Dual 17" Monitors vs New 22"

[zlashed]

I am currently running two 17" 1280x1024 monitors with my PC. I am considering purchasing a new monitor (either 22" or 24"). I already have plenty of room on my two monitors, so what are the other benefits of having a single larger monitor besides the space? Thanks in advance.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Are the 17" monitors CRT or LCD?

I'm facing the same thing you are, though I have the 24" lcd now. Back in the day I had dual 17" CRTs.. and one 24" is much better, because the 17"s were crt.

I'm still getting another monitor. You will have plenty of room with just one 24" because it is basically two monitors, but I need another one personally. I think I'm going to get a 19" or 22" widescreen to go with it. Once you do dual, you never go back.

I say if your monitors are CRT, get the 24". If not, get the 24". It's alot of room and awesome with games and movies.

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...?c=us&cs=22&l=en&lob=MON&MODEL_DESC=ALL&s=dfh

The prices go up and down here, I got a 19" ws for my dad at 99$.. they jumped 10. And you get free shipping most of the time. My 24" is awesome and about 8 months old. The 19" is about a month old and awesome.

-Q

*Caugh* Tri-monitors *caugh*

My set up soon will be two 22" ws monitors on my desk and a 24" ws mounted to the wall on a swivel thingy! That would be awesome! For now I must work on surround wound.

 

[medabomb2000]

Technically with two monitors your screen is going to be bigger as you will have more pixel space with your desktop and programs. I currently am running 2 monitors myself, and I like how you can multitask programs and be able to view them simultaneously. If it was my decision, I would definitely stay with the duel monitors.

Only downfall of running 2 17" monitors compared to 1 24" monitor, is that when you want to watch a movie, or play a game it will be smaller on the 17" as only 1 monitor will allow you to run at a time for that movie/game, where the 24" will expand to the full monitor.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Keep in mind that if you have CRTs now, the 24" will give you much more space. And the picture is better.. and the screen is not all bubbly. I would take anything over crt monitors and save up for dual later. You can always dual the 24" with the CRT if needed. But I definatly love dual. (would rather have LCD though )

You can hook up a gaming system to the 24", that's really nice, to play at your desk

 

[zlashed]

Thanks for the replies so far. My two current monitors are LCD and I like them both very much. I could always run the larger monitor and one of my 17" monitors together and have even more space than I do currently. However, besides the full expansion of game and movie windows, is there any benefit of a single larger monitor? With a resolution of 1920x1200, will the larger monitor yield a better picture?

 

[Captain Pooka]

To be honest, I don't see a difference in the "picutre" never looked at it that way. My 24" looks as good as my dads 19" and my brothers 17"... and the 36" tv I connect it to. If you have two 17" don't get rid of one of them lol, keep it how you have it unless you watch movies alot. 24" is alot of monitor...

If your card is pci and you get another card, however, I say run tri!!!

Oh, and once you go widescreen you never go back either

 

[zlashed]

The 17" monitor that I currently use for games and movies has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 and has a response time of only 8ms. Will there be a noticeable difference in quality if I began using a 22" 1680 x 1050 or a 24" 1920 x 1200 monitor with a 2ms response time?

 

[rohan23]

The 17" monitor that I currently use for games and movies has a resolution of 1280 x 1024 and has a response time of only 8ms. Will there be a noticeable difference in quality if I began using a 22" 1680 x 1050 or a 24" 1920 x 1200 monitor with a 2ms response time?

Depends on the company. But, you would see a good amount of difference. The new one will be a lot better for games. You could hook all three of them up with Triple Head 2 Go, or a splitter.

 

[Captain Pooka]

Well... again, I never noticed the difference. I went from CRT to 24" lcd.

Yes, 8ms to 2ms looks way faster, expecially for gaming. For movies I don't think that would make much of a difference. You are looking at Milliseconds too.. that's a thousandth of a second... lol. Again, I never really noticed.

You will have to have a good video card though. It's like that other post on there with that dude trying to run a computer on a 30 something inch tv... he has a video card that can't handle it. It also depends on your card.

I can't help you with that question much.. I can give you a straight answer from my point of veiw, Noticeable? Not at all. And I play alot of games (from Mmorpgs,WoW, to stratigy games like Generals and red alert three, first persons: Unreal Tournament and I've hooked my Xbox to it..first persons) and watch alot of movies. I'm speaking from generals and WoW though, not Halo or anything. Never hooked up an Xbox to a CRT vga.. I'm sure there's a vga-hdmi cable, but I'm not looking

Ah, here's a great way to get it out.

I had my computer hooked up to a CRT 17" while I was waiting on the 24" shippment, I would imagine the response time was low. The thing that got better was the picture. I didn't notice the response time

 

[zlashed]

Thanks Captain Pooka and rohan23. What this comes down to is whether or not it is worth it to pay $250 for a 22" 1680 x 1050 or a 24" 1920 x 1200. Do the improvements I will wee over my current 8ms 1280 x 1024 monitor merit the price?

EDIT: Captain Pooka, I have a nVidia 8800 GTX, so yes I believe my graphics card will suffice.