Hey all, I am looking for a third monitor to complement my WFH set up as I'm really toiling just with my main PC monitor and the work laptop's own screen. Trouble is, desktop real-estate is pretty limited and the work laptop gets put away at the end of the day, so the extra monitor needs to be a) small (probably 12" to 15", and 768p is totally fine) and b) portable, i.e. no external power ideally, and c) preferably connected via USB. Now I would have thought that as laptop panels are typically about this size, there would be a ready market of laptop-sized USB monitors at reasonable prices, but apparently not. Do any of you fine people have any suggestions for such a device, at a price that won't make me cry? This is a bit of an odd one, but at the same time I am surprised that even my rudimentary Google-fu hasn't turned up anything suitable! Cheers in advance!
I've got an Asus MB169B+ as my portable monitor, I've had it for a few years and it's been a game-changer for me, thin enough to slide in the laptop bag almost un-noticed, USB powered so only a single cable needed, and 1080p. Asus actually do quite a few at various specs/prices, there's also one from electriQ but I've no idea what they're like. Most of these are 15.6" but there are some smaller ones floating about on the Chinese sites (Banggood, Aliexpress etc.)
just need 2 of these each side of the laptop and fold back on a hinge to put away i had a asus usb c one it was alright but fidgety to use it used to disconnect a lot
There are quite a lot of Chinese ones out there at a range of prices. Have a look at the dedicated thread about them on SFFN here
You're welcome, I like to keep a regular eye on what's going on over at the small side I find it compliments what's going on here with a more 'maker' focused and compact community
Yeah, it's a good community over there. Have to confess that I haven't made any tweaks to my PC for a while now (and don't have any planned) so I've stopped checking in over there for a bit now. Actually, I'm just thinking that this PC is getting on for four years old now and isn't showing any signs whatsoever of needing beefed up. PC tech has become a bit boring really
Things have plateaued a bit. I'm happy with my i5 8400 NCase M1 setup, and will only really need a better GPU than my 970 if I get tempted by a 27" 1440p monitor. I tried a 4.5L tiny case with a FlexATX PSU, but under load it was really noisy. I've just put a thin ITX board in and made a ghetto NAS which is quiet as it's brick powered. Next project is probably going to me mATX Ryzen in an SFF case, sub 20L and pref nearer 15L. I still have my eye on the (very) long awaited Dancase C4 SFX which would make a change from the impressive M1.
Yeah, I have no issues at all with my M1 with a 6700K and 2070, which handle everything I need them for. It's also dead quiet and stable and just sits in the corner of the desk quietly and unfussily getting on with it I could go smaller but I think (for me) the M1 is the ideal balance between size, capacity for decent hardware, coolness and quietness.
What cooling are you running? I have 1x 120mm in on the side, 1x 92mm out at the rear and dual 92mm Noctua NH-U9s . All Redux...
@Arboreal : pretty similar to yourself, actually. I have an NH-U9S too, but mine just has one fan on the heatsink (pushing air front to back) and the second fan is on the back of the case as an exhaust. I didn't really see the point in having two fans on the heatsink and a third on the back of the case as it doesn't feel like there's enough clearance between the second HSF and the fan on the rear of the case - do you find it makes much difference? I have a 120mm intake on the side panel, and two 15mm x 120mm fans on the floor of the case (I genuinely cannot remember if they are set up as exhausts or intakes). I also have slightly taller case feet to give a bit more breathing room under the case. Low noise adaptors all round, as well. All fans are standard Noctua efforts - no Redux or Chromax here, as I can't see the fans anyway The GPU is an open cooler. Although I get the theory that a blower is good because it dumps the hot air directly out of the case, I find that generally blowers are pretty noisy and having those fans on the case floor seems to keep the open cooler happy enough. At idle, none of the fans spin except for the CPU fan (and the one of the back of the case, because they run off the same header), and even that dawdles along at 300rpm so it's genuinely inaudible even with the side panel off and my ear about 10cm from the fans I have fairly relaxed fan curves set up on the standard profile as I prefer quiet to absolute low temperatures. I have a couple of fan profiles set so that I can ramp things up when gaming (at which point I can't hear the PC for gaming noise anyway).
I'm deluded... My U9S is setup like yours, 2nd fan is on the case, 3 would be awkward. My 970 is a blower, and I think it could be quieter. I just followed orthodox recommendations at the time. Next time, I'd go with a bigger conventional 2 or 3 fan card. Yours sounds well set up and somewhat quieter than mine; I'll have to do some more fiddling. 2x 120mm on the bottom may be the key with an open card.
Aye, I used to have a blower (albeit it was a 660Ti) that pre-dated my M1, and it was fine in a big, soundproofed Fractal R2, but my god it was disagreeable in the M1. My 2070 is a dual-fan open cooler and it is night and day both in terms of performance (no surprise there!) and noise. It's semi-passive, which I like, but even at decent load it's really quiet and the noise profile is much more pleasant - a gentle whoosh rather than listening to a hairdryer on full blast! I think the two fans under the card make a huge difference - I can have them spinning relatively slowly without making any discernible noise which prevents the GPU fans from having to spin up until things get fairly toasty. Ideally I'd like to have the case floor fans tied to GPU temperature but that's beyond my motherboard's capabilities and I don't want to add any sort of fan controller as the case is already fairly full and taming the cable spaghetti was bad enough without adding even more wires into the mix! Oh, actually, I've just checked and the fans on the bottom of the case are actually 25 x 120s, not slim fans. I think my logic there was a) I can fit full-depth fans so why not? and b) having less of a gap between the case fans and the GPU should reduce turbulence (but I haven't done any direct comparisons as I don't have a pair of slimline fans of the same type to test with). I did test without the case floor fans and my conclusion was that they don't really make any difference in terms of absolute temperatures - due to the way that modern GPUs boost, the card runs at the same max temperature of c 80°C with or without the extra fans, and at more-or-less the same boost clocks, but with the fans it will do so at far slower fan speeds and thus far lower noise levels. When the GPU fans hit about 70% they do get loud, and they would do so if the case fans weren't there to help out. With the case fans spinning at about 50%, at which point they are still very polite, the GPU fans don't get anywhere near obnoxious noise levels. I did at some point have a spreadsheet full of testing results in various configurations but I can't seem to find it now. The extra clearance under the case does make a difference, too. I think I ended up getting a set of rubber hi-fi noise cancelling feet that glue onto the existing case feet, and give about 10mm of extra clearance whilst also preventing vibration from the case fans from transmitting through the desk surface.
