How big is your external display?

[Clippy]

Aye, came to that conclusion in the end!

Fairly sure I'll be going for the Samsung P2470HD now and not the T240HD mentioned earlier.

Got the P22470HD in the end and what an improvement over my previous 20" display.

Great looking screen and laptop use on a 24" screen really is a pleasure now.

Bonus is that the XBox is looking awesome in 1080p.

[Spacecadet]

Pretty much any modern graphics card will drive two screens.

WHS

I actually use 2 monitors plugged into the laptop docking station. (1 VGA the other DVI)

[HairyArsedBloke]

He's talking about SLI & CrossFire, which run multiple 3d accelerator cards in parallel to improve performance when gaming.

Pretty much any modern graphics card will drive two screens. Unless you are really watching the pennies an NVidia Quadro NVS is a good bet, but if you're on a tighter budget a low end gaming card will give you two displays but without some of the fancier multi desktop features.

Ah, great . That's what I wanted to know. eBuyer has a couple of options around the 80 squidly mark.

[doodab]

Please excuse this o/t question.

I need to upgrade the kit here (reason is another story) and like dual monitors. I've got two dodgy cards at the moment, but used to have a matrox one in the past.

I was having a chat with a young chap who is into all this lark and he said that the way to go is two cards that have some sort of link together. I was lost. WTF is this all about? I think it's to do with the gaming etc.

All I want to do is have loads of real estate to show charts, Excel, VS i.e. a typical traders/quants display (for the City types in the congregation). I'm not interested in performance for gaming etc.

He's talking about SLI & CrossFire, which run multiple 3d accelerator cards in parallel to improve performance when gaming.

Pretty much any modern graphics card will drive two screens. Unless you are really watching the pennies an NVidia Quadro NVS is a good bet, but if you're on a tighter budget a low end gaming card will give you two displays but without some of the fancier multi desktop features.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Please excuse this o/t question.

I need to upgrade the kit here (reason is another story) and like dual monitors. I've got two dodgy cards at the moment, but used to have a matrox one in the past.

I was having a chat with a young chap who is into all this lark and he said that the way to go is two cards that have some sort of link together. I was lost. WTF is this all about? I think it's to do with the gaming etc.

All I want to do is have loads of real estate to show charts, Excel, VS i.e. a typical traders/quants display (for the City types in the congregation). I'm not interested in performance for gaming etc.

[SuperZ]

I think it's always worth paying the extra for a good display.
Currently using a 24" Dell UltraSharp 2008 (can't remember the exact model now), paid close to £500 for it. Resolution is 1920*1200 which is perfect for the size of screen (text easy to read etc). I think Dell now do a 24" 2010 Ultrasharp model, but consider buying via another etailer to get one cheaper than through Dell. Dell also make a 27" high res screen which is close to a grand but I've heard due to the high res(2560*xxxx which is the same res as Dell's 32inch screen), it's not great for working with text although I have not yet had a play with one to know if this is true or not.

27" I think would be fantastic, at the right resolution, but an 24" top quality 1920*1200 LCD is great

[Clippy]

For an external display I think 32" is too big.

for xbox/tv use its not big enough :P

Aye, came to that conclusion in the end!

Fairly sure I'll be going for the Samsung P2470HD now and not the T240HD mentioned earlier.

[VectraMan]

I just have 17". It has Visual Studio all the time, and is usually pleanty. Though I suppose there are times when debugging it'd be nice to be able to spread out a bit more. I'd rather have a third monitor than one large one though.

[Scrag Meister]

I use a Dell 2407 (24").

Nice quality fast refresh, invoices, spreadsheets an word docs look great, and the occasional game .

Nearly time for the upgrade and am looking at the Dell WFP3008 (30"), or possibly 2 Dell 24" screens, cheaper than the 30".

Its a compenisatory thing, what can I say.

[Spacecadet]

For those of you who use an external display, what size screen are you using?

Am in the market for a new one myself and think I have settled for a 24" Samsung T240HD for £200.

However for £280, I can get a 32" Samsung LE32B450.

Is a 32" external display ridiculous?

It will be used for the following purposes: External laptop display/XBox/TV

For an external display I think 32" is too big.

for xbox/tv use its not big enough :P

[Spacecadet]

I have two 22" displays. But I do SAP development through them, where it's helpful to have four sessions open and visible at one time. I also connect to client site through a virtual machine - the real machine is in one screen, the virtual in the other.

But for flight simulator it's total cool!

Sounds very similar to my home set up
2 wide screen monitors, 2nd monitor is very useful if you want to RDP to a server. You can have remote desktop open full screen in one and still have a full screen available for your local machine.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1630056/desktop.jpg

I can definitely recommend display fusion for managing the larger desktop area.
DisplayFusion: Multi-Monitor Taskbar and Desktop Wallpaper

[NotAllThere]

I have two 22" displays. But I do SAP development through them, where it's helpful to have four sessions open and visible at one time. I also connect to client site through a virtual machine - the real machine is in one screen, the virtual in the other.

But for flight simulator it's total cool!

[Clippy]

I have the T240 attached to my desktop at home, it's a decent £200 display but not on a par with more expensive ones with IPS & PVA panels from e.g. EIZO or Lacie.

24" is about the limit of what I would want as a windows desktop but you might want more if you are after a completely immersive VR type experience or using the sort of applications that can benefit from multiple displays.

Good points, thanks.

TBH, since my original post, am erring towards the T240 as it is a monitor with TV capability whereas the 32B450 is a TV with monitor capability and I have no need for such a large display.

I was only considering it as the cost wasn't much more than the T240 and the thought of playing the XBox on a large screen seemed attractive.

The T240 has had some OK reviews so looks like the way to go if I can get hold of one!

[doodab]

For those of you who use an external display, what size screen are you using?

Am in the market for a new one myself and think I have settled for a 24" Samsung T240HD for £200.

However for £280, I can get a 32" Samsung LE32B450.

Is a 32" external display ridiculous?

It will be used for the following purposes: External laptop display/XBox/TV

I have the T240 attached to my desktop at home, it's a decent £200 display but not on a par with more expensive ones with IPS & PVA panels from e.g. EIZO or Lacie.

24" is about the limit of what I would want as a windows desktop but you might want more if you are after a completely immersive VR type experience or using the sort of applications that can benefit from multiple displays.

[Clippy]

For those of you who use an external display, what size screen are you using?

Am in the market for a new one myself and think I have settled for a 24" Samsung T240HD for £200.

However for £280, I can get a 32" Samsung LE32B450.

Is a 32" external display ridiculous?

It will be used for the following purposes: External laptop display/XBox/TV