1 23" display or 2 17" displays?

blang

When I was at my local Apple Store yesterday they had a Powermac (dual 1gig) running two 17" Apple displays.



I was quite surprised at how smooth the transition was from one monitor to the other, I quickly seemed to get used to it.



Has anyone done this in lieu of getting one of the 23" HD Cinema Displays? It certainly saves a wad of cash.



Or is this something that one can quickly tire of?

matsu

<a href="http://www.formac.com/p_bin/?cid=solutions_displays_gallery2010"; target="_blank">Formac 2010</a>



You only need one. Not quite a 23" but better than a 22" and much much cheaper than both.

brian j.

Been using multiple monitors for two years (on my PC), and still ain't tired of it. In fact, I now find it hard to work on single monitor systems.



The effective result of running multiple monitors is one very wide screen. Personally, I feel I can open more windows and multitask better with this wide aspect ratio. When I'm programming, I keep API documentation on one screen, source code on another screen, and test/run applications on a third screen. That said, there are definitely instances where one larger monitor is advantageous ( games for instance). But, overall, I love having multiple monitors.

alcimedes

or you can try for the best of both worlds.



my PC has two Sony 21" CRT's with an 24" Sony widescreen in the middle. that's the only thing i really miss about that machine when working on my laptop.

multimedia

2 Formac 2010 17" DVIs (3200x1200) will cost less than one Apple 23" Cinema HD (1920x1200) and provide 166% more dual desktop space. Or you can start with one Formac and a 19" CRT as your secondary screen. Set the CRT at 1600 x 1200 and you can switch to a second Formac or whatever new organic flat display comes along next as soon as you get sick of the CRT.



You do know that organic displays are only months from market now right? They will revolutionize what we look at out of the computers and radically lower the cost of flat displays. I will be very surprised if Apple doesn't announce a completly new line of Organic Flat Panels at San Francisco MacWorld.

matsu

Months away? Really. They've been "months away" for a couple of years now. I wonder. If they can make it work I wouldn't buy a laptop with anything other. But, as I recall, there were significant difficulties to overcome before a full color, full size screen, beame a viable proposition.

multimedia

I know nothing for sure. You may just as well be right.

altivec_2.0

Is there any LCD screen better than Formac?

kecksy

Formac may be cheaper, but how's the image quality compared to Apple's LCDs.

junkyard dawg

Any links on these organic displays?



I'm more interested in what organic displays could do for the price of LCD displays. If Apple could get the price of the 17" iMac down to say, $1500, it would start looking pretty damn nice, except of course for not having an upgradable video card.



Desktop computer w/o AGP slot = bad design.

xionja

organic?, like organic produce i buy?????

someone wanna explain a little about the nature of lcd screens?, how does certain technologys, improve clarity, brightness, qualtiy?

dennis the phantom menace

Personally I think the image quality of the 22" looks better than the 23", but that's just me.

Going back to the question...

I like the idea of 1 big honking monitor.

airsluf

kenneth

[quote]Originally posted by Kecksy:

<strong>Formac may be cheaper, but how's the image quality compared to Apple's LCDs.</strong><hr></blockquote>



I would like to know too. On the Formac website, they are pointing the gun to the Apple 17" studio display with their brand. Both 17" got the similar price tag.



Kenneth

matsu

A quick read of the Formac site

(and what I remember of the 17.4 reviews) suggests the formac is far superior to any apply displays. It's an MVA screen, the best kind of LCD out there at the moment. Way higher contrast ratio: 500:1 vs 300:1, better brightness, much faster pixels: 15-25ms (more than fast enough for video), and a three year warrantee vs one year for Apple. Best guarantee in the industry against dead pixels -- 2 dead pixels total for the whole display!!! vs up to ten dead pixels depending on distribution on Apple's displays.

reynard

In the February Macworld magazine, the 17" LCD Formac rated slightly higher than Apple's. This model has the single cord connection like the Apple Display Connector.



Nevertheless, I got the Apple since it came as bundle with the older 733G4. That, with my educator discount saved me over $300. Im very happy with it though I dont use my computer for anything demanding. Not a single dead pixel.