Exclusive of cost, what is the ideal monitor set up for a team of programmers?

Given a new office, new desks, and very little limitation on per-person costs (within reason - virtual reality helmets are not likely) what is the ideal number, size, and orientation of (presumably flat-screen LCD) monitors to maximize productivity, efficiency, and accuracy in coding?

If it's relevant, assume .NET development for a web environment, employees in individual offices with large desks. The coders are currently IMing for most conversation, though all are on-site, and web browsing is a part of the job.

There's no such thing as an "ideal monitor setup" because there's no such thing as a "canonical user" either ! (plus the setup you need depends on the tasks you have to perform)

That being said, the strategy I use at my company is simple :

Get every developer as many monitors as he asks for. Plain and simple.

(And I should mention I am running this company, so I'm basically the one paying for hardware ; that being said, I used the same strategy in my previous work position, when I was running a middle-sized .net programming team in a top-tier Investment Bank)

Three reasons to use this strategy :

• A typical monitor costs around $300 and will probably be used for say 3 years... That's a total cost of ownership of around $.5 a day including electricity. The cost of 'ownership' of a good programmer is rather in the $500's a day.

  In other words, a monitor pays for himself as soon as he saves 1 minute a day of a programmer's time.

• You acknowledge the fact that your programmers know better than you what they need to get their work done (which is a strong motivator for them).

  I use to tell my team-members :

  If you need something to get your work done, just buy it, or ask me to get it bought. I don't want to waste your time arguing over why you need an USB rocket launcher. You probably know better than me what you need :)

• You acknowledge the fact that your programmers work is important enough to let them having the best tools money can buy (again, a very strong motivator)

In fact, programmers are so expensive that almost everything that can ease their job is worth buying. I'm talking about :

• as many monitors as they need
• a very fast computer, SSD, quadcore, you name it.
• another computer, if it's needed
• all the books he might want to look at

To end with, a few words about my current setup for developing a .net software (YMMV if you're either not me, not me in may '09, or not developing a .net software)

• two verticals 22" 1920*1080 monitors, displaying a vertically-split Visual Studio
• one landscape 22" 1920*1080 monitor for VS's toolboxes (solution explorer, toolbox, etc.) and other various tools (SQL Management Studio, namely)
• one landscape 22" 1920*1080 monitor for firefox/IM/outlook

A good reason to add an extra-monitor is if you need some things to be constantly visible (such as supervision tools)

In my experience, I hate working with only one monitor, 2 is ok, my productivity still benefits for a third one, and extra monitors are not really needed.

I think 24" monitors are more or less the standard these days. Get two per person if you can.

I'd say at least give the developers two screens. It makes shifting between documentation and the IDE easier and there are several studies that some gains in productivity.

Regardless of developer pay and keeping in mind productivity gains of 30% with dual monitor setup, buying a second monitor is actually quite cheap if you start calculating about it.

If money still is an issue, having a laptop connected to one screen is an improvement over having just the laptop screen on. However if there is a size difference between the laptop screen over the attached one it may become annoying to some (I don't find it annoying but I've met some collegues who think that).

I'd also recommend desks with elevators to prevent muscle and backaches, but that's a whole other discussion topic.