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Why Dual Screens? Opinions Please

C

crotalus99

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 4, 2007
114
0
I just bought an I7 iMac and was excited to run it with my 24" cinema display. Now that I have it all set up I'm not really sure why I would need it. I have 12 screens using spaces on the iMac and at the moment primarily just keep Mail open on the second screen which is convenient, but I am trying to rationalize the loss of desk space vs the "cool" factor of having the second screen.

What do you guys use the second screen for? What am I missing?

Thanks for your opinions.
 
Some people just don't need 2 screens.

I don't have 2 but I would absolutely love to have multiple displays. I spend a lot of my time 3D modelling and using Photoshop. Both need a lot of screen space, especially the 3D work since, with 4 viewports you've effectively got 1/4 of you're screen to work in. Now if I wanted to read a tutorial or watch a video tutorial, or anything else really I would be constantly flicking between programs and stopping work.

Currently I bring in a laptop to use as a second display, but it's really not ideal.
 
Typically I have a screen of my current code open, the documentation, a browser, and perhaps Photoshop/Illustrator open, I'm dying to get a second 27" display...
 
i have at the moment 6 displays open , 3 belong to my eMac's ,1belongs to my iMac g3 and a iMac core duo + samsung display and sorry i cannot live without any of them , i need them and spaces and 27" would be just not convenient as i need to watch 3 websites constantly on my 3 eMac's ..i am courier driver and these sites are vital for my income , as jobs come up there where i need to make offers for, which i do on my iMac G3 , if i would switch one away at the wrong moment i could lose ££££, the samsung is displaying emails and the iMac core duo is for general stuff
 
The things seepel mentioned are good reasons. 2, or more, screens is killer for programming. It's easy to use multiple monitors for having different views of code open - sometimes you want to look at multiple files at once, or compare versions of a file. Sometimes it would be useful if I could view multiple web pages, full screen, simultaneously, while coding. It sometimes nice to be able to do this while having the application you're working on also running full screen..

Programmers never have enough screen real estate, I know I could easily, consistently, use 4 or 5 screens simultaneously. I heard of programmers with 6 monitors, I wouldn't be surprised if there were many that could use more.

Also, online poker players use multiple monitors to play at multiple tables simultaneously. I've known of winning poker players that could play more than 20 tables at a time.
 
I don't need two, but it's nice to watch a movie on one, and browse the web on the other.
 
JustSomeDude said:
The things seepel mentioned are good reasons. 2, or more, screens is killer for programming. It's easy to use multiple monitors for having different views of code open - sometimes you want to look at multiple files at once, or compare versions of a file. Sometimes it would be useful if I could view multiple web pages, full screen, simultaneously, while coding. It sometimes nice to be able to do this while having the application you're working on also running full screen..

Programmers never have enough screen real estate, I know I could easily, consistently, use 4 or 5 screens simultaneously. I heard of programmers with 6 monitors, I wouldn't be surprised if there were many that could use more.

Also, online poker players use multiple monitors to play at multiple tables simultaneously. I've known of winning poker players that could play more than 20 tables at a time.
Click to expand...

I can also add that my list of typical windows I have open is so short BECAUSE I only have one display. There are many times where I think to myself, "I could use this website open in another window rather than a tab, but I just don't have space for it".
 
I use 2 22" 16:10 monitors. the right display as my main display and the left for tools, sample images/rendering. My most used apps are Photoshop and Maya.

Try using an old small screen just for tools etc for a few days and you'l never go back.
 
I have a @ display/keyboard & CPU in my main recording studio,used only when all the gear is fired up for sessions & second display/keyboard in bedroom.If I am on the web or emailing,etc I really prefer my bedroom setup,I can always grab a small usb piano to plug in or even the 'keys lock' piano keyboard in Logic Pro for simple sessions.Sometimes firing up a roomful of gear is not helpful if you need to get ideas down quickly;)
 
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