Best monitor configuration for SLI gaming? (Also, best 27"-30")?

[TheInternal]

Greetings,

I'm almost done building my core i5-3750k with 2 x SLI Geforce 670 GTX system and am looking for a monitor worthy of the set up. I was thinking a 27" to 30"... or possibly a 27" or 30" flanked by dual 22"-24". Does SLI play nice with a large central screen and two smaller side panels? Would it be better to do three identical panels? I saw a review suggesting the SLI'd 670s non-overclocked can easily handle 5760 x 1080 http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/39605-nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-sli-vs-the-beasttm/

Personal opinions welcomed, as are links to good reviews. I do NOT want a mere 1920x1200 resolution on anything over 24". I've had that good for around 6 years and feel it's time to upgrade that as well.

 

[_Rick_]

If I were to upgrade currently, I'd go for 3 21" 1600x1200 screens with thin bezels.
The resulting resolution is decent at 3600x1600, and should sufficiently punish most SLI setups.
Triple screen means no bar in the middle, which is nice for gaming. Aspect ratio is similar to movie's more-or-less standard 2.35:1 at 2.25:1, meaning very small bars during up-scaled playback of movies. Of course 4:3 content should probably be constrained to two screens (2133x1600) or even one (1200x800).
Overall size is still bearable, resolution isn't that high, but then you shouldn't sit too close to your screen either
Also, it's far easier to move three reasonably sized screens, than one or two big thirty inchers, and a catastrophic failure of one screen leaves you with sufficient spares.
Additionally, most 21 inchers are designed with professional users in mind, which means they often come with better quality backlighting, color accuracy, pre-calibration etc.
This is at a cost, of course, but then a good thirty incher is also obscenely expensive.

Going with three identical screens allows for more flexibility, as most of the driver-based options for stretching content across multiple screens is expecting identically sized screens. Also, if you get screens from a single charge, colors may be suitably similar. Still, calibration and card profiles will come in handy.

One big problem you may encounter, is that 4:3 screens usually have not been touched for 5 years or so. This means no display port, rarely HDMI, no 3D. Single link DVI should be enough to drive them though, meaning you can go for cheap adapters, if you lack sufficient DVI outputs.

All the other options either end up with awkward aspect ratios, dissimilarly sized screens, a bar in the middle, or overly expensive, loud 30 inch screens.

Still, myself I held back on the purchase of three Eizo s2100, because they're so bloody expensive, at 2500 euro for the set.

 

[TheInternal]

Thanks for the reply, Rick. I'd be looking at no less than "24 inch class" monitors for my configuration. I'd not even consider below 22". I've been running a single 1920x1200 24" panel with a secondary 1024x768 monitor for about six years now, and I'm looking to upgrade across the board. I agree on the thin bezel part and appreciate your input. Alas, the rest of the stuff is below what I'm currently considering, as listed in my initial post.

As I said in my initial post, two 670 GTX cards can comfortably power a 5760 x 1080 resolution configuration (aka three 1080p monitors). I intend to do at least that. The big question is still the toss up over going with "three of a kind" or getting a big honkin' central monitor for my design and graphics work with two smaller side panels (24" class) and how well supported such a configuration would be in a 2 card SLI setup.

Recommendations on monitors for gaming in the ranges I've asked about would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheInternal]

Anyone else have suggestions? I'm surprised no one else has any thoughts on this <.<