19" to 24" monitor upgrade. Worth it?

cliffski

I'm looking to treat myself to a gadget, and am considering upgrading my 19" iiyama monitor to a 24" one. It's not mega expensive by any means, but I keep wondering if it's really worth it?
I will use it for surfing, gaming, and for programming, and my current desktop res is 1280 by 1024. Its in a home office so I won't be watching movies on it.
Has anyone here made that upgrade (19-24) and regretted the money? or is it really worth it and you wish you had taken the plunge earlier?
Monitors are cheap these days, but I'm not made of money. Will I regret buying a new one while the old monitor is fine?

Dunadan019

cliffski wrote: »

I'm looking to treat myself to a gadget, and am considering upgrading my 19" iiyama monitor to a 24" one. It's not mega expensive by any means, but I keep wondering if it's really worth it?
I will use it for surfing, gaming, and for programming, and my current desktop res is 1280 by 1024. Its in a home office so I won't be watching movies on it.
Has anyone here made that upgrade (19-24) and regretted the money? or is it really worth it and you wish you had taken the plunge earlier?
Monitors are cheap these days, but I'm not made of money. Will I regret buying a new one while the old monitor is fine?

if your current 19" monitor works fine and you have no problems with the resolution and no use for a larger screen i can't see how you can justify spending the money. it sounds like you are asking for someone to say "its totally worth it once you get it" but anyone who says that will have a specific use for the larger screen.

for instance i have a 24" benq that i use for HD gaming and movies. so for me a 19" monitor was just not going to cut it. i spent lots of money on a beefy graphics card just to be able to make use of the larger monitor as well.

in short, don't buy something that you don't have a use for. if you want more screen space you can always get a second 19" and have an extended desktop.

OremLK

For gaming: It's finally become a nonissue with new games, but older games (even ones as recent as a couple of years ago) often didn't support widescreen resolutions, which can be an unholy pain in the ass if you care about maintaining the proper aspect ratio. Also, you need to have a beast of a machine if you want to play newer games at native resolution (1920x1200) on a 24" monitor.

For surfing: It's awesome. It's awesome for all everyday use.

For coding: It's even more awesome. More horizontal space is always a pleasure while programming.

Deathwing

Do you have a girlfriend/friend/random guy off the street that's maybe using a cruddy 15-inch CRT or something still? It'd probably make you feel a little better about it if you know someone's still enjoying the old monitor instead of tossing it in the trash.

Personally, I upgraded from a 19-inch LCD to a 22-inch widescreen about a year ago, and I haven't regretted it one bit (well, it is a little harder to find decent wallpapers). You don't really realize just how nice the extra desktop area and widescreen-capable games are until you have it.

taeric

If you have the hardware to support it, you might be better off just getting a second 19" monitor.

cliffski

I've used dual monitors in the past but find it a bit cumbersome tbh. I'd keep the old monitor anyway because at some point my better half will get a new PC for home and she will need it then, so I'm not too worried about that.
I'm still on the fence

Dman

Here's the thing, to really take advantage of a 24inch screen you need a powerful video card because otherwise the higher resolutions will drop your frame rate gaming.

The other thing I was considering is a blue ray player for my computer, they run around $150 and 24inch happens to be exactly the right number of pixels for high definition.


Personally I got a sweet rig but only a 22inch screen and no blue ray player a few months back. I sorta regret my decision because I don't have TV where I live so my 22inch is also what I watch DVD's on. Next computer I get will have blue ray and a 24inch screen.....I've thought about getting a nice TV and a PS3 but I don't think it will happen. YMMV.

cliffski

Dman wrote: »

Here's the thing, to really take advantage of a 24inch screen you need a powerful video card because otherwise the higher resolutions will drop your frame rate gaming.

I have a Geforce 8800 GTS. I don't play mega demanding games though. The most demanding ones are Call Of Duty 4 and Company Of heroes.
What do you reckon?

Rook

Dman wrote: »

Here's the thing, to really take advantage of a 24inch screen you need a powerful video card because otherwise the higher resolutions will drop your frame rate gaming.

Not so much really. There's a few games that don't run that well, Crysis namely. But most like Far Cry 2, Grid, Witcher, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed will run at max resolution on an 8800 quite easily.

I upgraded from a 17" to a 24" but I do use a 19" LCD at work. Basically the 17"<>19" are pretty much the same thing, the leap to 24" is amazing, you won't regret it etc etc. If you find yourself not convinced just get a hi-def copy of Planet Earth and start watching it.

Voro

I went from a 19" 5:4 to a 24" 16:9 and it was an excellent jump. I mean, it's not like it's big enough to sit across the room and play, but it's a massive improvement. At the moment I have the 24" as the primary monitor via DVI with my X360 plugged in via VGA. The old VGA monitor's going in as the secondary monitor and it just makes life so much easier.

Of course, dual monitor support still kind of sucks at the moment and some games will minimize when you click over. But I can't see how you wouldn't want dual monitors when programming. It's handy to have enough room to keep your code on-screen while you dig through the API, browse another library, or just work on the technical documents.

Anyway, I think it's worth it, but then I'm squeezing as much as possible out of it.

taeric

cliffski wrote: »

I've used dual monitors in the past but find it a bit cumbersome tbh. I'd keep the old monitor anyway because at some point my better half will get a new PC for home and she will need it then, so I'm not too worried about that.
I'm still on the fence

It is definitely a personal thing, so if it didn't work in the past, I agree there is no reason to think it will work now.

A widescreen monitor that is big enough to have two halves dedicated to different things works rather well. Provided you can work that way. A concern I would look out for is to make sure it will not take up too much space on your desk. That would be about the only non-financial drawback I could think of.

cliffski

sod it, I just ordered one

illig

I recently went from a 4:3 19" (1280x1024) to a 16:10 (1920x1080)... and it's awesome... you can look at two pages of text side by side w/out issues

Cryogen

In my opinion, my 24" monitor is the single best computer upgrade i have ever made. I love my monitor. My work monitor that i am typing on now is 19" widescreen, and the difference is enormous.

The only downside is as stated already - the extra horsepower required. Running at 1920x1200 does mean that you need to keep the rest of your pc pretty up-to-date if you intend to game on it. Outside of gaming though, its fantastic no matter what your hardware is (within reason heh).

OremLK

cliffski wrote: »

sod it, I just ordered one

Enjoy

mellestad

I know already ordered what you want, but Newegg and a couple other dealers have 22" wide screens for $169 right now.

I just ordered three of them for my desk at work

JohnDoe

I went from a 17 -> 22" and it was awesome. The screen was massive compared to my old one.

cliffski

Well I got it, and it's installed and I'm staring at the beast now. I'm not sure whether having huge dual monitors makes me feel like I'm controlling NASA, or a bit over-the-top and silly.
Either way, Company Of heroes kicks serious ass on this screen, and it runs fine at 1900 1280 res.
Me == Happy.