[Cottonsworth]

I have a 2006 2.33 C2D Macbook Pro. Does anyone have any solutions on running two or three monitors on that? I see that OWC has a USB solution, OWC USB to DVI/HDMI/VGA Video Display (Up to... (VIDU2DVIA) at OWC

Has anyone used that? If so, what do you think about it?

Finally, will running multiple monitors put too much stress on my MBP and increase the possibility of failure (i.e. logic board, video card)? I realize that might be a stupid question but I don't know if computers work like cars, in which more stress increases the chance of system failure. Thanks for your patience with my questions.

[Cottonsworth]

A friendly bump.

[RevEvs]

I dont know about the first bit, but regarding the second bit (stress of multiple screens) - no it wont affect the machine, they are designed and built to run all day every day and can power multiple screens etc without a problem. Dont worry!

[Big Mac]

Yeah, computers don't break down from over use. Some components may fail over time, but that's very rarely the fault of the owner/user. Some components like hard drives may fail over time as a result of high amounts of use, but as long as you backup your files drives are easily replaced (especially in the unibody MBPs). The most important component of a laptop is its logic board as you assume, and they rarely fail unless the original design of the computer has a defect (the white iBook G3s had a notorious problem with their GPU circuitry). Keep in mind that in a laptop the GPU is almost always on the logic board itself (even with a discrete GPU) and not a separate physical card as with some desktops. There was also a defect with many of the pre-unibody MBPs as a result of a design defect with their GPUs, but that problem was corrected. If your MBP functions properly when you first get it, most likely you won't have a problem with its core hardware throughout the life of the computer.

By the way, there is one parallel between computer hardware and automobile hardware: heat can be a bad thing if it isn't controlled, and heat can be increased when the hardware has to work more. However, computer companies put a lot of work into dealing with heat, and most of the computers ever released can handle the heat level so that components won't feel even when doing computationally complex operations for long periods of time. There are temperature sensors in modern Macs that are monitored by the OS. If necessary, the OS will increase the speed of your internal fan to cool the computer during high loads or if you have it placed on something (like a soft surface) that doesn't allow for proper heat dissipation. In an extreme case when the fan isn't enough, the computer will automatically go into sleep mode or possibly shut down. As RevEvs said, driving multiple monitors by itself would place no more wear on a GPU than driving the built-in display. Remember, computers are designed to work hard and run the software you want to run when you want to run it.

With that said, I don't know anything about the hardware device you found, so I can't offer too much help with that either. I would imagine USB 2's bandwidth could impose some limitations on the monitor connected to it, but I've never used such a device.

[playby]

sorry this is nearly a month old.

i bought a cintiq pen display for my laptop for which i also have a 23" display and needed a solution to run the additional monitor. i purchased something similar to what you posted (i imagine these products all use the same components) and was very satisfied with the results, considering it was running through USB.

if you're simply looking to display an extra screen without any hardware acceleration, then it should be fine.