what would you guys buy? six 20" LCD's ($350 each) + hex stand ($500) = $2600 or one 30" LCD ($1274) + two 24" ($719 each) = $2712
I'd say it ultimately comes down to what you are trying to do, for trading or otherwise. I would start by visualizing or even sketching out on a piece of paper just how you're going to arrange all your charts and other apps among the displays. Ergonomics and usability ought to be some of the key factors for you to consider. In terms of total screen real estate, 6x20"s beat 1x30" + 2x24" hands down, by 32%: 6x1600x1200 = 11.520 Megapixels 2560x1600 + 2x1920x1200 = 8.704 MP But if you want the wow / sexy factor or plan to watch DVDs on the 30" after hours or maybe just like to be an early adopter, then go wide-screen, with the big ones. Two quick comments on your price comparison. First, it's incomplete without also taking into account the cost of all the video cards required for each setup. In part, for the 30", you'd need a more expensive dual-link DVI card (not to be confused with a merely dual-DVI card). Second, wouldn't you need a suitable stand for the 2nd setup as well? Unless you're thinking of just putting all 3 LCDs on top of your desk... however, that might be way more horizontal span than optimal, in terms of your field of vision.
Isnt this going at it bass ackwards? The question is what do you need to put on the screens and which would do it best. If youi have been trading for awhile you should have a very good idea of what and how you need your layout displayed.
Thanks guys. good points. I'm currently working off a single 19" LCD, so anything would be an upgrade. I've taken screenshots of what I would like to see, and imported the pictures into excel to rearrange. I'll have plenty to fit onto a 6 LCD config based on a 1024x768 resolution for each LCD. however, that may be ambitious of what I "want" to see, not necessarily what I would be comfortably "need" to work with. because frankly, I don't know what it's like to work with that many screens on a daily basis. however, I've decided that I do need more screen real estate. I'll need to add $300 or so to the cost of the 30" option for the video card. But i'll also need to add the cost of 2 video cards to be able to handle 6 LCD's. presumably the 2 video cards will be cheaper because I don't need D-DVI cards. However it should cancel out the cost of the 1 D-DVI card, and the relative costs are still equal for the two options.
If you go with more smaller screens (not that 20" is small at all, since I have 2 17"s), you will have the following advantage: You can maximize a window and it will fill up ONLY that monitor. That is awesome. If you get two 30"s or whatever, if you want to look at multiple things each in their own window, you're going to have to manually place each of them where you want. That will be annoying and take forever to reproduce EVERY DAY when you go to trade. The only way I would pick few big monitors over many smaller monitors is if I had one application that required huge amounts of desktop space. Six 20"s monitors potentially = 5 different full screen (which will be huge at 20") charts + 1 monitor for order entry, or 4 monitors for stock charts, 1 for order entry, and 1 for TV (if you have a TV card) or elitetrader or a web browser or whatever. Two 30" monitors = two things really big and that's it. You could easily get 2 full screen stock charts up and that's it. if you wanted to look at anything else, you'd have to manually resize EACH window. But thing about how many you really need. I think 3 19" (4:3, not widescreen) would be decent for most people. I have 2 17"s and I'm thinking about adding one 23" widescreen, but that one is going to be for watching movies or TV.
Maximize only fills one screen. Dragging an unmaximized window will fill multiple screens. You may try this: Drag the Upper left corner of the individual window until it is at the upper right of the monitor, then drag the lower right corner of the window to the lower right corner of the monitor.
I have an nVidia card and I have mine set to "Dual View" which treats it as two independent monitors. Their other option is called "horizontal expand" which treats it as one big monitor. If you have Horizontal Expand selected, when you maximize a window it will fill up both monitors (because it's treating it like one big monitor). If you do not have an nVidia card, or you don't know where the settings are on yours, you can download (buy?) a program called UltraMon that supposed gives you a ton of ways to customize your multi monitor setup. I've never used it, but everyone I've talked to who uses this program loves it. It might be worth a try. But yeah, on my setup, with "Dual View" selected, when I maximize a window it maximizes only in the monitor that it is currently in. edit - With "Dual View" selected, the Start Menu is on only one monitor. With "Horizontal Expand" selected, it stretches across both monitors (cuz remember, it's treating it as one big monitor). I think UltraMon gives you the option of having independent Start Menus on each monitor.