[Kyle Dreaden]

Hey everyone. I am the proud owner of a Dual 1.25GHz G4 PowerMac and will be leaving for college in less than a year. One thing I have figured into the deal is that my 19" CRT takes up WAY too much deskspace and in a dorm room as small as they are where I am headed (School of Visual Arts) Space is at a premium. I want to replace my 19" CRT with dual LCDs I think... That is unless someone else has something to say otherwise. I'd like to keep the cost around $800 USD for the set, so that pretty much rules out the apple cinema displays. A little more info on what I will be doing: I'm a graphic design student, and will be doing lots of work in Photoshop, Illustrator, and QuarkXpress, possibly some video work in Final Cut as well. Sooooooo if anyone has some insight into this, I'd be quite appreciative. Thanks in advance.

[Kenneth]

I have a similar setup as you do.

In my case, the stock ATI Radeon 9000 Pro offers an ADC port and a DVI port. Moving to flat panel is good but you may want to look at the color calibration carefully.

I tried the 17" Studio Display and one 15" CRT off the DP 1.25 tower. I feel the system is somewhat slower when driving two displays.

[idyll]

Hmm, tough choice as you are going to a school of visual arts and color caliberation is a bit quirky on LCDs. Also, 19" LCDs aren't really worth it unless they can handle a resoluton of 1600x1200. Otherwise you might as well get two 17" LCDs, as they can do 1280x1024.

19" LCDs start at $549 (and these aren't quality ones - they can only do 1280x1024). So two of those would cost you $1100, which appears to be out of your budget.

As for 17" LCD recommendations - the Viewsonics are very good as they don't have the ghosting problems you may encounter on the other LCDs. However, they don't look too well when sitting next to a Mac. If you want both looks and performance I'd look at the Sony and Samsung monitors. Take a peek at www.newegg.com

[Azzgunther]

You'll have to get dual-15" displays if you want LCDs.

Samsung is widely regarded as one of the best choices in monitors. Check them out.

Still...maybe you should go 1 CRT 1 LCD for color accuracy purposes? You could use the CRT for checking the accuracy.

Just a thought.

[spiky_dog]

why would he have to go to dual 15"s? i run two apple 17" lcds off of a radeon 9000 (with a dvi-adc box on the dvi port, of course), and it works just fine.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by spiky_dog:
why would he have to go to dual 15"s?

He can't spend over $800, that's why.

[Kyle Dreaden]

I think I'm going to hold out and save till I can afford two of the apple displays. Seems like thats the best choice in the long run. Do they offer educational discounts on those?

[idyll]

Yes, they do.

You made the right choice, in my opinion. I believe that the design is going to be changed soon so they match the G5 desktops, which might be better for you in the long run. If not, the current ones will cost less. It's a win-win situiation either way.

[Kyle Dreaden]

Outstanding. Well, either way, like you said, its a win-win. The current design will fit my G4 much better and will supposedly cost less, which I'm all for