Monitor Upgrade

Right now I'm using a Hannspree 28" and an Insignia 26". Going to add a Cintiq 21UX for my third monitor. Both the first two have served me well and I would recommend them. Insignia you can usually find good deals on. I have actually been surprised with good quality products from them.

I've heard good things about Asus as well, thinking about getting one of their video cards eventually. They have a new one either out or coming out really soon that looks good to me.

 

I'm running three Dell 22" flat panels. Nice to have room to work!

 

I have no idea but tomorrow I'll go to the office and look em up for you.

 

Our main workstation is running dual 32" monitors. It is the best $700 we ever spent. Duals alone are a huge improvement over one monitor and 2 huge monitors are sweet for both designing and for customer interaction.

 

I should add that when I worked for others "luxuries" like 32" monitors would *never* have been allowed. Now that I'm the boss, I can make purchases like this that make good fiscal sense. A couple hundred dollars more over 4 or 5 years is nothing, and is easily paid back in employee moral.

 

I cannot comment on that Hannspree, I'm running the HF289H which I do believe you have to get directly from Hannspree(atleast in my neck of the woods you do).

Typically I run Internet and OTR off the Insignia and I run my embroidery and Ai on the Hannspree(working on a logo as I type this). Although I plan to run my graphics programs off the Cintiq when I get that.

I think the resolution on the Hannspree that I have is topnotch. It handles my CAD programs as well as Ai really well.

19s I think are a little small. My dad runs dual HP 18s that have very nice resolution, but just aren't big enough for my taste, maybe I'm going blind, I dunno.

 

Yeah, 3 monitors is the way to go for designing. I have 23" x 3 on one of those arm mounts so they are hovering over the desk. It's great to have the extra desk space.

I use 1 for Photoshop, 1 for Illustrator and the other for emails/internet/music.

There is only one problem with it: I can NEVER go back to having just 1 or 2.

 

That's what I'm afraid off. Next week I'm going to swap out my video card so I can have 3 video inputs and got from 6 GB of Ram to 12 GB along with it. 2 solid state drives. I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with Best Buy computers ever again. Once you go custom that's all she wrote.

 

Pinfinity,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001U3YK48

They were on Amazon Gold Boxed for $349. I have Amazon Prime so I had them sent UPS NDA just cause I found it fascinating I could order two 40 lb items at 4pm and have them before 10 am the next day for $7.98

 

Well if you are designing all day, every day, then I would recommend the 3. It will save you a lot of time in managing all that you are working on.

You can definitely get by on 1 or 2. Just a matter of how serious you want to get with it and if it's worth the investment for you.

 

Design workstation NOT connected to the internet

Pinfinity,

Here is my 2 cents worth, yes I agree that 3 monitors is the way to go, however I learned a valuable lesson a while ago, and that is, DO NOT have a design work station on the internet, period. If you get a virus it is very bad and can destroy all the data on the design computer, it has happened to me before.

So, like the other poster, I use 1 for Photoshop, 1 for Illustrator and the other for emails/internet/music, however, two 23's are for design work, running off the 64bit quad processor PC, and the third 23" is running off and older Dual Core processor PC connected to the internet for emails, Google, Sign101 etc. But my design work station will never get a virus, because it is only used for design work, not connected to the internet, which I find is a way better way to operate. The fourth monitor by it's self, is a 19" that is run on another computer which is used primarily as a print server and for burning back-up files to DVD's

The way I have it setup, with the three monitors together, you think they are all running off the same PC, but for the reasons mentioned above, I choose NOT to have my design workstation connected to the internet.

 

+1phototec

dual samsung 23's 17" laptop to the immediate right for internet. there isn't a pc made yet that fast enough for massive graphics files. you can't afford the performance hits that viruses create over time.