I currently use my laptop next to a monitor with 21" but I am thinking about an upgrade. I casually play some light games, nothing competitive. The rest is a lot of reading, office or coding work and some multimedia.

What is a nice setup in your opinion? One big screen with 27" or two smaller ones with 22" or 24" each?

I did some research and found for a 24" screen 1080p and for a 27" screen 1440p as a minimum. So I figured a 24" 1440p screen would look awesome. Do I miss something about this finding? Is 2K too much for 24" to even notice it?

The problem I have is my desk is only 65cm wide and I frequently have a book or a piece of paper between me and the keyboard+monitor. The monitor uses 22cm and the keyboard another 14cm so there is just enough space for a piece of paper. Many of the modern monitors have huge standing feets and there are not always good measurements given.

I also thought about a monitor arm but I don’t know if that would help with my small desk or just create more hassle after all.

  • hades@feddit.ukEnglish
    2·
    10 hours ago

    I used to be a dual monitor user, but nowadays I’m using a single large monitor because I had to rearrange some things in my work room. For work a single monitor is fine, but I’m also doing some Twitch streaming, and multiplayer gaming, and for that I actually am now thinking of going back to two monitors.

    The other important thing for me personally is resolution. If I’m working with text, 4k is absolutely necessary, for gaming UHD is fine.

    Monitor arms do help with desk space a lot. However, you should also keep in mind that you will need some clearance behind the deck for the “elbow” of the arm.

    The other option to save space is a shelf stand, which raises your monitor a little above the table and allows you to store something under it.

    • theorangeninja@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      Thank you very much, my desk can be moved so no problem there. I did consider the shelf but I read comments that very wide feet are too wide for some shelfs so you are limited by the shelf.

      My question about ultrawide (except that they are out of my budget) is, how do you handle games that won’t scale? Do you just center it and live with black parts left and right? But an IPS panel can’t deliver real black so is it no distracting to have dark-grey bars left and right of your game?