To get a 20" or a 23"

[Chaywa]

Ok,

decision time and I need your help. This is so ironic, there was an identical post to this a while ago and I actually gave the guy advice. Now I am in the same dilema and don't know what to do. I am in the market for a new display and have fallen in love with the new cinema displays. my dilema is which one to get. here is my situation:

I, like many on this board, am a mac addict. I love their products and I love their design. A new aluminum display with my G5 will look great (so anyone planning to suggest I buy another brand please don't bother). The 30" is out of the question, too expensive, I have enough money for a 23 or 20. That being said, I am married and do enjoy other things besides my computer, so that extra cash difference between the 20 and the 23 could be useful elsewhere.
I do video work, but not HD (yet), so I am not sure the larger screen would be necessary for that reason. $700 seems like a lot for 3 inches...but, when I go to the apple store and try them out oh boy! Both are large enough to comfotably run the apps I use but that 23 just looks and feels so good. What should I do? Which should I get? I should point out that my wife fully supports me getting either one, which actually makes the decision much harder, believe it or not. Help.

 

[jimjiminyjim]

Buy the 20 incher, and put the extra $700 in a separate account to splurge on something for you, your wife, or both of you.

 

[jimsowden]

Being on a G5 with both display you are talking about, I have to say go with the 23. I can't explain exactly, perhaps its the crack i'm smoking, but the 23 just seems alot better.

 

[LeeTom]

In my opinion, if you get the 20", there will always be a little part of you wishing you had gotten the 23". My suggestion is to get the 23" AND spend a little bit more doing something fun with your wife, like a mini-vacation.
Life is short!

Lee Tom

 

[mikeyredk]

In my opinion, if you get the 20", there will always be a little part of you wishing you had gotten the 23". My suggestion is to get the 23" AND spend a little bit more doing something fun with your wife, like a mini-vacation.
Life is short!

Lee Tom

better yet

get the 20" and go on a second honeymoon (w/o the kids if you got any)

 

[puckhead193]

Being on a G5 with both display you are talking about, I have to say go with the 23. I can't explain exactly, perhaps its the crack i'm smoking, but the 23 just seems alot better.

HAHAHAHA..... I was gonna say also to get the 23 more room, able to have HD when your ready...

 

[Xenious]

I faced a similar choice. I was planning on getting the 30", but as it turned out the monitor plus the new geforce card together were out of my budget. I decided on the 23" as the next best thing. Honestly I never considered the 20" as i had set aside a budget already for the 23".

I imagine either monitor would be fantastic. My recomendation is decide how much you want to spend on it, then buy that falls within that number.
-jim

 

[Bhennies]

go see them in person. The 20" looks pretty small compared to the 23". My 2 cents. THe 23 is what I decided to get and both were under intense consideration.

 

[jcook793]

In general, a monitor is a better investment than a computer. I still regularly use my 21" ViewSonic CRT that I bought 4 years ago. It was $900 back then and was a lot of cash for a display, but it still can crank out high resolutions with a great refresh rate. It outlived my old PC and is now happier serving up pixels for my G5.

If I had gone the "cheap" route with a 17" (which back then would have still been several hundred bucks), I would have likely replaced it by now. I vote to get the 23" because it will still be a nice monitor in 5 years. The 20" will (hopefully) be run-of-the-mill.

Now if only I had gotten that 17" monitor back in 2000 I could justify getting a new Cinema Display...

 

[jsw]

In my opinion, if you get the 20", there will always be a little part of you wishing you had gotten the 23".

True dat.

I have the 'old' 20" display, and I've sort of always wondered if I'd rather have had the 23". The answer: no, not really, because the 23" didn't, to me, look as good. It was bigger, but the image quality of the then-newer 20" was better.

But now, with excellent quality for both, I'd spend part of each and every day wanting the extra real estate the 23" provides.

Only 3" bigger? Yeah. But 30 percent more pixels!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

But for just a little more money than the 23" you can get 2 20" LCDs

That's what I'm doing....

D

 

[jsw]

But for just a little more money than the 23" you can get 2 20" LCDs

That's what I'm doing....

D

I suppose you mean two non-Apple 20" LCDs, right? Or else $600 is "just a little more money"?

The new ACDs are beautiful. I'm not sure I'd want 2 smaller, other brand ones. I hate the gap between them, regardless of manufacturer. However, for you graphics professional types, I know two screens are better than one.

 

[papersushi]

Get 23'', the reason? As a human being, you will always wish you could have had the bigger display for your desktop.

 

[Chaywa]

The End

Just to put a cap on this, I have decided to go with the 23". How could I live with anything less. This computer is my bread and butter and the monitor is how I interact with it. So thank you all for your comments. There is a tax holiday coming up so a trip to the local apple store will save me shipping costs and $80 that would have gone to this state. That $ sounds like a nice night out with my wife. Thanks again.

 

[jcook793]

Yeah! You're my hero. Thanks, now I can vicariously have a 23" cinema display through you.

 

[TreeHugger]

To get a 20" or a 23"

They already have a 20 and 23 inch Powerbooks?? (j/k)