Forget the faster Mac, get a bigger monitor

I wholeheartedly agree. I have a 15" Powerbook connected to a 21" Gateway widescreen display (excellent btw, highly recommended). It makes computing much more enjoyable, and eventually when I get an Xbox I can hook it up with its component inputs to enjoy some nice HD gaming.

Plus a good monitor will last you for years, and doesn't become obsolete as quickly as a computer.

I bought a Dell 2407 about half a year ago, and love it. At the time (and probably still now) they were significantly cheaper than the Apple displays. Apart from the missing Apple logo it doesn't seem to be missing much.

Just got a Dell 2407 hooked up to my G4, replacing a 17" CRT. Now I'm used to it (it was strange at first, I noticed myself moving my head around like i was watching tennis!) its great, lots of space for more than one window at a time, and lots of room to lay out all the photoshop etc palettes on the screen. With this setup, my G4 is good til next year now :) . So I agree completely.

As I posted in the "how often do you upgrade?" entry yesterday, mmy 867 mhz Tibook is doin me just fine. I'd just like to have something bigger and more stable to watch movies on and manage the media that I can't fit on this computer.

In other words: a mac mini hooked up to a TV w/ an external hard drive.

I agree on monitors. I went with a Macbook (with RAM and HD upgrades) and Viewtronic 20" widescreen LCD and still saved over $1,000 over the Macbook Pro 17" I was considering. Smaller for travel, larger for home. Best of both worlds.

I did a study for a large DoD contractor years ago. The basis was what would give users the greatest gain in productivity.
A - faster processor
B - more memory
C - faster hard drive
D - larger monitor

Overwhelmingly, the larger monitor provided greater productivity, BUT only if it was used with more pixels - size in itself was no value, but having more windows open concurrently, allowed people to assimulate more data - kinda like having stuff laid out on a desk.

I watch so many users take big screen displays, and blow up a window to full screen, where all the text is down the left side, and the balance of the display is unused. If this is the operating mode, get them a 15 inch display and call it good.

Last year, I had the option of getting a 15in PowerBook or a 12in PowerBook with a 20in Cinema Display. I went with the 12in. It works great and I can use the 12in as a second display.

I've got a 30" Cinema Display (2560x1600) as my main display and a 19" CRT (1600x1200) as my secondary display -- and I still feel like I could use more screen real estate. As it is, I do all my work on the 30" display and use the 19" one for storing palettes in Illustrator, Photoshop, QuarkXPress, InDesign, etc; also have my AIM windows on the secondary display, plus a few other odds and ends. But it would actually be really nice to have at least a 23" Cinema Display, or even better a second 30" one, as the secondary display so I can use the two displays almost equally. I'd love to be able to set up the left-hand display specifically for work apps and the right-hand display for their palettes plus all other apps I need to use (ie, email, calendars, web, etc). I suppose I could do that with the 19" CRT, but text is so much less crisp than on the Cinema Display.

Truth be told, no matter how much screen real estate you have, you can always use more. If I did get a second 30" display, I'd still want to keep the 19" CRT as well, so I could have two primary workspaces (be able to keep two large windows open simultaneously for work), plus palettes on the small display...

I just ordered a Dell 24-inch widescreen that will be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait. I'm still trying to maneuver how I'm going to hook up my Macbook, a PC desktop, and my Xbox 360 to it.