Monitor Recommendations
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I'm currently using a relatively old BenQ 24" monitor (G2420HD) and a fairly new Dell 24" monitor (P2419H) that I've borrowed from work and will have to return at some point, so I'd like to upgrade to something better.
I'm thinking I want either two 4K monitors, or one 4K and one 1080p; probably between 24" and 32". My desk is roughly 77cm wide, I think it's a fairly cheap one from Ikea so I'm not sure how much weight it can support.
I'd want a stand to go with them that would allow me to have the primary monitor in the centre of the desk and the secondary to the side of it (probably the left).
I'd like to buy from Mwave, if possible. I'm not sure how much I want to spend, but probably not too much more than AU$1,000 for both the monitors.
Does anyone have any recommendation for brands, technologies, models, etc.?
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@Choonster said in Monitor Recommendations:
either two 4K monitors,
Do check what your video card or docking station supports. If it doesn't support running two 4K monitors then obviously some compromise will have to be found.
@Choonster said in Monitor Recommendations:
one 4K and one 1080p
In this case you're going to have to change the DPI of one monitor so that things remain readable, but most operating systems might have trouble with that. Not sure if Windows 10 got a lot better in that regard. I do seem to remember some Blakeyrant about moving windows across monitors might either increase the text size when going from the 4K to the 1080p monitor, or scale it down to something tiny when moving from 1080p to 4K. Of course, Blakey has moved on to greener pastures a while ago and maybe they did fix it in one of the OS updates so that I simply could never hear about updates on this front.
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@JBert said in Monitor Recommendations:
@Choonster said in Monitor Recommendations:
either two 4K monitors,
Do check what your video card or docking station supports. If it doesn't support running two 4K monitors then obviously some compromise will have to be found.
I've got a GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER, so it should be fine.
@Choonster said in Monitor Recommendations:
one 4K and one 1080p
In this case you're going to have to change the DPI of one monitor so that things remain readable, but most operating systems might have trouble with that. Not sure if Windows 10 got a lot better in that regard. I do seem to remember some Blakeyrant about moving windows across monitors might either increase the text size when going from the 4K to the 1080p monitor, or scale it down to something tiny when moving from 1080p to 4K. Of course, Blakey has moved on to greener pastures a while ago so maybe they did fix it in one of the OS updates.
I've already got the Dell monitor scaled to 125% because it's further away, Windows 10 seems to work reasonably well.
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@JBert said in Monitor Recommendations:
In this case you're going to have to change the DPI of one monitor so that things remain readable, but most operating systems might have trouble with that.
Only if you're running linux. (I don't know how Macs handle it.) Windows handles it perfectly fine.
I have a 23" Asus 4K (don't remember the model - it was about 400US in 2016) and a 21.5" Asus VE228. (Scaling is set to 200% and 100% respectively) I've been pretty happy with them. I don't do gaming, just normal visual studio dev work.
The only issue I have is that when the system goes to sleep, the 1920 monitor wakes up first, which makes it want to be primary, and my icons rearrange and running programs resize. When the primary wakes up, they move back - with that new size. Doesn't always happen - but enough to be annoying.
The other annoyance is programs that lie. "Yeah, I do hidpi!" No, you fucking don't. I'm looking at you Acrobat.
edit: Forgot to mention - I run a 27" 4K monitor on my work system - if I were to buy new monitors for my home system, I would seriously consider 27"...
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Have you per chance considered going ultrawide? I believe a 34" 3440x1440, perhaps Dell U3415W (Review), would be in the price range and appropriate to your desk size.
- 3440 is not quite the horizontal estate that 2x4K at 200% would give
- far from what 2x4K would give if left at 100%
+ but there's more vertical space, uninterrupted by bezel
+ no issues with sleep mode
+ can be driven by reasonably old iGPUs at 50Hz through the most basic HDMI, if your proper workhorse ever goes wrongI'm partly basing this on my bad habit of working at work on the second screen (which is not directly in front of me) for prolonged periods of time and then complaining about neck strain.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in Monitor Recommendations:
I'm partly basing this on my bad habit of working at work on the second screen (which is not directly in front of me) for prolonged periods of time and then complaining about neck strain.
That is one reason I'm a little hesitant to go for dual 27" screens. The horizontal swivel for the 2 I've got is near my comfort level. And I lose the mouse often enough as it is!
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@dcon said in Monitor Recommendations:
Windows handles it perfectly fine.
Windows 7 (I know;
) doesn't; it has only one DPI setting that applies to all monitors. I have readable text on my 4k monitors and gigantic text on my 1080. As you would expect, the everything resizes visually when moving between monitors.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in Monitor Recommendations:
Have you per chance considered going ultrawide?
My 1080 monitor is ultrawide (2560 x 1080). I like it. It's a few years old, and I couldn't find anything like it when I was buying new monitors this past Black Friday, or I'd have gotten more like it. Windows handles it just fine, but not all applications (full-screen games) understand the non-standard resolution, nor does my Linux laptop. (I have both my work Linux laptop and my own desktop plugged into it, using it primarily for work and switching inputs when I'm not working. Windows likes to open new windows on it when the laptop input is active, which is annoying, but it doesn't know I can't actually see the display that is physically connected.)
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@HardwareGeek said in Monitor Recommendations:
@dcon said in Monitor Recommendations:
Windows handles it perfectly fine.
Windows 7 (I know;
) doesn't; it has only one DPI setting that applies to all monitors. I have readable text on my 4k monitors and gigantic text on my 1080. As you would expect, the everything resizes visually when moving between monitors.Huh. I could have sworn I ran mismatched monitors on 7... Must have moved to 8 when I did that...
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@dcon said in Monitor Recommendations:
@Applied-Mediocrity said in Monitor Recommendations:
I'm partly basing this on my bad habit of working at work on the second screen (which is not directly in front of me) for prolonged periods of time and then complaining about neck strain.
That is one reason I'm a little hesitant to go for dual 27" screens. The horizontal swivel for the 2 I've got is near my comfort level.
I have 2 or 3 monitors (one gets swapped between my desktop and work laptop, depending on whether I'm using the work laptop at the moment — or 7, if you count both laptops, their external monitors, and the oscilloscope), but I have a large L-shaped desk, and I can freely swivel to face whichever monitor I'm using at the moment (unless I'm pretending to work but actually looking at TDWTF on the desktop monitor).
And I lose the mouse often enough as it is!
It's especially fun when the mouse is on the monitor that's switched to the laptop, so even CTRL doesn't help.
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@dcon said in Monitor Recommendations:
I could have sworn I ran mismatched monitors on 7
I won't say you're wrong, but I haven't found the magic incantation to make it work.
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@Choonster said in Monitor Recommendations:
Does anyone have any recommendation for brands, technologies, models, etc.?
This is what I got, and I'm mostly happy with them.
3840 x 2160. The price is Fry's normal (not discounted for Black Friday, even though that's when I bought them) price, less than I paid for my LG 2560 x 1080 ultra-wide a few years ago. One of the two has a single dead pixel and a cluster of 3 or 4 that aren't dead but whose brightness seems to be unduly influenced by the surrounding pixels rather than just their own color. The other one is perfect.
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@HardwareGeek said in Monitor Recommendations:
Oh, hell yeah.
I also changed my mouse pointers to "Windows Default (large)"
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Scorptec (a retailer that I haven't used before) happen to be having a Valentines Day monitor sale for some reason, which prompted me to look into this a bit more. The sale is a bit underwhelming, there's not that many products included and the prices don't seem to be much lower than Mwave's are (maybe Mwave is matching the sale prices without marking the items as on sale, but I'm not sure).
I've got a rough idea of what I'm going to buy now:
- Primary monitor: BenQ EW3280U 32" 4K
- Secondary monitor LG 27UL550-W 27" 4K
- Stand: TiXX DMM02FS Dual Monitor Free Standing Desktop Mount - 13"-32"
Does anyone have any comments/suggestions?
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That seems very expensive for a monitor stand. I bought this one
Which looks pretty similar and has been perfect for me
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07KBXH3N6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title