I'm a work from home software engineer, I spend most of the day at my desk staring at my dual monitor setup. There are some specs I'd like to upgrade based off what I've read online, but I want to hear if any tildes users have strong opinions about the hardware.

My primary display is a Dell S2719DGF (1440 144hz), and my secondary display is a Dell P2719H (1080 60hz). My primary display is for programming & gaming, and I want to upgrade to 4k 144hz. My secondary display is my primary display for work, only used for programming. I want to upgrade it to at least 1440, maybe 4k if it's as good as they say. I also need 100x100mm vesa mount support, though I think most monitors have that these days.

A few points that I'm not certain about:

• I've read that 4k is better for reading and writing code because the higher pixel density makes text sharper. I definitely prefer 1440 over 1080, but is the jump from 1440 to 4k as noticeable? I've never used a 4k monitor.

• My current primary display has a low response time. I don't play fast-paced PvP games anymore, is this something I can give up and not notice?

• I think IPS panels are the move for both displays, for better contrast and to avoid burn-in, but I'm no longer well educated on the current landscape of panels. MiniLED? QLED? QD-LED? What'sNextLED??

• Both of my displays are 27 inches. I'm hesitant to upgrade to something larger like 32 inches and lose pixel density. Is the difference between 4k@27in and 4k@32in negligible?

• I just moved my office into a loft with poor lighting. I read that dark rooms require better contrast but I'm not sure what good or poor contrast looks like.

• Is my fps going to take a hit from increasing the resolution of my secondary display? I don't know if there's a lot of extra overhead from the increased resolution. AMD GPU/Gnome/Wayland btw.

If you're a programmer/gamer with a hill to die on regarding monitors please share it with me!

I might have to have two running laptops for work.

Desk space is at a premium. Right now I have my work laptop stacked on top of my personal PC on my desk ( tower, on its side, on a stand ).

Would a rack like this one, with a lap top on each shelf be enough to keep the magnets on the lids of each laptop from interfering with each other? What about protecting each laptop from the heat of the other laptop?

I already have a mechanical KVM. I will just need to buy one that accommodates more than 2 computers.

Please, let me know if I have overlooked any considerations.

Thank you.

after the comments in my previous topic, I proceeded to try Notesnook and Joplin after having issues with Nextcloud Notes (that I have already documented in my previous post)

Notesnook ain't bad if it's your jam. I found it easy to use and quite nice U.I. the only dings against it (obviously subjective) is that it really isn't supportive of markdown in an easy way, you have to pay for it cause there's no self-hosting option and you have to pay for the ability to have more than 5 tags.

Joplin's only ding imo is just that it has no web browser interface, but beyond that, there's nothing else fuctionality-wise I can really count against it, the U.I. is rather dated but the functionality is so stable that I am more than willing to deal with a dated UI. and I can self-host using my nextcloud instance so that's a great plus in avoiding additional charge.

So I personally recommend Joplin if you don't care about a dated UI in order to avoid having to pay a subscription if you are willing to self-host.

In other news, by the time I finally imported all my Nextcloud notes to Joplin, the nextcloud Notes App had managed to wipe 60 of my notes empty. I love nextcloud and its let me do wonderful things but the notes app they have is incredibly buggy when combined with their android app and how they are trying to implement markdown support.