2nd computer monitor recommendation?

^except this is completely out of the budget set in the original post!

yes it is. but then if you say:

"I am a photographer myself and fully understand the importance of a good monitor."

then you need to spend money to get a monitor that fulfills the basic needs of a graphics/photography monitor, i.e. a large colourspace, panel luminance uniformity, controllable luminace and contrast ratio to match a paper white and it's accompanying lower contrast ratio and colour accuracy. (using a hardware calibrator not 'twiddling the buttons until it looks o.k)