Two 19'' or one 24''?

[AJ.]

I'm not sure what to do. I do like the idea of having two monitors for more real estate; but dislike the idea of having that gap/bar down the middle when I'm gaming. I already have one Vison 19'' flat panel (1280x1024) so if I do choose to get the second monitor it would be about $130-$140 for the second panel. It would be much cheaper than getting a 24'' widescreen that's for sure.

What do you guys think? Two 19'' flat panels or one big 24'' widescreen?

[darkorb]

if i were you, get one big one

[PP Mguire]

Just for the record, when you game the game is only on one screen. Your desktop remains on the second unless your playing like Flight Sim or something. So no bar, which might convince one way or the other. IMO bigger is ALWAYS better if your PC can handle the big res. I believe 24" is 1920x1200 right? Can your PC handle all the games at its native res? When my gf was gonna get me this Samsung 30" (2650x1560) i was a little scared that my 7950GT might go *poof*.

['Amp!']

Here ya go A.J.
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php

Grab one of those and a cheaper second 19" and you'll be ultra widescreen gaming in no time.

There are some pitfalls though as some games have difficulty working with non-standard resolutions so make sure you do your homework.

Just in case the cost of 24" is too much and you listen to some of the misinformation here is an alternative.

[peti1212]

Well I would personally just get one 24" one, because just like you AJ I do not like the fact that the screen gets divided by a bar. Also some games do use the two screen settings, but I do not like it because then if you are playing a FPS game and the guy is in the middle, then you can see the guy diveded up, which for me was really annoying. So I would go with a 24". I recently had one for a month and I really like it. The size was great. :)

[sushrukh]

I've also voted for the single 24'' earlier (with due respect to the stuff's opinion :icon_tiphat: ).Also,AJ has previously said that his father pays electricity bills & two monitors mean a more higher bill.Plus there are the resolution & divider problems.

[Sadasius]

I would go for the dual screens in a heart beat. A 24 is very nice but way too expensive, not to mention your video cards are going to run harder to keep up. Get another cheap 19 and a bracket and away you go....Plus it looks pretty damn impressive as well to see a desk with two screens.

[Acidtears33]

I guess the issues are more than just which one is better like mentioned before.

Is the electric bill a concern? Will mom/dad get upset at a higher bill? ($3-$5 usd avg)

Do you have the space? Is the 24" within your budget?

I have used 2 display before and it was really cool. I use one large display right now and it just doesn't feel the same. it is just 'simpler'.

[AJ.]

Here ya go A.J.
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php

Grab one of those and a cheaper second 19" and you'll be ultra widescreen gaming in no time.

There are some pitfalls though as some games have difficulty working with non-standard resolutions so make sure you do your homework.

Just in case the cost of 24" is too much and you listen to some of the misinformation here is an alternative.

Wow, thanks for the link Gonz. It looks awesome, but at that price I might as well opt for the single big screen.

Just for the record, when you game the game is only on one screen.

Really? I heard that you could force certain games to run at certain resolutions. They just won't be running at their native resolution. I would like to have games run on both screens at the same time. If that's a problem, I might have to consider another solution. And my pc is pretty decent and handles all games with ease.

Also, AJ has previously said that his father pays electricity bills & two monitors mean a more higher bill.

True, but the only reason it was a problem back when I stated that was when I was going to leave my system on 24/7. It's not a problem in this situation :wink:

Is the electric bill a concern? Will mom/dad get upset at a higher bill? ($3-$5 usd avg)

Do you have the space? Is the 24" within your budget?

No, they won't get upset about the higher electricity bill on this one. The difference would be WAY too little lol.

I do have the space for either setup and my buget is limited if I do go 24''. I want to keep it under $400.

[Ranzear]

I've run dual screens and such. Bleh.

If something is DirectDraw, it will only display on your primary while any wrap to the second screen is blacked out. If you play any FPS you'll obviously have problems with a center bar and your aiming reticle.

Just get the 24", the novelty of two screens wears off once you realize you only use one at a time anyway. I think the best and only usage I got out of a pair of 19" was having FFXI on one and a quest guide on the other.

And might I recommend saving another $100 or so and getting a Samsung 245BW.

[tomato]

I would personally go with one screen, but not the 24", which are too expensive IMO. I'd go with a 22", rather than a single 24" or dual 19"... 22" LCD monitors seem to be the sweet spot right now between price & size, at least for me ;) 8)

[AJ.]

Thanks for the opinions guys. ;-)

I'm still torn between the two decisions, though :lol:

Although, I've definitely got the 24'' monitor out of my mind. Like tomato said, they are pretty expensive. There's a pretty big difference in price when you do the jump from 22'' to 24''. The difference in size isn't THAT great either. It's just the resolution.

Now it's between dual 19'' or one 22''. Hmm.... decisions, decisions :?

[sushrukh]

Samsung 226BW (http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/19/IMG0019739.gif) is one of the best in 22'' Widescreen category.Looks awesome too.

[AJ.]

Samsung 226BW (http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/19/IMG0019739.gif) is one of the best in 22'' Widescreen category.Looks awesome too.

Yeah I was looking at that monitor off newegg. They have a nice deal going on too.

[PP Mguire]

It's just the resolution.If your card can handle it, resolution in todays latest games makes all the difference ;) Thats why the bigger ones have such a hefty price.

[AJ.]

If your card can handle it, resolution in todays latest games makes all the difference ;) Thats why the bigger ones have such a hefty price.

My card (EVGA 8800GTS 320MB superclocked) could handle it, but I would have to turn down a lot of the settings to get decent frames in most games. 1900x1200 is pretty much the limits of my card in gaming.

[sushrukh]

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/4063/img9469xu9.jpg

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1874/imgp0218br7.jpg

Now decide, which one looks cool.Just kidding. :lol: 2MS of this 226BW(the below picture) is just awesome & you have to see the monitor when the lights are off.The cool Blue looks great.

[timberwolf120]

I like my 20" wide screen. 1680x1050 resolution, which is the same as 22" ones I've seen. This means the space in between the pixels are smaller (smaller dot pitch), which should be sharper (technically speaking). Though I doubt I could tell the difference in picture quality between a 20" and a 22".

[darkorb]

Sry to bash the Samsung, but it looks amazing, very styliish, but out of the 2 i had, both of them had terrible backlight bleeding and bad ghosting in games, whenever there were fast movement (throwing grenades, etc..)

i got the LG 22" Flatron Wide. Amazing monitor.

[PP Mguire]

I have a 19" LOL but i love it. Does what i need it to, and i know for certain i couldnt handle that extreme res of the 30". I do believe Samsung to be the best in making LCDs though. Just depends on what model you get really. I have my eyes cet on a 47" Samsung LCD TV. 1080P with 3 HDMI, DVI, 2 component, and 2 composite+S-Video. 15k-1 contrast. ayyyeeee for only 1200 bucks. (yum)

[timberwolf120]

Sry to bash the Samsung, but it looks amazing, very styliish, but out of the 2 i had, both of them had terrible backlight bleeding and bad ghosting in games, whenever there were fast movement (throwing grenades, etc..)

i got the LG 22" Flatron Wide. Amazing monitor.

Which 2 did you own?

:offtopic:
By the way, there was this extensive article I read about ghosting and LCDs. Why CRTs were better than LCDs for gaming and stuff. Well, this guy talked about how the human eye works and said that CRT works better with our eyes. I think he said that the problem with LCDs is that they display a constant picture. I think he mentioned that Samsung was trying to come up with ideas to solve this. Like inserting a black frame every 3-4 frames to simulate how a CRT works.
I'll find the article if anyone is interested. It was posted a while back and you guys probably have read it.

[Ranzear]

I was very specific about the 245BW because it doesn't have any of the ghosting and bleeding problems of the other Samsung models besides the 226BW which came out at the same time and is actually even better if smaller.

I dislike the little chrome edge on the bottom though, thin black 245BW border FTW.

I remember that article, and it was thrown out as absolute trash by Slashdot because of all the crap in it, Optometrist he was not.

[PP Mguire]

By the way, there was this extensive article I read about ghosting and LCDs. Why CRTs were better than LCDs for gaming and stuff. Well, this guy talked about how the human eye works and said that CRT works better with our eyes. I think he said that the problem with LCDs is that they display a constant picture. I think he mentioned that Samsung was trying to come up with ideas to solve this. Like inserting a black frame every 3-4 frames to simulate how a CRT works.
I'll find the article if anyone is interested. It was posted a while back and you guys probably have read it. I can tell you one thing its not. Response time. Idc if you have the cheapest LCD with the ****tiest response time becasue it wont ghost because of it. I believe your cheapest LCD has 12ms whereas your average CRT has 25ms.

[Tennessee Redneck]

In our office we both use 3 24 inch screens because we usually have so many things to utilize . If I had to choose between 1 or 2 I would have to choose 2 just for the funtionality.

[PP Mguire]

Id love to have 2 30"s lol. Course i cant afford that.

[Frag Maniac]

...but dislike the idea of having that gap/bar down the middle when I'm gaming.Besides the extra expense and complexity, this is one of the main reasons many prefer not to use synchronized displays.

If you insist on it though, the best way to go is find a decent display with a very thin bezel (middle one) and go triple head with the outter two overlapped behind the middle one.

[PP Mguire]

Like i alrady said, when you game it is strictly one panel unless you play a multiple display game. (No FPS i dont think)