How to find a good monitor pairing?

[gifpaste]

Trying to find a way to know before I buy if a monitor will work for my setup or not.

I'm going for 1600x1200 - 1900x1200 - 1600x1200

I like my middle monitor to be wide for various IDEs, movies, and games, I dont plan on replacing my other 2 monitors. Right now my middle monitor is 1680x1050 and for coding, the loss of vertical space really hurts.

So I am trying to find a way to tell what size of 1900x1200 monitor I need to get for the middle so when I drag an application from left to right, it does not grow/shrink depending on the monitor

http://img187.imageshack.us/im.../monitorpairing.th.jpg

The green box is an application, and the last row is what I don't want to happen.

My 2 side monitors are 20" (SyncMaster 204T)


might be 1920, but the point is they are all 1200 high in pixels and N inches tall so there is no warping, or having to deal with different font sizes.

I've got a sneaking suspicion the 20" are going to be too small

 

[TheStu]

Well, using the Pythagorean Theorem and the knowledge that the screen is 16:10 you should be able to calculate exactly how tall the new monitor's screen (not screen+frame) is going to be. Then just compare that to your existing 20" monitors.

 

[ther00kie16]

Wiki-goodness
I've thought about it too as I eventually want to add 2 1600x1200 or (if i can find them) 1200x800 in portrait mode.
A 24" 1920x1200 matches perfectly with the 21.3" 1600x1200. Trouble is those were old high quality monitors ($1k+ when new). Some examples are Samsung 213t/214t. NEC had one, as well as all the usual suspects. Found a place selling refurb 213t's for $170 but didn't bite and now they are gone. Kinda difficult to look for them on ebay too but there are a few. My suggestion, however, is to pair a 23" 1920x1200 with 20.1" (1600x1200 is perfect match or 1680x1050 isn't bad either) because the 21.3" are old and all have 20ms response or higher.

 

[gifpaste]

Finally got around to doing this, looks like I need a 22.6 inch widescreen in 1920x1200 to be a perfect match with my 20" 1600x1200, but all the 22" or 23" monitors I've found are 16:9

did you have a 23" 1920x1200 in mind, I could not find one on newegg/dell

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: gifpaste
Finally got around to doing this, looks like I need a 22.6 inch widescreen in 1920x1200 to be a perfect match with my 20" 1600x1200, but all the 22" or 23" monitors I've found are 16:9

did you have a 23" 1920x1200 in mind, I could not find one on newegg/dell

I redid the math. Threw the numbers into Sketchup so I could actually get some images that were confined by dimensions... I found that assuming your monitor is exactly 20" on the diagonal, and confining to the 4:3 ratio, then the screen itself actually works out to be exatly 16" * 12". So, in order to get a screen that will match up correctly... you need a 24" monitor. One that has a screen exactly 12" high and 19.2" wide, which yields just over 24" wide. So, no... its not perfect, but it is awfully, awfully close.

You might want to try and find one with a fairly small bezel so there isn't much physical space between the screens.

 

[ther00kie16]

hp l2335 (s-ips panel). but the refurb deal from geeks awhile back yielded pinkish glow on border so i don't know it's a good idea to get a refurb ($200 at compuvest and amazon marketplace). also some for <$200 on ebay.
there's also apple's display but that'll go for a bit more and require an adapter.
then there's the lg 2320a which seems to be impossible to find, not to mention the crazy pricing.

 

[ther00kie16]

If you don't mind TN panel, there are also 2048x1152 23" lcds. i think dell has one (sp2309w) and maybe lg has one as well. 1152 vertical lines should give 102ppi while your 20.1" has 99.6ppi so it's the closest you are going to get except for 23" 19x12 or 20.1" 16x10.

 

[gifpaste]

thanks fellas, much appreciated

 

[0roo0roo]

your middle screen should be big enough so that straddling screens with windows is not necessary.

forget about the matching size thing. good setup should have the screens used as separate areas. if theres straddling its because its too small.

20" is too small, try 24". not to mention the other potential is that you can turn the side monitors on their sides to match a taller screen esp if they are wide. they are supplemental after all.