New monitor: 2 x 22inch or 1 x 24inch?

[Eugopnosaj]

Well im looking to replace my 19inch monitor with something a little bit bigger, i'm looking to spending around £200 but if i can get something for cheaper then it might sway me.

I'm after a new monitor because i do a lot of CAD work on my pc and need quite a big screen size etc and i have found that i can either buy a 24inch for £160+ or get two 22inch monitors for around £200. Obviously the 24inch has a larger resolution but two smaller screens with a smaller resolution would surely do the same thing, if not better because i can split it across two screens. I'd rather spend as little money as possible but if the two 22inch monitors offer me a better solution then in the long run it might be better for me.

Any suggestions?

[matty-hodgson]

where on earth are you gonna get a 24" monitor for £160?
and where can you get 22" monitors for £100 each?
if you're paying so little for a monitor then quality and colour will suffer a heck of a lot..
for CAD i'd go for the 2x 22" option, but for everyday use i'd rather have the simplicity of having a 24" monitor..

having 1920 x 1200 resolution provides ample desktop space to play about with stuff..

22" or 24"
if budget is a limiting factor, then those would be the ones i'd go for..

[Funkstar]

I'm kind of with Matty on this, although I'd rather spend £200 (or more) on a single 24"

22" for £99.99 as featured on the Hexus main site

Cheap, but i don't think it would be that good. You really do get what you pay for as far as monitors are concerned.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ebuyer have the Samsung SM205BW for £115 and the SM2032BW for £120!

Edit! Sorry these are 20 inch monitors! My mistake!! However these still have the same resolution as the 22" monitors and the SM205BW is considered a decent monitor.

Ebuyer have a 22" Cibox display for £106 which has got some good user reviews:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128036

[Bluecube]

It depends how you work. I have two 19" monitors at work (nothing exciting - just spreadsheets!) and I couldn't imagine working without them. Being able to maximise two applications on each monitor without any mucking about might not sound like a big deal but once you get used to it you can't live without it! In your particular case though, I imagine that your CAD package would look better and be easier to use on just one screen so I'd go with the 24 incher. The extra resolution without any breaks due to monitor bezels will be right up your street.

[Pegasus123]

I agree with Bluecube here, with CAD work I prefer to use a single large screen as opposed to dual screens since your working on one document, I'd go with the 24" monitor.

[Funkstar]

Something else to consider: Does your CAD app support multiple monitors?

For example, Adobe Lightroom 2 now has proper support for dual monitors, meaning you can have all your menus and controls on one screen and your actual image on another. This has two advantages, first it means you get the full screen real estate for viewing images, you can also have a cheap monitor for the controls, and an expensive calibrated one for working on (this is what I mean by an expensive monitor).

My previous setup was a 14" laptop with a 24" Dell monitor hooked to it and i really likes the dual screen setup. After building a desktop to reaplce the laptop, i've decided that right now, I'm completely happy with just the 24". If I had more space (like a proper home office) then I'd probably get another 24". But right now that just isn't possible and I'm enjoying the increased desk pace right now

It's just a shame 27" monitors aren't higher resolution than 24" models.

[Eugopnosaj]

where on earth are you gonna get a 24" monitor for £160?
and where can you get 22" monitors for £100 each?
if you're paying so little for a monitor then quality and colour will suffer a heck of a lot..
for CAD i'd go for the 2x 22" option, but for everyday use i'd rather have the simplicity of having a 24" monitor..

having 1920 x 1200 resolution provides ample desktop space to play about with stuff..

22" or 24"
if budget is a limiting factor, then those would be the ones i'd go for..

http://www.saverstore.com/productinf...pid=10&tid=185 24inch

and the 22inch is the cibox from ebuyer, i've got the 19inch cibox and it's been brilliant but just too small now. I can get a dell 24inch for £205 http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/product.asp...en+LCD+monitor

Something else to consider: Does your CAD app support multiple monitors?

Yeah it does support dual monitors, i use Rhino/illustrator/photoshop etc

[Peter Parker]

£0.02 ...

Depends how you can split your apps across the screens. At work we do pair-programming and use dual Dell 2408s. We tend to split the screen so that on one monitor there's a web browser, terminal etc, and then on the other monitor there's our development environment running full screen.

Assuming that you don't require excellent colour fidelity, 2 cheap 22" monitors seems like the way to go, especially if your CAD application has undockable tool bars that you can spread across two monitors. You could even consider rotating them 90 degrees to have 'tall' monitors side-by-side if the work suits it.

[mehmeh]

Used both kinda setups in the past and both have there pro's and con's.. tbh I could never find a reason for the added clutter on my desk when one big monitor seemed to do the job fine.. Anyway reason for posting.. Have you had a glance at www.aria.co.uk - They often do some cracking deals on monitors, but also agree with you getting what'cha pay for.. I lurve my Llyama