Dual-monitor or very good single monitor?

[whitewarrior11]

Hi guys!

I am planning on replacing my 19" CRT by the start of summer. The CRT is working well but I need more space on my desk and I thought of trying a LCD.

My computer is mainly for school, internet, some video encoding and a bit of gaming. I looked around for the best LCD for my needs and actually, the one I would be buying would be the NEC 20WMGX2. It would surely be nice but I thought "hey maybe I could get two very good 19" for *almost* the same price and get a great setup.

Here are my system specs:
P4 3.0 GHz
Radeon X800XT PE
1 gig of RAM

In the case I buy 2 19" monitors, what kind of things would I have to expect in terms of gaming performance? Would I need a better videocard or actually, I could game on only one monitor (needing only the power for 1280x1024 resolution)?

Does the NEC pushes my card to its limits (considering I game mostly at 12x10, would game at 16x10 with the NEC)? I know I wont be able to play at max settings in every game but would that be a big problem? Anyway..

Finally, if you could recommend some models, I would be glad to have an idea. Actually, the NEC seems the best choice for the one-monitor scenario. I also heard about the Gateway 2185 and the HP 2105 (I think, Futureshop). Anyway, lmk.

 

[Unkno]

I myself would rather go for a good single monitor.... Dell 2005FPW/2007WFP or 2405FPW/2407WFP

 

[broly8877]

FPD2185W > 2005FPW

Fact.

And from what I've heard, that new NEC WS LCD is even better than the 2185

 

[letdown427]

I have two monitors, 18 and 17 inch lcds, and my step dad has a 2405. I definately prefer my setup.

Yeah, you can game on one monitor, or both, but having a line down the middle is going to be a bit crap in the majority of games. I use the 18inch as the 'main' monitor, and then have other stuff running on the other screen. Like, keep track of downloads, system temps etc. It's nice to have firefox full screened and still have say messenger, winamp, speedfan and utorrent on the other monitor, all visible.

As I use guitarport aswell, I can have that on one monitor and cakewalk open on the other. It's a very simplistic ting to achieve on a widescreen monitor too, but I just prefer two.

The main disadvantages are that you can't watch films in widescreen, or game in widescreen, unless you want that line down the middle.

What you really need is a 2405 in the middle, and then, meh, a 2405 either side. Perfect.

Personally though, I prefer dual monitors.

 

[buzzsaw13]

I used to think dual monitors was a waste of money, but once I tried it out for myself I'll never go back to a single monitor

 

[letdown427]

Originally posted by: buzzsaw13
I used to think dual monitors was a waste of money, but once I tried it out for myself I'll never go back to a single monitor

Sexy, isn't it?