more. <MORE /><br /> <br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>It's All in The Box!</strong><br /></span>When you first tear into the box of your brand new DualHead2Go Digital Edition GXM you will find the following:</p><ul><li> DualHead2Go Digital Edition Connector Box;</li><li>A 2-foot HD15-to-HD15 (analog) monitor cable;</li><li>A USB Cable;</li><li>A CD-ROM Containing Matrox Powerdesk Utilities.</li></ul><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1219863457.usr18870.jpg" border="0" alt="Figure 1" title="DualHead2Go Contents" /><br /><em>Figure 1: Packaging and contents for Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition GXM.</em><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>First Impressions</strong></span><br />At first glance the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition is not an impressive sight: it's a plain looking black box, a little smaller than a paperback book, with a bunch of connectors protruding from it. Given its impressively long name I would have expected something a little flashier or futuristic looking, especially when you weigh in the $230 price tag. However when you look at it from a practical point of view, who cares? It’s most likely going to be stuffed behind a PC or a pair of monitors anyways, so it’s not like you are going to be staring at it 24/7. Regardless of physical appeal, it does look very functional in a kind of barebones, no nonsense kind of way. The question remains, however, just how functional is it? Beautiful or ugly, if it cannot perform the job it was designed to do then looks really don’t matter, do they? So let’s continue on and find out just how well this device does its job.</p><p><PAGE /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Putting it All Together</strong></span><br />So how easy is it to hook up? Very easy! There are four connectors on the DualHead2Go Digital Edition box. These four connectors consist of two DVI connectors on the top and a VGA and USB connector on the bottom. The VGA and USB ports connect to your PC with the supplied cables and the DVI ports connect to your monitors with cables that you have to supply. This should not be an issue though, because most DVI-capable monitors come with an DVI cable. If your monitors support VGA only, you will have to use DVI to VGA converters, which are not included with this product. When you are finished hooking it up, just turn on your computer, insert the CD, and follow the on-screen instructions. That’s all there is to it! One thing I would like to point out is that there was no quick installation guide included with the product. Most products these days come with a quick set of instructions focused on getting you up and running right away and then include the full manual in electronic format on a CD or as a download from the web. For me this did not turn out to be an issue because I have had a lot of experience with hardware installs in the past and was able to figure it out pretty easily. But I can see this being an issue for people who do not have a lot of hardware experience or are nervous around technology in general.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>The Software</strong></span><br />So let’s take a look at the included software shall we? The Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition comes with the Matrox PowerDesk-SE software. This software features a few utilities that let you control and customize your dual monitor experience. The first utility is the GXM Setup program. This program allows you to easily switch between the supported display modes for your video card/monitor setup. The DualHead2Go can be programmed with up to four different display modes at a time. The GXM program lets you choose the four you want from a list of resolutions that the box can handle. Another feature of the GXM program is that it allows you to adjust the image quality if something seems off or blurry.</p><p>The next tool is a Desktop management program that lets you customize how things behave with the new dual monitor setup. For example you can set it so that if you maximize a program, it maximizes in the monitor it is on instead of across both monitors. This is handy if you want to have programs open side by side or if you want to organize your open windows by monitor. You can also specify where and how dialog and message boxes pop up on the display, how programs open initially, how to display PowerPoint slide shows, and if windows will snap to the edge of the display.</p><p>The last tool lets you setup the desktop divider. It has three options to you can choose from:</p><ul><li>Default settings;</li><li>Custom settings;</li><li>Automatic settings.</li></ul><p>This tool lets you set how the overall desktop image is divided amongst the displays. The default settings option sets things up with a 1:1 ratio of width to height. The custom settings option allows you to manually set the width to height ratio be whatever you want it to be. The automatic settings option sets the display up with a 2:1 ratio of width to height. The automatic settings option is the default choice for the program and seems to work best for most setups.</p><p><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">The Test Drive</span></strong><br />So everything looks good on paper, but how does the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition perform in real life? To find out I tested the device over a couple weeks with two different configurations. Configuration number one consisted of a Dell Optiplex GX520 PC and two 17" Dell LCD monitors. Getting it set up, as described above, was a snap and the software installed without a problem. The GXM setup program launched automatically and presented me with the resolution choices that were available to me. Here I encountered a little surprise, as the GXM utility was telling me that a screen resolution height of 768 was the best I was going to be able to do with my current setup. The video card in my PC easily supports resolution heights above 768 and both Dell monitors have maximum resolutions of 1280x1024. I am a high resolution kind of guy; I like running my displays at the highest resolutions they can support, so I found this inability to set my vertical resolution above 768 disappointing. After a little research on their website I discovered that the DualHead2Go Digital Edition doesn't support resolutions above 1024x768 with some Intel graphic chips, which is what my Dell uses. So, using the GXM utility, I set the box up with four resolutions of 1024x768 and below all with different refresh rates.</p><p>After a quick reboot I used the GXM utility to select one of the 1024x768 resolutions and my desktop appeared across both monitors. The way this works is by letting the PC think it is outputting a resolution of 2048x768 to a single monitor; the DualHead2Go Digital Edition then splits that signal into 1024x768 for each monitor yet continues to let the PC think it is dealing with only one display. This allows you to have the look and feel of one large widescreen monitor yet easily lets you maximize windows per one display or the other. You can also maximize a window over both displays. As an example, I could have Outlook up and running all the time on the right hand display while working with Word and other programs in my left hand display so that I always see new email as it comes in. If I want to look at a wide spreadsheet, I just open it up over both displays. Despite my obvious disappointment at the screen height limitation, I have to say that the image displayed across both screens is very sharp and crisp. The image quality is very impressive, especially given the fact that the LCD monitors are running at resolutions below their optimum.</p><p>My second setup consisted of a Dell XPS M1210 laptop and the same Dell monitors I used with the Optiplex. The overall experience was pretty much the same with a few exceptions. When I first hooked the DualHead2Go up to the XPS and turned everything on I noticed that it was still using the resolution settings from my Optiplex setup. Luckily since this was a laptop I was able to turn off the output to the external displays and run the GXM utility on my single laptop display. Sure enough, the resolutions that I had picked for the Optiplex were still set. So that told me that when I had set those initial 4 display modes they had been programmed into the actual box. After choosing four new display modes and rebooting, I was able to turn my external display output back on and everything was fine.</p><p>Since the box is actually programmed with the display modes it definitely makes it kind of a pain if you want to easily swicth between different PCs and monitor setups. I don't really see this as being that big of a deal because most people probably won't be switching between multiple configurations. Now, because my XPS utilizes an NVidia graphics chip, I was able to run the monitors at a higher resolution, specifically 2560x1024. Much better! Being able to run at a higher resolution with the XPS was so much nicer for me. Adding my laptop display into the mix as a third monitor was easy to accomplish but In the end I went back to the dual screen setup simply because my laptop display is 12.1 inches in size and just does not seem right mixed in with the larger 17 inch size of the other two. To me, when dealing with multiple displays, the overall effect is better when they are all the same size. Other than the differences in display resolutions and my small issue with moving the box between different PCs, the overall experience of using the DualHead2Go Digital Edition with both setups was pretty much the same and very positive.</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1219863473.usr18870.jpg" alt="Figure 2" title="Laptop Setup" /><br /><em>Figure 2: A typical setup using two monitors and a laptop for three displays.</em></p><p><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Conclusion</strong></span><br />To wrap this up I think it is fair to say that the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition is a great, easy to use product. The only real gripes I have with it are the price and its lack of high resolution support for some Intel graphics chips. With a price tag of $230, if you are looking for a dual monitor setup for a desktop PC, I would recommend buying a cheap low end secondary video card and let Windows itself handle the task of managing multiple displays. Windows is actually very capable of doing this. If, however, your computer happens to be a laptop or slim profile desktop with no room to add another video card, then I easily recommend the Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition, it's easy to setup, it flawlessly renders video across multiple displays, and has a good set of tools to help customize your experience.<br /><br /><em>Chris Baxter is an IT Professional and part time Web Designer who resides in North Aurora, Illinois. Playing video games, watching movies, or reading a good book are what occupies his time when he is not fixing computers or trying to get his hands on the latest gadgets.</em></p>