Choose me two 24" LCDs!

[NleahciM]

Hey there - I need to pick up two identical 24" LCDs. Will mostly be used for movie watching, web browsing, 3D CAD, ECAD, and occasional gaming. I want something nice - so budget is fairly open.

Anybody have a suggestion? My head starts to spin when I try to figure this stuff out on my own.

Thanks dudes.

 

[SuperKeijo]

Why not 1 30" monitor? 1 big screen is always better than 2 small ones (imo) . Especially for games and movies. You get 4.6 million pixels with the 24"s and 4.1 with a 30", so it's almost the same amount of pixels..

 

[Snowdog]

That is the way I am leaning as well. 30" dell. Also the Dell is a high end S-IPS panel. Most 24" are TN or VA.

Downside of the 30" screens is that you can only connect them to a computer.

 

[NleahciM]

Why not 1 30" monitor? 1 big screen is always better than 2 small ones (imo) . Especially for games and movies. You get 4.6 million pixels with the 24"s and 4.1 with a 30", so it's almost the same amount of pixels..

Hmm - I guess I've always just liked having dual monitors - with each having a separate function.

How would costs compare? (2x24" vs. 1x30")

And do some video cards have trouble driving the resolution of a 30"?

 

[Snowdog]

I plan to have two monitors, as I do right now.

Right now I have 17" LCD and 21" trinitron CRT.

I plan to replace the 21" trinitron with the 30" dell.

With 2 screen there is no need for them to be the same. Almost all the time I have a primary activity on the big screen and secondary on the second screen. I am always concentrating on the main screen with occasional glances to the secondary.

This gives you a bigger screen for the primary activity. Makes it clear which is the primary screen, gives you a much bigger primary screen.

But in the end to each his own. 2 24" are cheaper than a 30" I would have a 24" now if I didn't hate VA/TN screens so much. I am paying partly for the bigger, higher resolution screen on the 30", but also partly to get a high quality S-IPS screen. YMMV. And yes you need a dual link DVI card to drive the 30" beast, but most decent card are Dual link.

 

[SuperKeijo]

Hmm - I guess I've always just liked having dual monitors - with each having a separate function.

How would costs compare? (2x24" vs. 1x30")

And do some video cards have trouble driving the resolution of a 30"?

A 30" screen might be slightly more expensive than 2 x 24, but you do get a very good quality S-IPS panel (Dell 3007WFP-HC or HP LP3065 for example..). Yes some graphics cards do have problems (example ati Radeons don't show you anything during post, only when you get to windows you'll actually see something. Nvidia cards don't have this problem.) And dual link is needed. Nvidia Geforce 7xxx and 8xxx series support it.