Dwight

I am looking to buy a secondary monitor, not for screen mirroring but to use as an extended display.

I would be using this with a mid 2012 13" mac, so its a 2.5 ghz dual core i5. Its not the "retina" model, so the res is 1280x800. It has Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 MB g9raphics, and 4 GB of memory. I'm running OSX Mavericks 10.9.2 (the latest version) and I might also end up running windows on this machine too. Not sure on that yet, but I wouldn't think it would matter for this.

I don't need 4k or anything crazy, 1080p would be good... Depending on the price difference of 1080 and 720.

My questions are:

1. If i use an external display, will it effect my performance?

2. If i get a 1080p display, will it be able to display at 1080p fairly well (keeping in mind I'm using it as an extension, not a mirror - i know it wouldn't be able to mirror at 1080p)

3. What ports are used to connect it? Is it the lightning port with an HDMI adapter that I should use?

4. Where should I look to buy one/Do you have any that you think are the "best" for this purpose? If so, why that one? I think that NewEgg is where most people go to buy this kind of thing, but are there better places?

Thanks in advance! :)