Confessions of a multi-monitor madman @ Tech Report

Ok here is a candid look at multi monitor setups and one persons view into why they are so great.

I've got 27 monitors in my Newegg cart now... should I check out?
Whoa there, killer. Take a deep breath (sans face-mask). Before you pull the trigger on some extra liquid crystal goodness, there are a few more things to think about. Consider the cost of failure. Just like hard drives in RAID, the more of LCDs you have, the more likely you are to have one fail. When part of your monitor grid goes dark, you realize just how much you used that space and divert all available resources to sourcing a replacement. If the old model is no longer available and you want to maintain a pristine array of identical displays, you might end up shopping for a set of replacements.

I will admit I have been sporting dual displays since the days of AGP and so far have not gone a day without having a second display hooked into my primary computer.  Heck I have even refused to do any work at my day job until they hooked me up with a second display.  While dual displays is not for everyone I find that my productivity is considerably higher but can also prove to be a major distraction depending on what Hulu is playing.

I sampled the above quote from the article because he does have a point.  Much like RAID systems if one device fails you could be hard pressed to find a suitable replacement.  Case in point, one of my super cool 1600x1200 20" Samsung LCDs decided to have controller issues so I sent it back for warranty repair.  It would seem they didn't have any replacements so instead of an awesome 20" monitor they sent me a 22" widescreen with only 1050px vertical resolution!!.  Sadly this was unacceptable for a graphics designer like myself.  Because of this, and the lack of position to get a proper monitor from Samsung, I opted to buy a pair of 24" HP LP2475w widescreens and have so far never looked back. 

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