Hey all,

Is anyone running X1 on a laptop along with a 2nd monitor, and has the 2nd monitor set as the primary display in Windows?

I'm looking to buy a 15.6" laptop for when I'm working away from home and, ideally, I'd like to be able to use my 24" monitor as the primary display showing the main X1 window, and have the laptop screen show the multidock for prv editing, plugins, etc. 

Monitor res is 1920x1080, and the laptop will be 1366x768.

I haven't used a multi display setup before so I thought I'd check if this was possible before I buy the latop.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi MoodyB,

I worked with X1 and now X2 with a setup as you want to buy. My 24" Acer is my primary monitor and the display of my 15,6" laptop my second. Most time I worked only on my primary (because of the docking windows), but sometimes I drag a window of a VSt-Plugin to the second monitor - no problems so far.

T. Finkbeiner

Hey Timo thanks for the reply. That's just what I wanted to hear.


Now to pick a laptop...

I'm getting good use from my high spec gaming laptop from PCSpecialist. It is based on a CLEVO P150M and I just upped the options up to a certain budget. I also chose a 15.6 inch lappy, and I really do manage without a second screen. I have got a second monitor but I don't bother using it any more.

You will definitely need a proper sound card, unless you already have one. I use a QUAD-CAPTURE myself, because I do not need a load of ins and outs.

Thanks for the info synkrotron.

I've had a look but I'm on a very tight budget & their laptops go over it for the spec I want. I can get a off-the-shelf brand laptop for a little bit less than their custom ones with the same spec. Plus I don't need to wait 8-10 days on it either.

I still have a 4ghz i5 tower pc than I can fall back on when I get home, so the laptop doesn't need to be ultra powerful as I'll just freeze synths & effects when it starts to choke.

It's a good site though to keep in mind for future builds though, as with a bigger budget I'd have a field day :)

As for the sound card I'll probably go for the Focusrite VRM Box again. I need to work on headphones almost 100% of the time & the vrm effect does help when mixing levels, etc. I had one before that I used with a previous laptop, and it worked fine. 

ASUS! ...just my liking for what it is worth...

I remember having a Sonar specific issue with this when ProChannel first came around. Basically it was bugged to hell if my external monitor was set as the primary. I don't know if that is still an issue.. However, it wasn't a problem as I could simply keep the laptop as the primary but have the edit window on the external etc :) The only difference being the start menu was on the console window.

I have two monitors on my Dell laptop. Sadly it won't let me use the laptop display when both are plugged in. One uses  propriety dell port and the other rgb. Works well.

Sadly it won't let me use the laptop display when both are plugged in.

Are you sure? That seems unusual. Did you try Windows+P and select Extend?

Yep. Its a limitation of the onboard graphics card. Two displays at any one time and that includes the LCD display.