Jeff Atwood has another great post about multiple LCD configurations for development work. I absolutely agree with his productivity comments, and his conclusion that "price is no longer a valid reason to choose a less-productive single monitor configuration."
Jeff concludes that 19" LCDs represent the price/performance sweet spot:
A quick froogle check shows $674 for the 2001FP. That's over 2x the price for 1.46x the display area of the Rosewill 19" panels -- 1,920,000 pixels/panel vs. 1,310,720 pixels/panel.
If you watch places like xpBargains and SlickDeals, you can often find the Dell 2001FP (or its widescreen brother 2005FPW) for around $500. For example, today and tomorrow you can get either monitor for $487 shipped, which I find to be an amazing price. (Including the shipping charge, that comes out to 1.47x the price for 1.46x the display area.)
With constantly improving manufacturing capabilities and increased consumer demand for larger LCD panels (particularly for 30" and up LCD televisions), I think that the price/performance sweet spot is moving -- if it hasn't already -- from 19" panels to 20" panels. Though it's certainly true that there's a big price jump as the size of the LCD panel grows, going from 19" to 20" also lets you go from 1280x1024 to 1600x1280 pixels, which is a big advantage for development work. True, it's a bit higher cost to use 20" panels over 19" panels, but the previously-exponential price curve is flattening substantially, so there's a more linear choice of pixels vs cost.
The 2001FP is a great monitor - I've been extremely satisfied with its image quality. There are also some extras that I've really grown to appreciate:
- There are four signal inputs (DVI, VGA, S-video, and component), and it's easy to switch between the inputs. This facilitates using the multiple displays with multiple computers; for example, if you're doing development with multiple machines (i.e. a client/server configuration, or a separate build machine), you can toggle one of the monitors to one of the other machines, without using a separate monitor switch.
- The display rotates, so you can choose between portrait and landscape orientations. Viewing full-page PDFs, MSDN-style documentation, or long web pages in portrait mode is great; this capability makes a lot of sense for a secondary display. (Of course, this is one of the benefits of Tablet PCs also.)
- The display is easy to adjust along three axes (including height, which not all LCDs permit), and it stays in exactly the position you choose. This is very handy when you're giving a demo or working side-by-side with another person.
- There's a four-port USB hub built in. This isn't a huge feature either way, but it provides handy USB ports on your desktop with less clutter, and saves a few bucks.
Of course, the way things are going, in a few months we'll probably be using these 24" LCDs as primary displays at about the same price point, with 20" LCDs as the secondary displays.
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