Customer Reviews

EVGA UV-16 UV Plus+ USB VGA Display Port (100-U2-UV16-A1)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

UPDATE Sep 04 2010: This product still works great, but you might consider the Diamond BVU195 HD USB Display Adapter (DVI and VGA with included DVI to VGA adapter) which gives you a later version of the Displaylink chipset and a higher supported display resolution for about $25 more.

Three monitors may seem like overkill, but when you have as many apps open at once as I do it's a great convenience. I can cover almost every square inch, and a decent 19 inch monitor can be had for only $200 or so these days. But more than two monitors at once is a problem since any recent card will only support two monitors (ah, I miss Matrox).

I used to add a cheap second video adapter, but then there were always driver compat issues and other problems. I finally grabbed one of these and I love it to death. I use it for my third monitor where I don't worry about performance - I stick email and other long term text-heavy low-usage processes there. Though I actually tried full screen video on it just to see what would happen and it worked surprisingly well.

It's tiny, needs no external power connector, has a DVI connector (and comes with a DVI->VGA adaptor), and it works just fine under Windows XP and Windows 7 (presumably Windows Vista as well, but haven't tried that). It's just thoroughly awesome. My only complaint is the chintzy snarl-prone retracting USB-A to mini-USB adaptor - I just tossed it and used another one.

I wouldn't use this as your primary display if you wanted to do anything 3D (there's some lag you notice in games; USB is not intended to be low latency), but otherwise, I am very impressed. I'm ordering another one for work.

P.S.: When you get this, the first thing you should do is toss out the driver CD and get the latest driver from [...] (Displaylink).

It's said, "You can never be too rich, or too thin ...', or have too many monitors. The UV Plus works well, just as advertised. It's only problem comes when I move from the office where I have three monitors to the lab where I have two; the driver doesn't automagically handle the shift between one-monitor, two-monitor and three-monitor sites consistently. I then have to shift the relative positions of the monitors on the video properties menu manually. It's a small price to pay to have a help file, journal file, application editor, application control panel and application data panel all open at once.

Incidentally, I tried a software-only solution (not free), and it locked up repeatedly; I could get no help at all from the German company who sold it. This device is reasonably fast, responsive and predictable.

I've been using this EVGA adapter at work for a 3rd monitor running at 1280x1024 (native resolution on a LCD over DVI) for about 3 weeks. It works perfectly with no problems. It's fantastic to be able to add an additional monitor over USB. Performance for most applications is great. I've noticed that it does slow down a bit for video or motion heavy Flash animations. The manufacturer claims you can watch full screen DVD video, but I haven't tried. Works great for Visual Studio, Office, IE, etc.

Update 10/2009: I previously wrote that I used this product with Windows Server. It looks like the latest driver will not support Windows Server, so I recommend not buying this product if you're planning to use it with a Server OS at this time. Check Displaylink's web site for driver and compatibility updates.

I bought the product because we are not allowed to install any additional hardware in our office PCs (you may argue that this is additional hardware but from the IT department perspective I didn't open the case to install it, so it's fine), and I really wanted to have dual monitors.

Having dual monitors can really boost your productivity, especially when you work providing technical support as I do, e.g. you can have a Webex session running on a customer's system on one monitor and in the other the procedure that you need to follow (or Slashdot if it's taking longer than expected :-)).

So far no problems with it running over Win XP SP2, and any particular delay that I can notice.

I wanted to test a multi-monitor setup suitable for laptops or non-expandable PCs, so I grabbed a couple of these EVGA brand "UV Plus+ 16" USB 2.0 video adapters. I'm running 4 heads on my laptop for a couple months to see how these hold up and if I run in to any problems. They've worked well for a couple of weeks now. USB 2.0 is limited to 480Mbps if I recall correctly, but the displays I'm using with these are running 1280x1024 with 16 bit color and are not particularly demanding. The manufacturer site notes that USB bandwidth is minimized by using lossless compression between the computer and the adapter.

The adapter has a mini-usb port on one side and a DVI port on the other. Also in the box is a USB cable (thin one with a spring loaded reel) and a DVI to 15HD adapter so you can use with a standard VGA cable.

The adapters run slightly warm. They have little rubber feet with matching indents on the top of the unit so they stack well, but I ended up foam-sticky taping them to the back of their monitors as the USB cables were long enough to go from the laptop to the monitors.

The UV Plus+ adapters and windows driver appear fairly flexible. I'm running their 2 heads with 16 bit color at 1280x1024 on Dell 19" LCDs. I've got the laptop primary display at it's native 1920x1200, and my laptop's external video on a NEC LCD at it's native 1600x1200 resolution. Both the laptop's main and external are at 32bit color. Mouse movement and screen drags between monitors works as expected. The driver for the UV Plus+ adapters runs in the tray and lets you set how they work. The screen positions can be set from the main Windows Display Properties tool. The only odd thing I've noticed is that once when my screen saver kicked in I had to re-extend my desktop to the UV Plus+ heads. Since the app I'm running on these adapters keeps my screen saver from running, this is not an issue for me.

I use this item in a 3 screen setup including my laptop screen, a 19" crt on the laptop's vga out and this driving a 17" crt at 1162x864,32 bit color. Once I get the computer started, it works great - much better than similar products I've had.

However, since I installed this item the computer will no longer reliably come back from standby. The problems range from forgetting the screen order to coming back with no screens working. If I leave an ap on the 3rd screen, it will never come back correctly. If I move all the aps to the first 2 screens, it will recover some times. If I shut down all the aps, it recovers most of the time.

It works so well once it is going, I just accept that I have to do a full shutdown when I want to turn the computer off.

I purchased this adapter to add a second monitor to my MacMini. My primary monitor is a 22 inch Acer running at 1680x1050. I had a 19 inch Samsung that runs at 1440x900. I was worried about the performance of the second monitor on USB, but it seems to be working like a charm. Video on the second monitor is a little choppy when at larger window sizes, but it is doing what I need (Mail on the monitor and Photoshop palettes. A great buy!

(An added note... after trying this in XP, I would give it 5 stars. Everything played flawlessly... Full-screen video as well. You will have to make some changes in the Advanced settings to get it to work for full screen video, but once you do, perfecto! Now, if they can get the Mac drivers up to speed...)

I bought this after buying the Tritton UV150 and I am returning the EVGA unit. I don't need DVI and the EVGA unit is missing a number of screen resolutions between 12xx and 16xx. The EVGA unit also comes in separate pieces. The USB cord is separate and uses that fallible double spring loaded pull-out config. This proved to be broken and I had to use a mini-usb to full-size usb cable of my own. The EVGA unit also costs more. As far as I'm concerned, it's not worth it. I'd rather have an all in one usb connector/cable/plug in box. Based on the Tritton unit I have, I will try either the Tritton UV200 or the Diamond 195 units with DVI for my home set up.

I got one of these little marvels for add a third monitor to my laptop.

Windows XP perfectly recognizes the 3rd monitor and lets you to configure it without any problem.

I just had to install the driver, connect to the USB port, Connect the monitor and voila. Magic!

The only difference I found between the USB and the external monitor connected directly to my NVidia card, is when the 3D screensaver starts, because the resolution is lowerded the 640x480 or so. When the screensaver exits, all back to normal.

I think this is one of the bests gadgets I've added to my computer.

The only missing feature I found, is the support for FullHD resolution, but I'm sure that eventually this, or any other model from evga will have.

a pretty good little device. running this on mac osx snow leopard has proved a little interesting. as far as how the device actually performs - it's pretty good and as advertised. i have tried this on both a 24" imac & a mac mini. currently using it as a 2nd monitor on the mac mink (it had been a 3rd on the imac) to keep my email on. for this purpose it does its job very well.

what keeps this from 5 stars? drivers. and sleep mode.

other reviewers have commented on problems when waking a computer from sleep/hibernate mode and i can confirm this can be problematic. on my imac i had to poweroff via pulling the plug as if the screensaver came on, or the machine went to sleep, the keyboard & mouse would stop responding. on my mini i found that having the system preferences for the power button to sleep computer allowed the video to come back along w/the keyboard & mouse. not sure why but that's why it's on the mini. note that i have a kvm switch between the two computers, though based on other reviewers having similar problems i don't think this is the problem.

drivers are actually from a company called displaylink. there were no 64-bit drivers availalbe for this at the time i was installing it. the most current 32-bit drivers were in beta status. websites don't indicate projected release dates either. is this a deal breaker? no, my mini won't run 64-bit anyway. for my imac, yeah. i've found 64-bit to be a bit faster than 32-bit, at least the way i use my imac. so i went back to using 64-bit mode after moving the adapter to my mini.

end result, i would recommend this product. just understand what you're getting into and the driver/hibernate issues. if i only had a laptop i'd probably get one. if i had a laptop & two spare monitors of the same size though i'd probably go with the matrox dual-head to go.