Dual Monitor PCs for business...ideas

OrangeDagger

Hi,

I need to get 3-4 PCs for a small business. The requirements aren't anything too major apart from dual monitors. Obviously the more future proof the better. I've looked at dell, komplett, ebuyer, dabs etc. From what I've found it looks like the dell vostro range offers some of the best value. I also found the Compaq on ebuyer which looks like good value too.

The choice is therefore between the Vostro 230 + graphics card from komplett(the radeon 4350 seems has been recommended on a few threads here as a cheap dual monitor solution) the vostro 430 (with the same graphics card included) or the Compaq + the graphics card.

I'm leaning towards the 430 as with the i5 (which seems to be universally raved about) it looks the most future proof. I suppose it would be stupid to not update to 4gb of ram with this (ram about 20 euro cheaper on komplett then to upgrade to 4gb on dell)

I was then going to buy 6-8 of the benq monitors below as they seem to have gotten good reviews so far and they seem to be very energy efficient. Do widescreen monitors generally work ok for dual monitor setups?

Any opinions on:
Which system to go for?
Any better monitors out there for around this price?
The monitor has both vga and dvi connections, are both cables or an adapter normally supplied. i.e. once i get the monitors will i be able to plug one into the vga connection and one into the dvi connection on the radeon 4350?
Any other general thoughts

Thanks, i've listed the specs below.


VOSTRO 230
Intel Core 2 Duo processor E7500 (2.93GHz, 1066MHz, 3MB)
Windows® 7 Home Premium (32 BIT)
2048MB (1x2048) 1066MHz DDR3 Single Channel
320GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
onboard graphics

€319 ex vat + Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 512MB DDR2
~€25 ex. vat from Komplett.ie

Vostro 430
Intel® Core™ i5 -750 (2.66GHz, 8MB)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
2048MB (1x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Single Channel
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache
Graphics: 512MB ATI RadeonTM HD 4350 (DVI, VGA,HDMI)

€ 429 ex vat (+€50 euro to up it to 4GB)

Benq G920WL
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176581

About€90 ex vat each

Compaq CQ5306uk Desktop
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
4GB RAM
1TB HDD
Intel GMA X4500
Windows 7 Home Premium

~€380 ex.vat

Biggins

OrangeDagger wrote: »

...Do widescreen monitors generally work ok for dual monitor setups?

Absolutely, I use then all the time.
They allow me to work away on one project while monitoring another one and/or view other work completely or watch tv/surf the web, etc.

For example:





Further example might be found in this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055630422

These particular two are Hanns.G monitors: http://computing.kelkoo.co.uk/d-computer-monitors,Hanns_G-114401

OrangeDagger

Thanks Biggins. I've used dual monitors before and indeed it is great. I was more thinking of whether 4:3 aspect monitors were better than 16:9 aspect monitors in a 2 monitor setup. I was thinking that two widescreens might be a bit wide. I'm thinking that for reading documents etc. the height of a 4:3 aspect might be better.

I can see the advantage in displaying bikini clad women lying on the beach but unfortunately it probably wouldn't be no.1 consideration in work!

pickarooney

What kind of business is it and what is the requirement for 2 monitors as opposed to one big one?

OrangeDagger

It's financial services. It's mainly so you can have outlook or something open on one while working away on the other. I could see one large monitor being an advantage in design work or something similar but i'm pretty sure two monitors suits are needs better. thanks

Gadgetman496

I notice the Vostro 430 has Windows 7 64bit?

64bit is much better than 32bit.

-

OrangeDagger

gadgetman496 wrote: »

I notice the Vostro 430 has Windows 7 64bit?

64bit is much better than 32bit.

Yeah, the Vostro 430 is configured with the 32-bit version by default but you can get a free upgrade to the 64-bit version.

Does anyone know how Dell currently distribute Windows with their systems? The last time i bought off them it was an inspiron laptop a few years ago. It came without a windows CD. If you wanted one, then you had to burn one to CD yourself.

Bob_Harris

gadgetman496 wrote: »

64bit is much better than 32bit.

Well, assuming you have a lot of 64bit software which shows substantial improvements over their 32bit counterparts, and assuming you don't have any legacy peripherals which do not have 64bit drivers, and assuming every piece of software you need to install will work without problems under a 64bit operating system, then one could say 64bit is slightly better than 32bit...but that is a lot of assumptions.

PogMoThoin

OrangeDagger wrote: »

Does anyone know how Dell currently distribute Windows with their systems? The last time i bought off them it was an inspiron laptop a few years ago. It came without a windows CD. If you wanted one, then you had to burn one to CD yourself.

Recovery partitions only now i think