For a little background, I currently run two 22" LCD monitors side by side. I love all the working area that is available. After having two monitors I decided I would never go back to one. I am sure many of you feel the same way. I figured the only way to get more real estate is to go to a 30" monitor, and later maybe two.

The question is, when will 30" LCD monitors drop in price?

Its ridiculous how much of a premium is on them. To be comparable, I could have five 22" screens for the price of one 30".


What do you guys think?

I think you should have 5x22"ers

:-D

I think 30's are a waste of money unless you really need the extra resolution and screen acreage. (And yes, I have used them, but I don't (IMO) think they offer enough for the outlay!)
For me, I think the price/screen size sweet point is on the 24's, they offer appreciably more resolution and screen size than a 22", but at a much more reasonable price than the extra for a 30"

i have also notice the outragous price of 30" ers

A simple dell 30" is in excess of £1000

i think after 24" the price get rediculas.

i dont we will see them go down in price any time soon, as they are the biggest realistic size monitor.

what you dont want to do is use 32" Tv as a monitor as you will not get a high enough resolution.

just keep adding Monitors to your setup.

When the demand starts to drop because all the high end users have bought their 30" monitors is when you will see the price start to drop.

thats childsplay.
i had a 20" Wide lcd that was too small. So i wanted a big monitor and I went out and bought a sharp lcd tv 37" 1080p. I love it! the ati radeon HD does a wonderful job. would never go back to pc monitors.

Well..I have a 30" Dell and a 21" Samsung. Yes, the real estate is quite nice. ...but generally its totally unncessesary and I'd say a 30" is a bad investment unless you REALLY need the space. I'd say a nice pair of 24" would be fine. ...but since you have a pair of 22" that's probably not even necessary.

...bottom line, a 30" is indeed nice but its overkill and not worth the $$. I love my Dell 30" but I'd not buy it again, too expensive.


My .02 cents

I use a 42" 1080P HDTV. Game on.

42" @ 1920x1200 from 2' to 3' away. That is great, especially if you're nearly blind.

Thanks for the input from someone who has had the experience, Halcyon.

Well, I think that brings up three more options....obviously the 30" is a waste of money.

I could do (3) screens, 22" on the sides and a 24" in the middle. Or, I could sell my two 22" and get two 24", or I could sell one of my 22" and just have a 22" and a 24".

What do you guys think?

Yeah, I agree with Halcyon.

If I had a 42" screen I'd be after a resolution somewhere in the region of 3840x2400!

It seems crazy to get rid of a screen just yet.

Grab a 24" and pop it in the middle, work with that for a couple weeks and see what you think. If you take out one of the 22" and miss it, just pop it back in.

If you find it's not a problem having just the 2, my 15" CRT could do with a free replacement (nudge nudge wink wink)

I've run 3 dispays before. 2 x 21" and 1 x 24" Samsung. Again, nice, but IMHO I think its overkill too. It was fun to show the the folks around the office my "Cinemax" setup but...

1) More space than I needed and...

2) I noticed a hit on performance from the OS having to keep track of and draw the 3 desktops (which was rendered with 2 video cards)

...your experience may be better, but after the "this is cool" wears off you might be like..."uh...why?"

I really believe 2 displays is about the sweetspot for regular use and a I think 22" or 24" are the sweetspot for displays.

I use a 28" 1920x1200 LCD and two 1680x1050 displays. The 28" is great for gaming, and supports HDMI and component inputs so game consoles are easily able to be hooked up as well.

I used 4 19" CRT monitors in the past... then switched to 2 22" WS LCD and a 19"CRT
as a developer i like the screen space...
in my home office... I curretnly use a 24" and a 22" LCD.. and like the screen space...
but miss the 3'rd monitor... plan to get another 22" one soon...

a single 30" screen would be to large for me...
I prefer to have each app on a difrent screen... easier to move them from one monitor to another using UltraMon

get a 24" or a another 22"... 30" would be overkill.. unless it is graphics work and you need the resolution...

as for slowdowns for the extra display the extra monitor would cause... easy fix... get a faster machine...

my 2¢