Michael Tomlinson
The Best External Monitors For Laptops
Laptops are great – they are ultra-mobile, easy to use, and often cheaper than their desktop equivalents. The thing is, once you are sat at a desk and get working you can often feel the need for a little more room when it comes to your displays.
There are loads of reasons why you might want an additional screen for your laptop, but the big question is what’s the best external monitor for a laptop? Well, don’t worry, we’re going to try and answer then as best we can whilst giving some options perfect for different uses and tasks that might be more important to you than others!
Why Do I Need An External Monitor?
When it comes to the question of ‘do I need an external monitor’ the easiest way to answer is by thinking about whether you routinely run applications that stack up on top of each other, that can become overwhelming and stressful the more you have to switch between them? If the answer is yes, then it could be time to invest in an external monitor.
Another reason that an external monitor could be something you need is if you are working on your laptop, and find yourself having to switch between applications often in order to continue your workflow – an external monitor smooths out that process altogether, with a second screen to seamlessly work from or use as a reference.
Or you could be using your laptop for gaming, and you might need another screen for walkthroughs, monitoring a Discord channel, or even for running a streaming client. These are all valid things to want to run whilst gaming, and can be made so much easier with the use of a second screen. You might even want to run your games on that second screen – there are monitor options out there that allow for higher refresh rates and better color recreation, so there is every chance you can improve your laptops gameplay with a different external monitor.
Whatever the reason you are looking for an external monitor is, rest assured that there is an easy solution – and probably one tailored to your exact needs.
How Do I use An External Monitor?
The answer to this is ‘incredibly easily’. Just hook your monitor up to your laptop via the HDMI port and then head to your laptops ‘display settings’ to set up your external monitor just te way that you like it.
If you are using an external GPU, you can even use a Thunderbolt 3 cable to hook your laptop up to an external monitor, meaning that you can take total advantage of the possible boost in frame rate and graphical output on a monitor that might be able to display it better.
Basically, if you are worried about not being ‘technical enough’ to connect your laptop to an external monitor, rest assured that it couldn’t be easier.
The Best External GPU For Your Laptop
We all have laptops, we all love laptops – but what happens if (for example) you bought yourself a gaming laptop, loved it, and a few years down the line are finding yourself incapable of playing the latest releases because of outdated hardware. You’re out of luck right?
Wrong. It turns out that it is totally possible for you to still rely on your older gaming laptop and still enjoy modern games with modern graphics cards. How? Through an external GPU.
But, what is an external GPU, how do I use one, and what are the best external GPUs on the market today? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered – just read on for all this information and more.
What Is An External GPU?
So, if you’re still confused as to what an external GPU actually is, then its best described as an external laptop upgrade that acts as a plug-in graphics card for your laptop. They come in a variety of forms and versions, but the bottom line is that these devices operate externally to your laptop to provide further graphical processing power, effectively replacing your internal GPU as your laptops primary graphics card.
Handy stuff, but what do I mean when I say that they come in a variety of versions? Well, they can be narrowed down to two distinct categories really: Those that come with a fixed GPU, and those that don’t.
External GPUs that come with a fixed graphics card are generally more expensive than ones that don’t – but you don’t have to worry about the combined cost of both the external GPU unit and the graphics card combined, so it has that going for it. Plus, you don’t need to worry about compatibility between your graphics card and the external GPU itself, which can save a headache and a half down the line.
Alternatively, there are external GPUs that are literally just a housing unit for a GPU to be plugged into, and then connected to your PC. These are great because you get to choose exactly what GPU you want running through your laptop, get to scale your choice based on a budget and most importantly you can use whatever GPU you have plugged into your external GPU in a future PC build if you want to – saving you money in the future. All good stuff. But how does it work?
How Do I Use An External GPU?
Whilst the specifics are going to differ from one external GPU to the next, the basics are pretty consistent when it comes to how to use an external GPU with a laptop.
The first thing you need to make sure of is that your laptop is capable of supporting a Thunderbolt 3 cable connection. You can tell if your USB port has a little lightning symbol next to it, or if you just google your laptops model number and check out the specs – you can find out there whether or not your laptop is capable of running an external GPU.
You are also going to need to be aware that your external GPU is most likely going to need its own power supply. I’m not talking the same kind you find inside a PC, but rather a cable connecting it to a power outlet – I’m letting you know now just so that any hopes you had of dangling a graphics card out the side of your laptop like an external hard drive as you go traveling are shot down early. Managing expectations.
Instead, what you can expect to be running is a rather large housing unit, plugged into a wall that is going to perform best if ran through your laptops monitor rather than an external monitor your laptop is hooked into. You can of course use your laptop as an ad-hoc PC tower for gaming, but you will see noticeable framerate drops if you decide to run through an external monitor.
And once you have swallowed all of that information, you know all the general information that you need to know about running your external GPU – obviously, check with your external GPUs instructions regarding its actual install and setup process, but those are the general ideas.
Now, the question remains: What are the best external GPUs you can buy right now?
The Best Laptop For GIS
GIS is a bit more demanding in terms of hardware compared to other studies and professions. So, unfortunately, you’ll have to get something that’s a bit powerful.
Truth be told, that’s easier said than done. Many sellers can pass off a laptop as an overall good and powerful choice without mentioning anything about the downsides of each option. And that’s particularly true in retail.
That’s why we decided to write this article for you which should hopefully make the buying process much easier. So, with that being said, let’s get right into it!
Best Laptop for Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office isn’t exactly known for being a demanding suite. But, at the same time, that doesn’t mean that finding a decent laptop for it is an easy task.
After all, even for something so simple, there are a ton of things to keep in mind. Weight, screen size, battery life, and build quality are just a few things to consider when buying a laptop for Microsoft Office.
That’s why we decided to pick some of the best options for you while also listing the pros and cons of each option to make the choice easier. So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it!
The 5 Best Laptops For Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a Linux distro that can technically run on every modern laptop. But that doesn’t mean that you should run it on every laptop.
Some options are better than others. However, the reality of the situation is that every laptop has certain advantages and disadvantages – which is why finding the best one for you can be challenging.
That’s why we wrote this article for you. It should make the process of finding the best option a bit easier. So, without any further ado, let’s get right into it!
Best Laptops for Machine Learning
Machine Learning and Deep Learning are very demanding in terms of hardware – especially Deep Learning. That’s why most people generally prefer desktops when it comes to machine learning, but what if you need a laptop? If you’re like us, and you’d much rather use a laptop for all your machine learning needs, then you may as well get the best available.
So, without any further ado, let’s take a closer look at what we consider as the best laptops for machine learning!
