3 monitor system

kitster

kitster

kitster

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23 May 2006
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Right, I need a much better system for work, and I reckon I could just about make do ;) with three monitors (code, db, miscellaneous). One of the monitors needs to operate in portrait mode (the central one) and be the best of the three (if they're different models), and all of them need to be a minimum of 1280x1024 and I think 19".

Its only for work, if I'm going to play games it will only be on the central monitor. So I could get away with a single DVI if necessary (if you see what I mean).

So, I'm after suggestions about the monitors and the graphics card(s) thats going to run them. Budget is naturally a concern, as well as noise (I hate fan noise), and bearing in mind I'm going to be spending about 50 hours a week in front of them, my eyes.

Whaddya reckon?

Kitster
 
a 3 monitor system is easily achived, i have 1 running from an x300 and x550 both PCIEx in a DFI ultra D board as "Dual express graphics"

all you need is 3 monitors of any size and res you like, a pci ex graphics card with 2 outputs and if you dont have 2 16X slots you could always use a PCI card for your 3rd monitor.

 
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Just posting as the above brings back memories, had my fair share of testing many moons ago back in the days when TFTs were just appearing.

I started with:
1x Samsung 191T combined with 2x 17" Viewsonics
(very good but 3x screens the same is nicer to use, due to backlighting/colouring differences)

moving on to
3x Samsung 193p
(this was a joy to sit at, either used in single screen mode or spanned over all 3, and offer one or all in portrait, almost endless possibilities)

changing to
2x Samsung 193p but a central 30" LCDtv (increased multimedia benifits)
(i began to want big screen gaming and video playback, although this spoils the neatness of the system and the different resolutions bring slight issues when spanning across or manouvering your pointer)

after that
2x Samsung 193p with 80" 720p Projection
(2 monitors is enough for most jobs in multitasking, this just took the idea of making my multimedia even more enjoyable and of course like a HDTV this easily allows changing of inputs or channels were many monitors cant offer that, HDTV an monitor combos are popular but again contrast/brightness consisitancy will be lost)

Nowadays i use a laptop or just the projector for laid back surfing or the 40" HDTV / HTPC in the living room, how things have changed.

Cant help much on recommendations although Samsung usually offer a good range of portrait models, Surfing in particular can be benifical this way.

Personally id recommend either a HDTV and monitor combo with a monitor that portraits, or 2x WS TFTs at least 20".

The other problem is layout as really 3x 19" always required panning of the head, this was increased even more when i changed the 30" HDTV in the centre. Ok it wasnt uncomfortable as an outer screen can be used for less important apps or monitoring but really having two TFTs below a higher wall mounted HDTV offers less neck strain, but of course placing this too high then defeats the purpose.

Wish you luck anyways...
 
whats it like playing counterstrike or any other FPS or driving sim on that ?
can you post a pic of it happerning please?
 
there really bad, you end up running 1 resolution of 3840 x 1024 and it splits it into 3 monitors so the fps would be very slow. you would need to use a master card and a secondary pci card for the 3rd monitor
 
bitslice said:
would the Matrox TripleHead2Go be of any use ?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/th2go/

...wonder if OC will stock these someday
Click to expand...
The Matrox TripleHead2Go (and DualHead2Go for that matter) products are aimed at systems where it's simply not possible to have multiple video outputs (laptops, work systems where users are not allowed to tamper with hardware etc.). It's a very expensive and messy (in the sense that Windows doesn't recognise you have three monitors, and you'd have to use something along the lines of the nVidia software which separates the screen into different zones if you want to be able to maximise windows and such) way of doing something which can be achieved quite easily with one PCI-X or AGP graphics card and another PCI-X or a plain old PCI card.

You'll find you can pick up a bottom of the line PCI card for less than £30 brand new, yet the Matrox TripleHead2Go retails for about £200.
 
saves having to plug in another card though ?
('tis still a bit pricey)

and for gaming, he sounds OK with just using the one monitor, so FPS should be OK. ...I'd want all three for playing AoE3 :-)


StevenG said:
...you would need to use a master card and a secondary pci card for the 3rd monitor
Click to expand...

sorry, not sure what you mean, it's a triple output ?
 
bitslice said:
saves having to plug in another card though ?
('tis still a bit pricey)
Click to expand...
It's a nice easy way of hooking up three monitors, but — to be quite honest — if you're in the market for a triple monitor setup, you probably have the proficiency to buy a £30 PCI card a slot it in. Takes the whole of five seconds to install (ignoring driver tomfoolery, but from what I hear that's not much of an obstacle either) and you don't need a graphics card capable of throwing out video at 3840x1024

I'd only really consider it if — as I said earlier — I had to use three monitors in conjunction with a laptop or a work machine which I couldn't add hardware to. Otherwise it's just a waste of money to be honest :)
 
Baddass said:
haven't seen you around for a while Mr Latte, good to see you in monitors again :) Hope all is well.
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Hello again, i see your working as hard as ever, thought youd have your own hardware review site by now and showing 3DGM a thing or two, bout time these guys (ocuk) got you set up for that and on a good commission basis lol.

Im just passing, getting an idea or two is all, thanks for the acknowledgement anyhows...
 
Guys forget 3way for gaming its more of a gimmick.
All you need is a projector or a nice big HDTV like the latest Sony X series 46" HDTV for 1:1 1920x1080 via DVI-HDMI with 1300:1 contrast all for a reasonable £3500
 
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Al Vallario said:
you probably have the proficiency to buy a £30 PCI card a slot it in.
Click to expand...

I was kinda thinking about the added fan noise, but then most PCI stuff has no fan anyway :-)


Al Vallario said:
Otherwise it's just a waste of money to be honest :)
Click to expand...

OK, not valid for this chap, but still very few games support 2/3 monitors,
and this box does let you do that.
I can't imagine anyone getting this for a laptop though?

I'd like the same setup at work too, but have a low profile PC so card choice is a bit limited :-(

.
 
StevenG said:
a 3 monitor system is easily achived, i have 1 running from an x300 and x550 both PCIEx in a DFI ultra D board as "Dual express graphics"

all you need is 3 monitors of any size and res you like, a pci ex graphics card with 2 outputs and if you dont have 2 16X slots you could always use a PCI card for your 3rd monitor.

Click to expand...


how do you get images to fit like that i have a widescreen monitor which is 1360 x 768 which no wallpaper fits nicely
 
if you are talking about just 1 monitor with that resolution you can either photoshop a 1440x900 image to the resolution your monitor supports or if your talking about how the image look right on all 3 screens i used photoshop again.

had one large image and cut the 3 screen backgrounds + projector background out seperate allowing a gap for the thinkness of the monitor cases. i also stretched the centre image up so it matched the outer screens (as the pixel size was different). took quite abit of time and re working the images but looked a lot better then just having the large image stretched over the whole background (which would be missmatched as it carries onto the next screen) e.g.

origional image : http://img131.exs.cx/img131/8991/babe1a8pc.jpg
my background : http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1540/desktop0jp.jpg
 
bitslice said:
I can't imagine anyone getting this for a laptop though?

.
Click to expand...

Chuckles as I just got one for use with work (dualhead2go)

It was actually for a work colleague to use two 19" TFT's at home with her laptop - one for bloomberg stock prices etc and excel charts - the other for IE / Outlook etc it worked quite well for her apart from the fact that Terminal Server would only spread across 1 (and a bit) monitors
 
Al Vallario said:
Looks like someone at OcUK has answered your prayers :)
Click to expand...

Oooh, thanks for the heads up. :-)

Age of Empires III on three screens, ....want one.
...now if only I hadn't just got that fab GS+ card from OC to play the game in the first place...!
I even happen to have three spare LCD's !

'tis still had to justify spending that much, I wish Matrox could have got the price down before releasing it.
 
FrankJH said:
Chuckles as I just got one for use with work (dualhead2go)

It was actually for a work colleague to use two 19" TFT's at home with her laptop - one for bloomberg stock prices etc and excel charts - the other for IE / Outlook etc it worked quite well for her apart from the fact that Terminal Server would only spread across 1 (and a bit) monitors
Click to expand...


Ah, I've heard about that, ...terminal server has a hard limit of 1600 x 1200... maybe it will be changed in Vista.

heh, I had this image of people with a laptop carting about three screens and another box in an enormous rucksack.... :-O

I'd guess a laptop wouldn't have the grunt for games over three screens, but yeh, I love the dual screen thing too.

Not sure why people use laptops at work ?
bung a PC on a shelf under desk, LCD on top; then remote access from home/client.

one the other hand I noticed that people at IBM all use laptops, but then a Thinkpad is the only one I'd trust with my work too
(...looks at the growing pile of dead toshiba laptops in corner)



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