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ACD - 23" or rather 2x20"

L

L int.

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 13, 2006
42
1
Amersfoort, NL
I want to purchase a MacPro, and also one or two ACD's for home use.

At work I use a 21" Cintiq - at home at the moment an old 18" Dell.
Applications: the whole CS2 bundle, SolidWorks, Flash and hopefully Logic in the future.

money is an issue, and so i was thinking about getting one 20" for now, and buy a second one later (maybe a new version, once available), to have enough screen surface to work on - I like to put tools on a second monitor, also email, and other small things...

the other option would be one 23" display only.

I'd like to hear what you guys would do.

Also: there is a technical difference besides resolution, right? BRIGHTNESS is lower on the 20" one - does anyone find technical annoying things, compared with the 23" one?

Are two 20" screens possibly slightly different in color and brightness?

Thanks for sharing your experience...
 
I never liked 2 screens, i dont know why but i never liked it. I would recommend the dell 24" monitor its one of the best if not teh best screen i have used. With Spaces in OS 10.5 you dont need another monitor.
 
I, personally would go with one 23" rather than two 20's. I have seen what two 20's look like side by side and I do not like how they are so wide when you put them side by side. But if that does not bother you go for it. But the 23" is reehellly nice in my opinion. The 30" is too big so I'd go for the 23".
 
crazycat said:
With Spaces in OS 10.5 you dont need another monitor.
Click to expand...

Very true. Spaces eliminates the entire purpose of having multiple moniters, so It would be foolish to do so. I wonder how Spaces works on multiple displays...
 
Zwhaler said:
Very true. Spaces eliminates the entire purpose of having multiple moniters, so It would be foolish to do so. I wonder how Spaces works on multiple displays...
Click to expand...

What about watching full-screen video and doing work at the same time?
 
miloblithe said:
What about watching full-screen video and doing work at the same time?
Click to expand...

True, but that seems like kind of a waste of money to dish out that much cash just so you can mix work with play.
 
Zwhaler said:
True, but that seems like kind of a waste of money to dish out that much cash just so you can mix work with play.
Click to expand...

right, besides that i'm not good in doing both at the same time...also: watching movies is rather an argument for 23".
 
crazycat said:
With Spaces in OS 10.5 you dont need another monitor.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. I have Virtue Desktops on my macbook, and though apple may implement it better, it's based on the same principle as Spaces, and it's A LOT more convient to always have more data physically on another screen. Like constantly having mail open on another screen, not having to deal with a keystroke.
 
as far as having mail open. I use the hide feature a lot. I also have a third party plug-in, would have to check what it's called, that notifies you of new mail in a transparent window over whatever you are working on. You can open, close, or delete with a keystroke and the window shows you some if not all of the email text.
 
Spaces won't eliminate the need for multiple monitors at all. I remind you that...

  1. Firstly, there already third party solutions that are similar to Spaces. They don't kill the need for a second monitor. Spaces will not magically do it.
  2. Secondly, there are some of us who really do need the extra work area that a larger monitor, or a second monitor provides. In many cases it is just not convenient to be switching between things, when you really need to have them all open at once and straight up for viewing.
 
I had a 23" and tried to go dually 23" and ran into the dreaded pinkcast (which I didnt REALLY notice until another 23 was alongside it) and then some other image-quality issues. I went with 2 20"s instead, because I need a dual setup, as sometimes I run one on a PC for CAD work, or use a KVM for dual screen on my G5.

I prefer the 2 20s over the one 23, personally. I also agree with iGary about the height, but even the 23 doesnt have great height.
 
I Would go with the two 20''ers. I'm a Huge fan of 2 monitors. I wish I could afford a second.
 
How about spending a few more bucks, and getting two dell 24" displays? If you wait for them to run a good deal, you can get the dell 24" for about 700 bucks. I paid about twice that for my single apple 23" CD and I'm kicking myself now.
 
MustardMan said:
How about spending a few more bucks, and getting two dell 24" displays? If you wait for them to run a good deal, you can get the dell 24" for about 700 bucks. I paid about twice that for my single apple 23" CD and I'm kicking myself now.
Click to expand...

unfortunately the dell`s are not that cheap over here in europe, and to be honest, i'd like to have a matching design on the table - we have dells in our office - they work fine, but look somehow cheap (plastic frame).

I will wait until Paris Expo anyways to see if something new is coming, and decide then.

Thanks to you all for your input...
 
MustardMan said:
How about spending a few more bucks, and getting two dell 24" displays? If you wait for them to run a good deal, you can get the dell 24" for about 700 bucks. I paid about twice that for my single apple 23" CD and I'm kicking myself now.
Click to expand...

On Dell Home, right now the 24" display is $700. No need to wait ;) . Despite that, I opted for the Apple 20" display for $50 less. Call me crazy, but I don't need 24" and much prefer the Apple's looks.
 
amin said:
Call me crazy, but I don't need 24" and much prefer the Apple's looks.
Click to expand...

You're crazy :D

As far as not needing 24"... use one for a couple of weeks and tell me that. I want to cry when I go to work and have to use a 19" boring square monitor.

I thought pretty much the same thing when I bought my cinema display, it looks nicer and has that apple flair. Now I'm desktop-real-estate greedy and all I care about is lots of monitors, no matter what name is stamped on the front.
 
MustardMan said:
You're crazy :D

As far as not needing 24"... use one for a couple of weeks and tell me that. I want to cry when I go to work and have to use a 19" boring square monitor.
Click to expand...

Damn you wanna cry I'm on a 17" and am very happy :)
 
I considered selling my 20" Cinema Display for a 30" one, but instead went for 2x20" for 2 reasons:

1. Cheaper: 2x20" cost me approx £910 rather than approx £1500 for a 30"
2. Although 2x20" still provides less real estate than a 30", I prefer the 2x20" because it seperates my work into two distinct areas. On my 'main' monitor, I have nothing but the menu bar along the top (dock is along the right edge of the 2nd Monitor). This essentially gives me a FULL 20" viewing area to have Photoshop/Aperture/Safari etc, with no distracting windows or dock to clutter it up. What I do then is use the second monitor to display MSN, a quicktime movie, BluePhoneElite SMS windows, and of course the dock. I use the second monitor as a 'quick glance' screen where I can have lots of windows open and viewable without encroaching upon the first monitor's stuff.

The reason I find this works for me is that I considered what I would do if I had a 30" Display. Sure, I'd have a lot of real estate, but all I'd end up doing is scaling my windows up to fill the same proportions as on my 20" display, which wouldn't really reduce the clutter on the screen as I prefer.

Saying that, 2x20" is very very wide. I love it though, especially as I can watch a movie full screen on one monitor whilst working on another.
 
Oh, I also suggest you don't leave it *too* long between buying each 20" display (if you choose to go down that route). The reason being that each screen's backlight will fade gradually over time and you'll probably want to match them. I found that after approx 9 months, I had to reduce the brightness of my 'new' display to match the brightness of the existing one. Not by a massive amount mind, but it's something to bear in mind.

The 20" Displays are very bright to begin with, I wouldn't be too worried that the 23" are technically brighter.
 
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