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Life with two 23" ACDs (experiences, please)

N

notheremuch

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 11, 2005
50
0
My PoweMac G5 Dual (2x2.0) and 23" ACD was the best purchase I've made in years.

It's been 10 months, and I have the itch for a 2nd 23" ACD. But first, a few practical questions.

I'm a hobby photographer and I never, ever play games, so there. ;-)

1) Can I run one in portrait and the other in landscape?
2) Does my (stock) ATI Radeon 9600 perform well enough with two?
3) Strange question - When I go to Screensaver/Desktop, do I have two choices or do I need to have one incredibley long image for my Desktop and Screensaver?!
4) Do I just go and buy the 2nd monitor or do I need to buy additional wiring or anything else?

Anything else you have to say about a Dual 23" I'd love to hear!

Tnx
 
I can't answer some of your questions for sure because I don't have that setup, but here's what I do know:

1) I don't know for sure, but I tend to doubt it.
2) Your video card should be more than powerful enough to drive both monitors.
3) As long as you have spanning turned on you have the choice of two different images for your desktop, but only one choice for your screen saver. Your screen saver runs on both screens separately, though (ie: if you have Flurry turned on you will have two different images running independently of one another).
4) You should not need any aditional equipment since the video card should have two DVI ports.

Hope that helps!
 
Personally, I would sell the 23" and upgrade to a 30". I find it annoying to have two screens, because one has to be used as the main screen (with the dock and menu bars) and it's annoying to have the arrow "jump" back and forth between screens. Then, it's also annoying as to how to position them on your desk. You wouldn't want to sit in the middle of the two, because you would constantly be looking to the side to see the main screen, and you would be staring at where the bezels meet. So, you would need to move one off to the right or left, which seems awkward to me.
 
ITASOR said:
Personally, I would sell the 23" and upgrade to a 30". I find it annoying to have two screens, because one has to be used as the main screen (with the dock and menu bars) and it's annoying to have the arrow "jump" back and forth between screens. Then, it's also annoying as to how to position them on your desk. You wouldn't want to sit in the middle of the two, because you would constantly be looking to the side to see the main screen, and you would be staring at where the bezels meet. So, you would need to move one off to the right or left, which seems awkward to me.
Click to expand...

The video card won't support 30" displays. That being said. I went from 2x23" to 1x30" + 17" MBP. Both configurations are great. 2x23" is nice if you're working in two apps at the same time, or if you want to have iTunes, a movie, or all your addressbook/iCal/iChat/Skype apps running in one and your primary app in the other. I do this with the 17"+30" setup. I use the 30" as my primary workspace and keep iTunes and iChat in the 17" display.
 
MovieCutter said:
The video card won't support 30" displays.
Click to expand...


Are you sure? The quick google search I did to find out if it had 2 DVI ports seemed to indicate that it could drive a 30". Link.

It's a distinct possibility that this is not the same card as the stock model, but it's what I found, anyway.
 
Yes, you can run an ACD in protrait mode, and fairly simply too.

Take the ACD and flip it 180 degrees, so it's tall. Next, go to "Display Preferences." Go to "Rotate" on the bottom right corner (See Fig. 1). Change to 180, then pick your resolution. There you go!

Fig. 1:
99434998_11018e6edb.jpg
 
baby duck monge said:
Are you sure? The quick google search I did to find out if it had 2 DVI ports seemed to indicate that it could drive a 30". Link.

It's a distinct possibility that this is not the same card as the stock model, but it's what I found, anyway.
Click to expand...

For the 1000th time, the 30" HAS ONE DVI CABLE...you need a DVI port with DUAL LINK, not DUAL DVI PORTS. The graphics card has to have TWO streams running to ONE DVI port, hence Dual link. The 9600 has not such port.
 
i have a 23" ACD and a 24" Dell 2405fpw.

currently they are in two different locations, but when i have them in the same place, i love having the enormous workspace for all my tasks. i like having two displays, i benefit from it, but i think that a 30" would be just delightful ( with my 23" off to the side!!! haha ) but seeing as how his video card does not support a 30" display, i think this wouldn't be too bad of an idea/
 
MovieCutter said:
For the 1000th time, the 30" HAS ONE DVI CABLE...you need a DVI port with DUAL LINK, not DUAL DVI PORTS. The graphics card has to have TWO streams running to ONE DVI port, hence Dual link. The 9600 has not such port.
Click to expand...

That was not the reason I thought it would work; that was the reason I knew he could run two monitors without any other hardware (like an ADC -> DVI converter). If you would click on the link I put there, it claims that the card can run a 30" Apple display. I admitted that I wasn't sure if it was the exact same video card as what the OP had, but I certainly wasn't insinuating that you need 2xDVI to run a 30" monitor. Please check what I post before chastising me :mad:
 
kildraik said:
Yes, you can run an ACD in protrait mode, and fairly simply too.

Take the ACD and flip it 180 degrees, so it's tall. Next, go to "Display Preferences." Go to "Rotate" on the bottom right corner (See Fig. 1). Change to 180, then pick your resolution. There you go!

Fig. 1:
99434998_11018e6edb.jpg
Click to expand...
I was under the impression that you could not rotate the Cinema Displays. The image you posted shows you being able to rotate your television, not a Cinema Display, unless I'm reading something wrong.

I know that you can rotate Dell displays, as I have two of them at home, but I've always been under the impression you can't rotate the Cinema Displays. In fact, I'm typing on one right now, and I don't get that option, despite running a dual display setup (with a Dell 19").

This is, of course, ignoring the fact that you can't physically rotate the display without having it mounted on a wall or other separate stand.
 
baby duck monge said:
That was not the reason I thought it would work; that was the reason I knew he could run two monitors without any other hardware (like an ADC -> DVI converter). If you would click on the link I put there, it claims that the card can run a 30" Apple display. I admitted that I wasn't sure if it was the exact same video card as what the OP had, but I certainly wasn't insinuating that you need 2xDVI to run a 30" monitor. Please check what I post before chastising me :mad:
Click to expand...

Sorry buddy, that's just what it looked like to me. I guess I've seen far too many "Does the 30" Display use two DVI ports" threads. No worries.
 
MovieCutter said:
Sorry buddy, that's just what it looked like to me. I guess I've seen far too many "Does the 30" Display use two DVI ports" threads. No worries.
Click to expand...

It's all good. I know that sometimes we all read things a little more quickly than we should - and we often read them as what we want them to say as opposed to what they actually say. If you slowed down a bit (or had taken a less agressive tone with me) it would have been fine; your post just rubbed me the wrong way a bit.

All is forgiven now, though. :)
 
notheremuch said:
My PoweMac G5 Dual (2x2.0) and 23" ACD was the best purchase I've made in years.

It's been 10 months, and I have the itch for a 2nd 23" ACD. But first, a few practical questions.

I'm a hobby photographer and I never, ever play games, so there. ;-)

1) Can I run one in portrait and the other in landscape?
2) Does my (stock) ATI Radeon 9600 perform well enough with two?
3) Strange question - When I go to Screensaver/Desktop, do I have two choices or do I need to have one incredibley long image for my Desktop and Screensaver?!
4) Do I just go and buy the 2nd monitor or do I need to buy additional wiring or anything else?

Anything else you have to say about a Dual 23" I'd love to hear!

Tnx
Click to expand...

Well, I can answer all of this. I have a dual 2.5ghz G5 w/ 9600XT and two 23" ACD's.

1) Yes you can run one in portrait and the other in landscape
2) Your video card will be fine
3) You have two choices for desktop backgrounds but the same screen saver will be on both monitors, not stretched just two simultaneous copies of the same screen saver.
4) You may need to buy an adapter cable that was $20cdn for me from Apple, I believe you might need the ADC to DVI adapter.

I'll take screenshotss in 30m,.

EDIT: Here's the screenshots

http://www.northernlandscaping.ca/monitor4.jpg
http://www.northernlandscaping.ca/monitors2.jpg
http://www.northernlandscaping.ca/background.jpg
http://www.northernlandscaping.ca/monitors3.jpg
http://www.northernlandscaping.ca/monitors.jpg
 
I seem to favour the two monitor setup. Two monitors are very useful for multitasking. I find that on my 24" display, I can really only have one app running. I like most of my apps full screen. Having another screen where I can have iTunes, Finder, Adium and others would be nice and I could have FireFox running at full res on the main display.
 
I seem to favour the two monitor setup. Two monitors are very useful for multitasking. I find that on my 24" display, I can really only have one app running. I like most of my apps full screen. Having another screen where I can have iTunes, Finder, Adium and others would be nice and I could have FireFox running at full res on the main display.
 
It Works!!!

After running a 22" ACD and a 20" ACD side by side for almost 5 years I can say that your proposed setup will work fine. I would not normally however see that you can justify the differential between the 23" and the 20" as second displays unless you begin to do some serious work.

As indicated by most you only use the second display as a Storage Area, or an Expensive Photo or Wallpaper Holder. I find it most useful as a work area, but that not having an easy "drag and drop" solution (difficult to move files from one display to the other) is really is just a static solution of limited practical use. If you have a large amount of drag and drop work or shifting of files from the desktop to elsewhere then go for the 30", albeit at a higher price.
 
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