3 New Monitors for Programming

Associate
Joined
8 Jul 2008
Posts
44
Location
Oxford, UK
Looking to buy 3 new Monitors in the new year. Anyone have any suggestions for 23" or bigger monitors with good viewing angles, slim bezels and vesa mounting holes. Display Port connection would be preferable as my Radeon HD6870 only supports 3 monitors if one uses Display Port.

Monitors will mainly be used for Programming work as well as the occasional game. My total Budget is £550. Thanks for any input you can give.

Gary
 
Associate
Joined
29 Aug 2012
Posts
174
It's probably personal preference but if the monitor is 1920x1080 I prefer the smallest monitor(s) possible (i.e. a 19" 1920x1080 will have a smaller dot pitch than a 23" 1920x1080) for programming and general work (anything except gaming really), mainly because I like the "sharpness" of the text.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Jul 2008
Posts
44
Location
Oxford, UK
The UltraSharp is what I'd been looking at as I also do photography, so the IPS panel will give me great colours and a good viewing angle. The bezel isn't that large either as most the monitors around that price seem to have even larger ones. The 4 port USB hub on each will be very handy too.

Only other monitor I'd looked at is the Iiyama Prolite E2481HS-B1 24" because of the super slim bezel but its a TN panel the same as my Current (8 year old) LG 22" monitor and I was worried about the viewing angles being just as poor. Also I'd require an active display port adapter as it doesn't have a display port connection. Anyone have any experience with this monitor?
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2008
Posts
12,096
If you're mainly programming I'd try to stretch to budget and get 24" 16:10 1920x1200 monitors (or a really big single monitor).

The missing vertical height on a 1920x1080 monitor is really noticeable when you're using a programming IDE such as Visual Studio.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Jul 2008
Posts
44
Location
Oxford, UK
The cheapest 24" with that resolution is £220 which is way over budget (£660 vs £450). I'll be using Xcode which is designed to make use of horizontal space more than vertical space. I currently use a single monitor at 1680x1050 and find vertical height to be fine, but I dont have enough horizontal space available. the almost 50% extra outlay per monitor for 120 pixels extra height doesn't seem worth while to me.

I like to keep the documentation available while I'm working too so at the moment I've resorted to having it open on my iPad hence wanting to add more monitors to add extra space to keep it handy (I miss copy and paste).
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
15,861
Location
NW London
Have you thought about buying a 24" monitor (16:10), now.
Adding this to your existing smaller monitor.
You run the new monitor as your main monitor and use the smaller monitor as a satellite monitor.

When you get additional funds, you can buy a 3rd monitor.

This way, you get to keep and use your existing monitor.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
8 Jul 2008
Posts
44
Location
Oxford, UK
I really want to get identical monitors, and if I buy one now I might not be able to source the same monitor later. I have settled on the Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM which I've found for £147, keeping the cost of 3 identical monitors way under budget. My current monitor is going to be used for my previous build (Q6600, Asrock P45XE, Geforce GT240) wallmounted for iplayer etc viewing in bed.

If i were to use this monitor alongside a new one i think the change in PPI between the two would irritate me, already have an old 15 inch 1024x768 monitor going between the two feels weird because of the change in PPI.
 
Associate
Joined
29 Mar 2008
Posts
382
Location
Cirencester
I bought 3 Iiyama 1920*1080 monitors and had to get rid of them. I bought 3 Dells 1920* 1200 instead. My desktop looked way too long and thin on them and now its perfect.
If you look hard enough you will find Dell 2412 close to your budget.
If youre going to look at them all day you want to be happy !


You could try turning all 3 portrait but really they need to be IPS for that
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
15,861
Location
NW London
For the record, I do own the Dell U2311H (the model replaced by U2312) and it offers very sharp text. For text, it is the best monitor I own.

For graphics and movies, it rates poorly (though if you are not used to using good quality monitors, you won't know this). For text, I've not seen better.

As such, this is my monitor of choice, which I use for programming.
 
Back
Top Bottom