Second screen for iMac

[chilipie]

I'm going to be doing some video work over the summer on my iMac (17", 1.83 GHz CD, 1.5GB RAM and 128MB ATI Radeon X1600), and am thinking about getting a second screen.

I've already splashed out on an external HD (a 500 gig WesternDigital MyBook Pro), and so my budget isn't huge (which means no ACD ), but I'd still like to get something with a decent build quality.

My main questions are 1) What resolution will it support? I don't to sacrifice speed for more pixels; and 2) What are the best value monitors for the kind of thing I'm doing (mostly film editing in FC and web development stuff)?

Thanks for your time

 

[Mundy]

I'm going to be doing some video work over the summer on my iMac (17", 1.83 GHz CD, 1.5GB RAM and 128MB ATI Radeon X1600), and am thinking about getting a second screen.

I've already splashed out on an external HD (a 500 gig WesternDigital MyBook Pro), and so my budget isn't huge (which means no ACD ), but I'd still like to get something with a decent build quality.

My main questions are 1) What resolution will it support? I don't to sacrifice speed for more pixels; and 2) What are the best value monitors for the kind of thing I'm doing (mostly film editing in FC and web development stuff)?

Thanks for your time

Your 17" iMac with drive an external display up to 1920x1200, which for a computer monitor means a 23" or 24" display.

If an ACD is out, then I would highly recommend a Dell monitor. I use 24" Dell 2407 monitors on my Mac Pro, and they're fantastic. (Plus I can plug an Xbox 360 into the monitor's VGA port while using the DVI port of my Mac.) If you can't afford the ~$650 for a Dell 2407, you might want to look into their 20" 1680x1050 displays. But the nice thing about a 1920x1200 monitor is that it will let you see and edit full HD (which is 1920x1080).