Paul Haddad 
Weekend project, my back hurts already. Though to be honest it always hurts.
Took a bit longer than expected and had to break out the router to fix the edges but desk top came out OK.
The plan has been to get a heavy duty VESA mount and put up my oldish 49” monitor. Plan worked but…
... I forgot two things: 1. How ridiculously large this monitor is. 2. How terrible VA looks on Mac.
I really don't want to spend the $$$ on another 38" monitor but seems like the least worst choice (don't want to spend $2k on the Dell 6k either).
Resisting... If Dell's refurb warranty wasn't so terrible I'd have a lot more trouble.
Another option. 1/2 the price of the Dell and more usable screen space. But, in my experience, 140PPI is a bit of an uncanny valley resolution wise and deco gear isn't the first name I think of when thinking of quality monitors.
https://www.amazon.com/Deco-Gear-Ultrawide-Monitor-5120x2160/dp/B0CLHDCHLC
https://www.amazon.com/Deco-Gear-Ultrawide-Monitor-5120x2160/dp/B0CLHDCHLC
I ended up ordering the Dell refurb. It came today but the built in web camera got smashed up in shipping (though seems to be functional). Tried to do a replacement but they said it was out of stock (which I don't thinks is true), so back it goes.
Really disappointed, I'd consider re-ordering but the packing job was so bad I'm not willing to risk it, no idea why they didn't send it in with the original box.
The monitor itself is super nice, like an extra large iMac 27" 5k, it’s super sharp.
Given the Dell 6k refurb failure I went back to the drawing board. 27" 4k + 1080p 15" portable monitor. I doubt this will last, but having a hard time coming up with anything else to try.
This weekend I'm trying out the cheapest 4k 32" IPS monitor on Amazon. It's obviously noticeably fuzzier than the Dell 6k, but I think probably something I can live with (specially at < 1/6th the price).
The biggest problem is the lack of factory calibration (or maybe they just did a bad job of it), normally wouldn't be an issue for me but I can't find my calibrator anywhere.
https://www.amazon.com/SCEPTRE-32-inch-DisplayPort-Speakers-U325W-UPT/dp/B0CC6RTL44
Jacob Wolman@paul Time to buy the cheapest calibrator on Amazon.
Bernd Goldschmidt@paul Have you ever thought about using a 55" 8K TV as a monitor? It is basically a 2x2 grid of 27" 4K ones, …
Zorin =^o.o^=@paul I've always felt that the absolutely *perfect* calibration right out of the box on the Studio Displays is alone worth the extra cost.
I wish Apple had a larger version of the Studio Display (without having to pay so much more for the Pro Display XDR which doesn't even come with a stand).
Heath Borders@paul can you point us to a good calibrator? Does calibrating require being able to see color accurately?
Ben@paul I’ve just bought the Gigabyte M32U for my new office — 4k, 32, IPS. Reviews are all pretty great for it.
@sangster I have a 28u, its pretty decent for what I use it for but I recall color being kind of meh on it. Great features but not sure I'd want to use it as my main monitor.
@paul Oof, that's good to know. The reviews I read said that the 32u has pretty good color and I was hoping to use it for editing photos as well. Sounds like at very least I'll need to borrow a color calibration tool from somewhere.
aeberbach@paul 4K 42” is about the right pixel density. I was skeptical until I saw it.
inket 
@paul I wasn't so sure 4K 32" would work for me so I got the cheapest one to try it out as well. That was 3 years ago and I'm a full convert. Now rocking the 32GS95UE which is amazing (its only issue is that it doesn't have USB-C...)
http 
@paul I can't see any price there, but it has only 70 Hz and no compatibility with GSYNC or FreeSync listed. So definitively not usable for gaming. But also higher refresh helps with standard desktop apps. Other than that, looks good to me.
Leon Breedt
Travis@paul Everything you’re going through here is precisely why I haven’t been willing to move on past my maxed out last generation 27 inch iMac. This display is still amazing, and there’s hardly been any competition, even after all these years.
SeaCaptain(Ret)@travisbell But now you are stuck w/ Ventura & can’t upgrade MacOS, right? Or is the a way to move forward on my 27” Intel?
@jfharrison Sonoma still supports Intel and the 27 inch iMacs: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/105113
@travisbell Sorry, I’m a 2017, not 2019. I’m locked in to Ventura or hw upgrade. My screen is nice, I can’t bring myself to toss it out and my understanding is it cannot easily be repurposed to use on a newer system.
Nick Beadman@paul Do you have a recommendation for the 15” portable monitor?
@nbeadman no, I wouldn't get this one its just what I had handy.
phlp@paul I feel your pain. having the same monitor problems atm. I would love one main display with 5kish*1600px plus a 1600*1600px square one as a sidekick. same ppi, same design. that would be so cool. 😔
sashk 🇺🇦@paul i have two of these 27" 4k... can't use different resolution screens, always annoys me.
Dirk KS@paul The Dell is down to $1850 new at Amazon today.
@DirkK yeah I know same price at bh photo, but too much for my budget.
Gui Neto@paul Dell U4323Q
ebbi@paul have you considered converting a 5k iMac to an external display?
@ebbi I want > 27", if I wanted 27" I'd either stick with my current 4k which is good enough or get the Samsung 5k.
Trent Shell@paul running through the same issues now. Have you tried running a 140PPI monitor with Windows, and if so is it any more pleasant than on MacOS?
@trentshell no, Windows does things pretty differently and I don't really care about text quality on there whenever I'm using Windows.
@paul fair enough. I like the way it renders text with 163PPI (more so than on Mac), but want more real estate and am wondering if the step up to 32” 4K is worth it.
@trentshell I ordered this yesterday to see what its like https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CC6RTL44. Cheap enough to give it a go
@paul nice, that honestly doesn’t look half bad. It’s kind of insane both how cheap and how expensive monitors can be.
RG@paul Wouldn’t a 15.6” or 17” @ 4K have good enough PPI?