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For $80? I don't know....
I had this issue too: a laptop and 8+ hours/day working on it.
At work, I replaced my desktop with the laptop, so I just kept the 14" monitor and ran dual-screen.
At home, I did the same thing. I eventually replaced an aging 15" CRT monitor with a 20" LCD widescreen monitor.
Now it comes down to this: How much do you want to pay and how much will you get out of it?
I paid CDN$316 (after taxes) for 20" (1680 X 1050) of "real estate," as they call it. This, in addition to the 13.3" (1280 X 800) of my Macbook.
Now, ask yourself what you want. Personally, I like all the extra space for what I do, which includes on-screen text editing, web design, and multitasking tasks such as web research. Having the two screens is the ultimate in multitasking.
13.3" isn't much for doing a lot of work over extended periods of time. What's the size of your screen?
I set up my 20"er so that it's raised high enough to sit above the screen of my Macbook, so it actually looks like one tall screen (sort of).
I can't imagine a better configuration for my laptop in this matter.
I don't like the idea of the laptop stand, sorry. It's not enough for me.
It might work if I had limited space or needed it to be portable, but I'm impressed with the space-saving design of LCDs.
Do you really need an external keyboard? If so, you could always still add one with a USB port and still get a second monitor.
I hope this helps. Feel free to ask me any questions.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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