I am planning on buy a new tft monitor. What do you recommend, 2 small once or one big one. I love the new 23'' from Apple. Is there any way I can connect it to a PC? Any opinion/experiense welcomed.
I would definitely go with two small over one big. I just bought a 2nd monitor for my pc and I love it. As for what works with what, I just don't know. HTH.
I almost bought a Cinema Display, but decided instead for a pair of 17" LCDs, and I don't regret my decision. I actually have MORE usable screen space (2560x1024) and spent only about 35% of the price of the Cinema Display.
I believe you need a special adapter to use the monitor on non-macs, as the connection is proprietary. nitro
Right, the Apple Cinema Display has a propriety connector (ADC) which is different from VGA or DVI (which are to be found on most PC video cards). You can buy an ADC to VGA adapter for it, but I think it's about $100.
apple makes nice stuff, but their low volume prevents them from being price competitive. I guess their target market is wealthy graphic designers, and I don't know any of them. Their market share is still shrinking.
I use the cinema display with the connector. Works great. I now prefer 1 large monitor because I find it to be more responsive. The reason for this I belive is that the single display is connected to a high-end AGP card instead of a PCI card. All dual head and multi-monitor setups I've tried seem a little flaky compared to a solid AGP setup.
I was wondering about your PC setup with the Apple Cinema display. You used the connector to patch the DVI connector to Apple's ADC, but how do you adjust the display? I though it was controlled by software via USB (not by onboard buttons and menus). Since there is no Windows version of the controller software, can you adjust the Cinema Display at all? Also do you have enough graphics memory to run another monitor that large from the second output of your AGP card? You must be close to the limit of that card or can the card use the computer's memory if it runs out?
Mine has onboard buttons for brightness only. Apple display's I've used don't require adjustment. Superior quality perhaps? My AGP has VGA and DVI output but I only use the DVI. Keeping it simple keeps it running. haven't had a crash in a long long long time. AGP card is GeForce 4 Ti 4600.