Triple Monitors ( Tri-monitors , Triple display , 3 screens )

[jdoggg12]

... since i couldn't find it in search

Whats the best way to do a triple monitor setup? I currently have a 37" westy and a 22" crt. I want to replace the crt and have smaller (probably 20") lcd's on either side of the westy.

I currently have a 7800gt. Is it as simple as plopping a PIE-e vid card in?


All relevant input is appreciated.

 

[BassBomb]

http://tfitts.googlepages.com/computer1612.jpg

Nothing beats Penth's setup

EDIT: To answer your question, best it so slap in another pci card or pci-e if you can to run the extra monitor

its best to match pixel pitch's between monitors, but that wont be easy with your westy, so you shouldnt worry about that

 

[jdoggg12]

20 vs 22" widescreen.... other than size, any advantage to one or the other? I hear all the 22s are coming with lower quality screens. I'd be buying a pair so i need affordable

 

[dawza]

Is your Westy 1920x1080? If so, the closest you could get as far as LCDs would be 1680x1050, which would be 20" WS or 22". As far as whether you should go with 20 or 22", that really comes down a several factors:

1. Whether you care about the panel type (all 22" are currently TN, while 20" can be had in S-PVA and S-IPS.

2. How well you deal with smaller text sizes/finer pixel sizes. Text will appear larger on the 22" due to the larger pixels; on the other hand, the 20" will give you a sharper/less grainy overall image due to the smaller pixel pitch.

3. Space. Obviously, you need to make sure you have adequate horizontal clearance, and an extra 2" on each side might make or break the limits of your physical space allocations.


With respect to the video card, as BassBomb stated, you can add another PCIe or PCI card that supports DVI; if you have a motherboard that supports SLI, the cheapest option would be to buy the lowest-end Nvidia PCIe card w/DVI and plug it into the unused PCIe slot. This is one of the advantages of having an SLI mobo, even if you don't ever plan on running SLI. Whether PCI or PCIe, make sure the card is Nvidia, as mixing video drivers from different vendors can lead to problems.

Also, it would be worth the $50 investment for Ultramon, to manage your multi-monitor setup.

 

[jdoggg12]

Great response! with the 37"er i'm not really worried about screen real estate on the other 2, so 20" with a superior screen might be preferable.

 

[Matthias99]

Is your Westy 1920x1080? If so, the closest you could get as far as LCDs would be 1680x1050, which would be 20" WS or 22".

...you don't think a 24" 1920x1200 would be 'closer'? It's certainly much closer in terms of native resolution. 20" non-widescreens are 1600x1200.

Closest monitors in size would be the 30" 2560x1600 ones. Not cheap, though.

 

[dawza]

I was thinking in terms of vertical resolution, which IMO would be the biggest concern when spanning across monitors horizontally. I know it annoys me more to go 1080<-->1200 than 1080<-->1050.