re: I consider myself a tech guy but for some reason I cant figure out how to have 2 monitors

If you want a dual setup for your laptop (assuming your laptop doesn't have multiple video out ports) you need either a dock which has dual video out or the monitor itself needs to have the ability to be daisy-chained to another monitor (I know some newer Dell monitors have this ability but I haven't had the chance to tinker with it, no idea on HPs).