One large or two medium monitors?
I’m a bit behind the times with my 21″ CRT monitor at home so I’ve been thinking of upgrading and I can’t decide if I should go with a single large LCD or two medium LCDs in dual mode. By large I’m really talking about something like the 24″ Dell. What a beauty! And at $800 it’s a hell of a deal.
The other option would be to go with two 19″ or 20″ LCDs. I can get two 19 inchers for less than $800 and have more horizontal space than the 24 (obvisouly), but I’m not sure about the dual nature. The last time I used dual monitors was with NT 4 and we had dual 21″ CRTs in a single, spanned desktop configuration. It wasn’t too bad for development purposes but I didn’t like the ‘center’ of the desktop cut across the two monitors. When ever a dialog popped up you had to read it across both screens and that just sucked. However dual desktops seem to be pretty popular these days, but I haven’t tried that myself. I’m guessing that with the dual desktops that when you run apps like a game you can choose to run it on just a single monitor?
Most of my work will be in development so I’m leaning towards the dual setup with the possibility of having one monitor in portrait mode for a little more height (I hate scrolling through code). At work I currently have a linux box with a Dell 19″ that is pretty nice and an iMac with a 20″ widescreen that also isn’t too shabby. I think I would go with regular aspect monitors just for the extra height, but who knows.
So, a single 24″ is about $800 and the appeal is just one monitor
Dual 19s would cost about 150-200 less depending on which model I got. If I didn’t go with a rotating screen I could get dual 19s for about 450 or so. Very nice.
Dual 20s… now that would just rock. I get the 1600×1200 resolution that I’m used to at home, but twice. Dell has 20s for about 450 each so that those two would be only $150 more than a single 24 incher.
Of course I will need a new video card to run these puppies no matter which route I go and I haven’t investigated the cards that would be needed to run the two 20s, but I’m sure there are plenty that can handle the 19s with ease.
Any experiences out there?
Don’t miss anything, subscribe!
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
Came across this post on a Bloglines search as I’m looking for dual vs wide.
I currently have dual 20.1″ Samsung LCDs both in landscape mode. Dell Canada has a deal on a 24″ screen right, and I’m not sure what would be better for development. I use Linux, and having 2 independent displays is quite nice. I also just found this device to ‘unify’ your 2 displays:
http://www.ergotron.com/ConsumerProducts/DeskMounts/tabid/55/ctl/Product/mid/386/PRDID/127/Default.aspx
I happen to have 3 DVI ports on my desktop, so who knows what I’ll do. Right now I’m thinking of keeping my 2 20.1″ LCDs and adding a 20″ widescreen 
I’d avoid 19″, they are the same resolution as 17″ (1280×1024), and the jump to 1600×1200 is huge.
I have a laptop that I plug into a monitor at work, and run without at other times.
WinXP support for dual monitors is pretty good. You can specify the spatial relationship between the two monitors. Dialog boxes aren’t split across two screens. Windows maximize to whichever screen they’re on, not to the desktop. And so forth.
I’ve never had software refuse to display on the dual monitors, though a very few apps that try to restore window positions (GIMP in particular) sometimes get confused when I switch between one and two monitor configurations.
Jason - I was thinking the same about the 20s vs. the 19s. I really like the 1600×1200 resolution. I haven’t seen a vid card with 3 DVI ports before, but dual ports seem to be pretty common for any decent card these days. I’m kind of looking at the Radeon x1950 which runs about 200 bucks and supposedly has great resolution capabilities. I’m not a heavy gamer so I can live without anything too fancy.
Alan - I’m glad to here that XP is good with the duals, which is what I have (XP pro). I like the idea that I can maximize on just a single monitor as well. For most of my work I would probably have my IDE on one and a browser on the other.
Thanks for the comments guys!
Dual 20’s any day over a single 24″, there should be no doubt!
You might want to check out my blog regarding that very topic: http://www.improve.dk/blog/2006/11/29/multi-monitoring-with-style
To display on an analog monitor, the PC’s graphic subsystem has to convert the digital binary value of the image an analog signal.
[...] Original post by The Bull [...]