engineering student needs new display....2005fpw/dual monitors/2405fpw??

Hey all, I am an engineering student that does a lot of work with CAD and I need a good amount of monitor real estate when working on my projects. I currently have a single 17" analog LCD and it's just not cutting it. In our lab we have 2405's as well as dual dell 19's, and I love both those setups. I'm trying to decide what to get for myself, as I am definitely on a tight college budget. Really, the 2405 is out of my price range, but man, they're sooo nice . The way I see it now my choices are, 2005fpw for $400, dual 19's for about $600, or 2405 for $800. I know a few people with the 2005 and they love it, but I'm a bit concerned because I've heard even though it's much wider, the 2005 is the exact same height as my current 17". I'd like to gain a little bit of height if I'm plopping down a lot of money. I've also considered buying a 4:3 20.1" (dell 2001fp?) and saving up for another one down the road, but if I did that I might as well just go ahead and buy the 2405 for $800. So, what do you guys think? Anyone do similar work that could make a recommendation? Remember I'm really not an avid gamer that is concerned with the lowest response times (I do game sometimes but pretty rarely these days). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I've done cad work in school as well, and I've always preferred the standard 4:3 ratio myself. In cad you always have to worry about part orientation, with a widescreen setup sure i'd work great for projets that are wide and short, but in general I want someting that gives me usable real estate for every project I work on. So I would go with a 4:3 19"+ setup.

But....if this is your general computer, and you'd like to multitask other projects, or watch movies the widescreen works very well in that environment.

So you'll have to decide. I personally would get the 2005, because in "general" I think I would appreciate its form factor more, plus if you are working on a large cad project, you could always go to the computer lab and use that setup if you feel the 2005 isn't cutting it.

I'm working as a structural engineer and I use a lot of CAD and 3D applications every day. I can't imagine working without dual screens. At work we all get 19" CRT's but man I'd drool over getting even more screen real estate. But ya know, the 'man' has to approve that sort of change. As it is, I'm the only one who has known to bump their resolution up from 10x7 to 12x9 (I guess technically 24x9). Dual screens win when you need the most space for multi-window cad applications. Double 20" 4:3 would be nice, even double 19" 4:3. Widescreens sacrifice height for width but that's just sort of a preference. However gaming throws a wrench in the 2x screen setup.

At home I'm really itching to get a 24" which is better suited for normal desktop use and gaming. In your case, I might recommend the 2x screens if you really aren't doing much gaming. Just depends on your intentions.

On the other hand, that pretty 24" could still be very nice for almost anything... but still not quite the workspace of 2.

Thanks guys. Any recommendations on 19" panels? Another issue I've noticed is that most "bargain" 19's cost around $250-300 (Rosewill, Benq, etc) while the more highly praised monitors (Samsung, Dell) run around $350. Is this the case, or are the cheaper LCD's just as good? If I pick out dual 19's that cost me like $700, I'm just gonna go ahead and get the 2405.

If money is an issue you cannot go wrong with the 19' BenQ's. They are excellent screens as long as color reporduction is not crucial.

i thought there was a samsung CRT that was real nice around that price (on newegg I think) - i hear it's sweet

anyway, 3200x1200 res. is great for that sort of work, but dont think that widescreen is bad, just treat it like a dual screen (1920x1200 is a good res)

I would LOVE running 3200x1200 dual 20", that's probably what I would get if money were no object...I'm still considering getting a single 20" and saving up for another one in the future...I was looking at the Samsung 204T but I've heard the 214T is far superior, dual 214T's someday would be crazy (and expensive)

Depending on which cad software you're using, you may find the single widescreen to be acceptable.
The widescreen allows you to dock your toolbars and pallettes on the sides due to the extended width of the layout, and you end up with a nice work area in the middle.
I personally find that some dual screen setups are a pain when you're constantly mousing back and forth to reach various toolbars and such.
I also find that dual screens help to keep my cad one one screen, and my outlook on the other, so I can use two programs at the same time more efficiently, but for pure cad use, I actually prefer the single screen.
If money was no object, the dual screens would be the way to go with an aftermarket arm to keep them mounted on one stand. But for spending my hard earned cash, I'd go with a single widescreen monitor that did 1680x1050.

For the bulk of the last 7 years, I've been cadding at 1600x1200. in the last year, I switched to a 1600x1200 lcd flat panel. I find it difficult to cad on any CRT anymore. The clarity and no glare of the lcd made the long cad hours much more bearable.

The majority of my work (and vast majority in the future) is AutoCAD 06, also some 3D work in stuff like Solid Edge...when I do 3D is really when I'd appreciate the extra height in a non-widescreen, as I just need as much pure desktop space as possible to see all the details in scale.

I use dual 17" screens for Solidworks and really like having the second display. I'd pick up the widescreen and then use your current display as a secondary screen. Not quite as glamorous as matching duals, but it's pretty functional

My Wife is a Mechanical Engineer and spends more than her fair share of time in CAD. She has 2 2001FP monitors and will not relinquish them.

apb1215 said:

...I just need as much pure desktop space as possible to see all the details in scale.

Click to expand...

Using acad '06, eh?
You know about the ctrl + 0 trick, don't you?
That should help some of your 3D modeling.

I run CAD and Autodesk Inventor on my 2405 and love it

if you can afford it, go for that, if not, go for the 2005. Cad work with duals sucks imo