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You Can Never Have Two Many LCDs

jazz1

jazz1

macrumors 601
Original poster
Aug 19, 2002
4,700
20,307
Mid-West USA
Until today I wondered if I should have gone with an iMac over a refurb. MacPro 2.66. I even worried if the ATI 3870 was worth buying. Today I dropped the original NVIDIA graphics card in slot 2 (after calling Apple Care Support for advice) and I now have three Dell LCD's cooking. One 24" and two 22". Wow! I've never been happier with my desktop. Now if I can just figure out how to use all three of the Dell under LCD speakers for Left, Right, and Center Channels. RadioShack?
 
Super........


You could get a 5.1 audio home theater head with optical out and 3.5mm speaker jacks to power your speakers. But then you wouldn't be using the rear or subwoofer so it may be a waste.
 
Real surround. Never thought of that. I wonder if iTune Movies support surround. I like Hulu, but I'd be surprised if they did.

The Dell under LCD speakers have some kind of fake sound stage feature. I wish I could remember the tech. As it is also in some high end iPod speaker system.

Thanks for the ideas!

NRose8989 said:
Super........


You could get a 5.1 audio home theater head with optical out and 3.5mm speaker jacks to power your speakers. But then you wouldn't be using the rear or subwoofer so it may be a waste.
Click to expand...
 
wow that's pretty awesome! We need pics :D

Is three better than two? I was considering either getting another 30" or two 23" displays to complement my current 30"

congrats again! and post pics!;)
 
:cool:

I reckon 4 x 30" in portrait would be the ultimate.

As an architect I used to work on A0 sheets, the above setup would get there...
 
I rotated one of my two 20" Dell's into Portrait and it was a little too weird for me. Lasted about 10 Minutes. I think having 3 monitors would be awesome, two is plenty and I'm not complaining but having a bigger 24" in the middle as the main would be great.
 
zer0tails said:
wow that's pretty awesome! We need pics :D

Is three better than two? I was considering either getting another 30" or two 23" displays to complement my current 30"

congrats again! and post pics!;)
Click to expand...

I'm getting used to all the new real estate. I know deft use of "Spaces" in OSX should probably solve display space issues. I just seem to want to reference the previous desktops all of the time, so I end flipping back and forth. I admit have haven't given "Spaces" a real chance.

I didn't get all three LCD's at once, and the large one is a Dell economy model.

I'm also trying to determine if I add my three favorite applications to the start-up process if their windows will remember where they had been positioned across the three LCDs. Right now Safari takes center stage, Entourage takes right stage, and iTunes takes left (sharing space with iChat)

I have not looked at the question of cost regarding going with one giant LDC display as opposed to multiple screen. I assume even at today's prices the per diagonal inch cost of one large display is still going to be more costly than the sum measure of several displays. Who knows prices seem to be dropping so much these days on displays.

I'm also wondering if VESA wall mounts might be in order to really guild the lilly.

If anyone else has some set-ups please share some pics.
 

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Tallest Skil said:
Holy hand grenades, Batman!

Are those 24" displays? I have two 24s waiting for the day I get my Nehalem Mac Pro. Once that happens, my setup will be virtually identical to yours. Very nice...
Click to expand...

No I couldn't wait any longer...I wanted to wait for the new mac pro but video work has piled up and I had to take the plunge with the mac pro and monitors. The monitors are vizio 26" which aren't anywhere near as good as the new apple displays but I needed to get to work!
 
SOOOOO you plugged in the nvidia into slot 2 after you installed the 3870???

i thought this was only possible with two or more of the same video card?? if you did this did you have to do any additional setup stuff to get it to work??

I still have my original card laying around and an extra monitor i would love to use.
 
At work we've got plenty of multiple monitor setups... some have two 23" Apple Cinema Displays, some have one or two 30" Apple Cinema Displays... one of our illustrators has two 30" Apple Cinema Displays and a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet with integrated display. Another has one 30" and two 23".
 
sebassttiann said:
SOOOOO you plugged in the nvidia into slot 2 after you installed the 3870???

i thought this was only possible with two or more of the same video card?? if you did this did you have to do any additional setup stuff to get it to work??

I still have my original card laying around and an extra monitor i would love to use.
Click to expand...

Nothing special. I did call Apple. They said slot 1 and 2 had more power, but they said if I had bandwith problems to try slot 3 or 4. But if your second card requires a lot of power that might not work as 3 and 4 don't have the same power output as 1 and 2. I supposed if your second card could tap into a power socket via a cable it would be cool to do so. I think some are running two 3870 in Boot Camp for the gaming thing.

The 3870 required me to plug a cable in for additional power. The NVIDIA 7300GT just pulls power from the PCI slot I guess.

Note, I have the main, larger LCD using the 8370, and the second LCD on the 8370. The third LCD is on the NVIDIA.

I've had no performance issues. I'm sure there is probably some trade off when you are making one card drive two LCD's but I'm not noticing it just doing every day stuff.

Somewhere on this forum I asked for advice on plugging in my old card with two LCD. I was advised that putting two LCDs on one card was better anyway as the second card sucked down the CPU.
 
jazz1 said:
I'm getting used to all the new real estate. I know deft use of "Spaces" in OSX should probably solve display space issues. I just seem to want to reference the previous desktops all of the time, so I end flipping back and forth. I admit have haven't given "Spaces" a real chance.

I didn't get all three LCD's at once, and the large one is a Dell economy model.

I'm also trying to determine if I add my three favorite applications to the start-up process if their windows will remember where they had been positioned across the three LCDs. Right now Safari takes center stage, Entourage takes right stage, and iTunes takes left (sharing space with iChat)

I have not looked at the question of cost regarding going with one giant LDC display as opposed to multiple screen. I assume even at today's prices the per diagonal inch cost of one large display is still going to be more costly than the sum measure of several displays. Who knows prices seem to be dropping so much these days on displays.

I'm also wondering if VESA wall mounts might be in order to really guild the lilly.

If anyone else has some set-ups please share some pics.
Click to expand...

very nice, and thanks for sharing. I do think a bigger desk might be in order...;)
 
Love this thread.

I'm a pixel/real estate snob and that's also what pushed me to the Pro vs iMac. That and the far greater upgradability.

I run a 24" Dell in Portrait mode (the 1200x1920 is used almost entirely for Safari - although I'll open documents there if it's going to be a long read) and then another Dell 30" for everything else. Sometimes I still use Spaces, but I too like to have everything handy.

I also run my 720p projector as a third monitor through a second video card. My Office and Home Theater share a room - so I have pretty great 6.1 sound for casual iTunes and even video conferencing, too. Great solution.

I do plan to get a 'third and final' monitor eventually. This'll be smaller (20-24") and basically for extraneous little windows so I can space out my primary windows on the 30" a little larger and more comfortably (iTunes, Mail, at least 1 Finder window and whatever part of iWork I'm using at the time) with my IM clients and download windows on the third screen. I think beyond 3 would be difficult to ergonomically and efficiently manage. I could be wrong :) I suppose one would have to VESA Mount ABOVE an existing screen, as swivling around a whole 180 degree field of view just seems a bit much with 4 huge screens.

A final thought. I researched and went through a great headache to find a pivoting 24" with good contrast a year or so ago. Settled on Dell's 2407WFP. Then a few months later I realized that VESA mount holes are square and I could have just wall mounted it turned 90 degrees and used any 24" monitor - including ones vastly cheaper (I don't need 5 video inputs and a second card reader). Maybe someone can learn from my short-sightedness.
 
i currently use a 23" acd and a samsung 932mw. All the important stuff goes on the acd, while others are relegated to the samsung (its a cheaper tn panel).

It never fails to amaze me how different these two screens are when an image is dragged between them!
 
student_trap said:
i currently use a 23" acd and a samsung 932mw. All the important stuff goes on the acd, while others are relegated to the samsung (its a cheaper tn panel).

It never fails to amaze me how different these two screens are when an image is dragged between them!
Click to expand...

I was a bit worried about the difference between screens. I would say if your doing serious photography or video work it might make a difference if you have work spread out over all of your screens. Breaking out control windows on the extra screens probably is the best use if your LCDs vary in quality. For me having iChat, Entourage Mail, and iTunes not buried is saving my mouse wrist.

My large 24" screen is a cheaper Dell, and I can see the difference between it and the two 22 inchers that are of higher quality. However, those higher quality screens that I have are older and slower. They are loaded with more kinds of ports too. But the larger screen does video like from Hulu better. It is a trade off I make for all of the screen real estate. Even getting the brightness even between all three screens is a challenge. I thought I would point this out for those that are thinking about picking up extra LCDs.

I am going to the Apple Store today and gaze and their uber LCDs and dream on ;)
 
jazz1 said:
Until today I wondered if I should have gone with an iMac over a refurb. MacPro 2.66. I even worried if the ATI 3870 was worth buying. Today I dropped the original NVIDIA graphics card in slot 2 (after calling Apple Care Support for advice) and I now have three Dell LCD's cooking. One 24" and two 22". Wow! I've never been happier with my desktop. Now if I can just figure out how to use all three of the Dell under LCD speakers for Left, Right, and Center Channels. RadioShack?
Click to expand...

i am jealous.
 
chipchen said:
At work we've got plenty of multiple monitor setups... some have two 23" Apple Cinema Displays, some have one or two 30" Apple Cinema Displays... one of our illustrators has two 30" Apple Cinema Displays and a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet with integrated display. Another has one 30" and two 23".
Click to expand...

I think this thread is about your setups, stuff you have at home not what your company has... cause technically, even though you might be working there, it's not your to keep, tweak and move about, really. So, yeah... Lets see your own private setups, preferably what you own. I'd like to see how you've arranged your workspace for ultimate comfortability and usability.
 
I think this thread is about your setups, stuff you have at home not what your company has... cause technically, even though you might be working there, it's not your to keep, tweak and move about, really. So, yeah... Lets see your own private setups, preferably what you own. I'd like to see how you've arranged your workspace for ultimate comfortability and usability.
Click to expand...

ultraNeo*
Wow. That was such a pompous post. No where in the header did it mention your setups. Stop being an elitist.

Oh. I'm an editor with dual 22" Acers and a Dell 2408 hooked up to a Matrox MXO for HD color correction at home. And a Dell mini 9 on the way to be "hackintoshed"
 
hatehereyes said:
being that close to those two big monitors doesn't bother you?
Click to expand...

I noticed that they gave me headaches until i turned the brightness down a bit. At work I'm about 2 feet away from my dual dell setup so it's about the same at home.
 
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