Triple monitor setup - Advice needed

[aliskr]

Hi guys,

I currently have a dual setup with Samsung 204Bs, running at 1600x1200. Unfortunately, they have given me a lot of grief over the years whilst I was studying (monitors died every couple of months) and Samsung customer support has been very disappointing. Therefore, I need a new setup so I can finally retire these crappy monitors.

I need advice regarding triple monitor setup from cost effectiveness and ergonomic perspective. I will be using these monitors for trading, office stuff like programming/UML, ebooks, movies, limited gaming, and web. My requirements are:
1) Lots of screen space + comfortable so I can efficiently handle tasks highlighted above simultaneously;
2) Bit of a resolution junkie so prefer higher resolutions;
2) Monitors shouldn't fail too often like Samsung's model and should come with a decent customer support, particularly exchange should be reasonably quick as downtime is costly.

My current thinking is:
a) 1x 2410WFP* (centre) and 2x 2209WA (L & R); or
b) 3x 2410WFP.

I'm leaning towards setup a because it seems better in terms of cost/requirements. But I'm slightly worried about how ergonomic it would be. Don't want to be stuck with a setup that is not quite comfortable to use. I would welcome your suggestions, especially if you have alternatives.

Thanks.

* will probably wait for a few weeks before I make the purchases

[vjcsmoke]

I think the resolutions will differ with setup A, so it might be a little weird for you. Then again I use a 1680x1050 + 1920x1080 side by side and don't find any significant discomfort. However you will notice some 'sizing' differences when dragging stuff across your monitors. It's all up to you, option B does sound significantly more expensive. But you'd have 1920x1200 x3 vs 1920x1200 + 1680x1050 x2. You'll probably also need either a special video card to handle 3 monitors or 2x video cards. Most regular video cards max out at 2 displays per card.

You're probably looking at either an Nvidia Quadro NVS 450 or 420 card. They can run up to 4 displays at once.

[80sRule]

Hi guys,

I currently have a dual setup with Samsung 204Bs, running at 1600x1200. Unfortunately, they have given me a lot of grief over the years whilst I was studying (monitors died every couple of months) and Samsung customer support has been very disappointing. Therefore, I need a new setup so I can finally retire these crappy monitors.

I need advice regarding triple monitor setup from cost effectiveness and ergonomic perspective. I will be using these monitors for trading, office stuff like programming/UML, ebooks, movies, limited gaming, and web. My requirements are:
1) Lots of screen space + comfortable so I can efficiently handle tasks highlighted above simultaneously;
2) Bit of a resolution junkie so prefer higher resolutions;
2) Monitors shouldn't fail too often like Samsung's model and should come with a decent customer support, particularly exchange should be reasonably quick as downtime is costly.

My current thinking is:
a) 1x 2410WFP* (centre) and 2x 2209WA (L & R); or
b) 3x 2410WFP.

I'm leaning towards setup a because it seems better in terms of cost/requirements. But I'm slightly worried about how ergonomic it would be. Don't want to be stuck with a setup that is not quite comfortable to use. I would welcome your suggestions, especially if you have alternatives.

Thanks.

* will probably wait for a few weeks before I make the purchases

We have exactly the same uses. I do programming in VS and other IDEs on a pretty regular basis(15hours a week at home), stock trading and a little bit of gaming.

I run:

L - Dell 2209WA in portrait at 1680x1050.
C - Samsung LN40A500 40" HDTV at 1920x1080.
R - Dell 2209WA in portrait at 1680x1050.

There is a difference, shockingly (:) ) in the resolutions going between them, but I have been very happy with this setup. Here's a photo:

http://i42.tinypic.com/15dlxye.jpg

[s1ngular]

We have exactly the same uses. I do programming in VS and other IDEs on a pretty regular basis(15hours a week at home), stock trading and a little bit of gaming.

I run:

L - Dell 2209WA in portrait at 1680x1050.
C - Samsung LN40A500 40" HDTV at 1920x1080.
R - Dell 2209WA in portrait at 1680x1050.

There is a difference, shockingly (:) ) in the resolutions going between them, but I have been very happy with this setup. Here's a photo:

http://i42.tinypic.com/15dlxye.jpg

You should make the L & R monitors the same height as your C.

[Xaero_toast]

Wow. That is a totally awesome setup.

Here's my triple-mon setup:


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3324/3498400507_ee95e65b09_o.jpg

It's kind of ghetto, but it's a zero-cost setup. The picutre is a little out of date, all the monitor power centers are now black, and a matching keyboard is on my birthday "wishlist", at which point, everything will be matching 2-tone black/silver. All three of those monitors were salvaged from the pile at an E-waste recycling pickup. Nobody throws out the nice flat screens, but I'm hoping for 2 or 3 more 19" CRT's next year.

Vista had issues when I tried to run an ATI card with my primary nVidia card. To make Vista happy, if you use more than one vid card, you will need to use cards that can run the same driver. I don't know if this requirement will still pertain to Win7.

If you don't already use it, check out ultramon. It has many handy features, one of which is scaling windows proportionately when moving them from one monitor to another of a different resolution. I would be lost without it.

[vjcsmoke]

There's no way I could sit that close to a 42" display. Ewww. But to each their own. I also have a friend who uses a 42 as his primary, but it's just uncomfortable being up that close to that large a screen imo.

[BrianEsser]

I've been rocking this setup for the past two years, about to replace it with two 30's and 2 24's, but it wasn't hard to use at all.

http://brianesser.com/workstation (2).jpg