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dulipishi · Nov 11, 2006, 04:50 PM

People who have 30" apple cinema displays or 30" dell displays, what do you
use your lcd for primarily ? You must have come across the new study
which says productivity increases with greater screen size/resolution.
I am curious as to what your experience has been. Clearly the 30" displays
seem to big for displays, I am especially interested in the experience of
people who use them not for media/graphic work - do you still notice
a difference ?

tooki · Nov 11, 2006, 04:57 PM

Well, I "merely" have a 24" LCD, and I find it to be tremendously useful. First and foremost, it lets me have more browser windows open at once -- very handy for comparing things, for example. It lets me keep open at all times all the sites I look at constantly. (No, I don't like tabbed browsing.)

It's also very useful, for sure, for photo organizing and viewing, because it lets me see the image at higher resolution (that is, I can see more detail).

When I do things like write in Word, a bigger screen lets me increase the text zoom and then sit back farther, which is more relaxing for the eyes.

tooki

P.S. Don't insert a return after each line. The browser will do it automatically on the reader's end.

Gossamer · Nov 11, 2006, 06:52 PM

I have a 19" widescreen at home and a 20" iMac at work. I really love the space, but I can definitely always use more, although I think I'd take 2 23" over a single 30" though. I like having apps separated...like having email, IM, and downloads or whatever on one screen and a web browser on the other.

Buckaroo · Nov 12, 2006, 02:55 AM

http://home.earthlink.net/~spacebuck...s/desk4a2.JPEG

I plan to replace the middle 2 displays with a 30 inch next year.

phantomdragonz · Nov 12, 2006, 03:04 AM

I have dual 19" displays... at first it was overwhelming... but it becomes VERY useful

Zach

Buckaroo · Nov 12, 2006, 03:06 AM

Mutliple monitors are great.

Jawbone54 · Nov 12, 2006, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

http://home.earthlink.net/~spacebuck...s/desk4a2.JPEG

Why do you need all of that?

Doofy · Nov 12, 2006, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Why do you need all of that?

I'm guessing here: Girlfriend substitute.

Rev-O · Nov 12, 2006, 07:36 PM

I voted video/photo, but in reality my 30" display comes in handy all the time. Tonight it was running Pages + Photoshop Elements + Safari + Mail with very little window overlap. It is really nice for games as well

Rumor · Nov 12, 2006, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

http://home.earthlink.net/~spacebuck...s/desk4a2.JPEG

I plan to replace the middle 2 displays with a 30 inch next year.

WTF? Geekstation revision 12.1 or what?

Reminds of the room Prof X was in watching news all over the world.

Sarc · Nov 12, 2006, 08:59 PM

Buckaroo: I'd love a detailed description of what you do on that setup. looks like TV work ?

macgeek2005 · Nov 12, 2006, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

http://home.earthlink.net/~spacebuck...s/desk4a2.JPEG

I plan to replace the middle 2 displays with a 30 inch next year.

Can you write out a detailed list of everything in the picture, as well as which computers the displays are hooked up too? I can see a 2 docks on two of the different monitors, so I know they aren't all hooked up to one computer.

Oh, and I have a 23" ACD and I find it very usefull for watching movies. DVD's look like HD quality when the screen isn't larger than 23". If I had a 30" screen, i'd be watching everything in HD.

Thanks.

turtle777 · Nov 12, 2006, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by Sarc

Buckaroo: I'd love a detailed description of what you do on that setup. looks like TV work ?

Three words: daytrading.

-t

Buckaroo · Nov 12, 2006, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

I'm guessing here: Girlfriend substitute.

I don't know, the girls seem to be really impressed.

Doofy · Nov 12, 2006, 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

I don't know, the girls seem to be really impressed.

Really impressed in a rip-their-blouses-off-right-there-and-then sort of way or really impressed in a walk-away-thinking-"that guy can fix my computer/TV/toaster if it goes wrong" sort of way?

turtle777 · Nov 12, 2006, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

Really impressed in a rip-their-blouses-off-right-there-and-then sort of way or really impressed in a walk-away-thinking-"that guy can fix my computer/TV/toaster if it goes wrong" sort of way?

I'm sure the latter.

-t

Buckaroo · Nov 12, 2006, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

Can you write out a detailed list of everything in the picture, as well as which computers the displays are hooked up too? I can see a 2 docks on two of the different monitors, so I know they aren't all hooked up to one computer.

Oh, and I have a 23" ACD and I find it very usefull for watching movies. DVD's look like HD quality when the screen isn't larger than 23". If I had a 30" screen, i'd be watching everything in HD.

Thanks.

Ok, here goes. Keep in mind each of the monitors across the front can support up to 2 computers. There is a switch on the monitor that I can push and the display will switch to another computer.

The display on the left is hooked up to a Windows XP computer that I built, and it is also hooked up to a mini Mac.

The two in the center are hooked up to my G5 Tower. The one on the right is hooked up to my laptop.

The top center is a LCD TV, that can also support a computer if I wanted to. The Top left and right are LCD's that are hooked up to Quad video processors. One Quad Video Processor per LCD. Each Quad Video Processor is hooked up to a cheap $35 VCR. I can see what is going on on 8 other channels at once, but I only get audio from the center TV. It's great since I live in So. Cal, and every once in a while the local stations show a car chase, which I would normally miss if it wasn't for this setup. The 4 little LCD's across the top can be hooked up to anything. I had it hooked up to some video feeds in this photo.

I've made a couple changes since this photo, including a KVM switch to cut me down to one keyboard for up to 4 computers.

polygeny · Nov 13, 2006, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Rev-O

I voted video/photo, but in reality my 30" display comes in handy all the time. Tonight it was running Pages + Photoshop Elements + Safari + Mail with very little window overlap. It is really nice for games as well

Do you use BootCamp or play games on Mac os x ? I am asking because the 30" monitor
seems to be too big for full resolution gaming - at least on the MBP.
What do you use ?

Rev-O · Nov 13, 2006, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by polygeny

Do you use BootCamp or play games on Mac os x ? I am asking because the 30" monitor
seems to be too big for full resolution gaming - at least on the MBP.
What do you use ?

30" display on a dual 2GHz G5 off a 6800 Ultra, so no bootcamp. Got the 30" display the day they showed up in Apple stores, so I even payed the long dollar for the beast. Fullscreen resolution depends on the game you are playing. Rise of Nation Gold runs fine at 2560x1600, Minions of Mirth runs great at 2560x1600 in a full screen window. Nwn runs would run great at 2560x1600 except for program based glitches, so I drop it down one notch. Other games just look cool on a 30" (Civ 4, Doom 3, Nwn, Kotor, etc.) display at a dropped res.

Sarc · Nov 13, 2006, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

Ok, here goes. Keep in mind .......

Ok, great, so what do you do that you actually need all those TV/video feeds ?