I currently have 2 21" monitors hooked up to a matrox dual monitor card. I set the screen area setting for the matrox card to 2048 by 768 pixels so I could use both monitors. When trading I use 4 charts total with 2 charts on each monitor. My question is since I use 2048 by 768 pixels to display the 4 charts across 2 monitors, when I get a 24" monitor with 1920 by 1200 pixels it seems as though I should be able to display the 4 charts on the 24" monitor with mimimal change in chart size or chart display quality. Am I right or will I have to get 2 24" monitors to replace the 2 21" monitors? Thanks in Advance Toucan
The 30 minute time limit for editing my post has passed so I will update the post here.... I currently have 2 21" monitors hooked up to a matrox dual monitor card. I set the screen area setting for the matrox card to 2048 by 768 pixels so I could use both monitors. When trading I use 4 charts total with 2 charts on each monitor. I plan to get a new computer with a 24" monitor...My question is since I use 2048 by 768 pixels to display the 4 charts across 2 monitors, when I get a a new computer with a 24" monitor that uses 1920 by 1200 pixels it seems as though I should be able to display the 4 charts on the 24" monitor with mimimal change in chart size or chart display quality. Am I right or will I have to get 2 24" monitors to replace the 2 21" monitors? Thanks in Advance Toucan
things to consider: 1. how much space do you have? are the 2x21" taking up too much room? 2. how much screen real estate do you prefer. take the square inches of 2x21" (2x200sqin = 400sqin), and compare that to 1x24" (260sqin). This is a personal preference. 3. How much chart detail do you need? Your 21" should do 1680x1050, multiply that by 2, and you have 3,528,000 pixels. 1x24" @ 1920x1200 only gives you 2,304,00 pixels. (i.e. 65% of the dots of 2x21".) 4. with 2 LCD, if 1 dies, you still have one to work on. 5. 1 LCD uses less power, thus a smaller carbon foot print. (your contribution to save the environment.)
FWIW, when I come across this kind of question, I always advise the person to go with the 2 screens over 1 bigger screen. Reasons? 1. You get more pixels, so you get more space to view things with 2 monitors over one. 2. Many times, the cost of 1 monitor is only marginally lower than the cost of 2 smaller ones. 3. If one of your 2 monitors comes with a problem or decides to have problems after you start using it, you are not left without a screen. You can shift your workspace to the other one until the broken one is fixed. 4. The market changes and so does one's style. Having 2 monitors allows for a lot more flexibility in what you do with them. As you grow, you might decide to add 2 more or take one of the 2 and use it for a separate trading machine or whatever. The options are much better with 2. Just make sure you have a video card that can handle the higher resolutions for the 21" or just get 2 good quality video cards to run them. Good luck.
How about 2, 20", UXGA's (1600x1200) + Nvidia Quadro NVS 280 or 285 video card for about $800? High quality S-IPS panels, too.
You should get 2 of these 24 inch monitors from Dell. Great deal. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?cs=19&c=us&l=en&sku=320-6095
Thank you all for your replies..... I wanted to keep things easy so I simplified what I had and what i'm thinking of getting... I really have an older dell workstation with 6 monitors driven by 3 dual matrox cards.... Its been a really good system for the last 5 years, but I need more memory, speed etc.... I recently switched from stocks to futures and only need 4 of those monitors. So I'm getting a dell XPS720 with a 2704 24" monitor for tv and trading and a 248 24" dell just for trading.... Since I only need 4 of my old monitors, I was wondering if I could put the same amount of data on the 2 24" dells that I have on the 4 old monitors without cramming so small that I couldn't read the charts. Thanks again for all your advice toucan
the charts will be visibly smaller when fit the 4 charts into the 24" monitor. even tho the overall resolution would be set to similar aspect, the 2 21's have much more overall square footage. In other words, you can see them bigger in 2 21's vs. 1 24.
Again, I would go with 2 21" over 1 24". Gnome's suggestion makes the most sense right now with the price of 20" panels dropping like a rock. But since you mentioned 21", then I would take those over 1 24" any day.