2 27" vs 3 24" for productivity?

[KA50]

Hi all,

Buying a new setup for a new job and I'm on the fence about my monitor choice. I was initially provided with 2 27" monitors, but at 1080p, they just weren't usable.

Now I am trying to decide between requesting two 27" monitors running a more reasonable resolution 2560 x 1440 or 3 24" 1920x1200 monitors.

No games or movie watching on these, just actual work. Most of the work is highly centered around research and content development in Word/Visio/Powerpoint-type applications and some specialized web-based apps as well as a fair bit of coding and tinkering with various things, including quite a bit of command line work through ssh/terminals. I'll be running VMs of various operating systems as well as having some remote desktop things open.

I am consider giving portrait mode a try as most of what I'm doing seems to be better suited to tall rather than wide screens.

Two computers will be hooked up, a MacBook pro with Retina and an soon-to-be ordered Windows 7-based or Linux-based workstation. I'll mainly either be working on or the other at a given time. I know the MacBook will only drive 2 of them, so in that case, it would be two monitors + the built in display.

So, what say you? If I'm going to give portrait mode a go, should I try 2 27" or 3 24"? Or 3 27"? I can certainly order that if I can justify it, but the cost is substantially more.

Thanks!

 

[Zijn]

With having 3x 24", once you have it, its VERY hard to go back!

I had the 3x 24" just for gaming but now that i moved to belgium and am now studying to make games, the extra screen space is a god send!

Having 3DsMax on one with references on other, with gf on the third Skype calling, or group work having google docs open skype on another while having photoshop dedicated to a screen makes life so much easier.

I have never tried 27" monitors but if they are 1920 x 1080 it will be the the exact same just... less, with bigger screens

I would say 3 x 24". You can pick up some pretty cheap panels at the moment, just make sure that you have a graphics card that can handle three inputs.

Something like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-191-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=411

Just check with the ports of your monitor you will be getting etc

Good luck

 

[KA50]

Thanks for response. The more think about it, the more I like the idea of 3x24". Not only does it make sense size-wise, but 3 good 24" IPS displays are only a more than the cost of one of good 27" IPS.