Best triple monitor setup (on a budget)?

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Panel

Gawd
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Hey there all. After looking at 4K TVs for a good month, I've decided that I'd prefer a more immersive, triple monitor setup. Even then, I'm terribly unsure as to what the best option would be. I'll start off by listing what the screens will be for, listed from most important/most time spent to least important/least time spent.

1. Gaming
2. More like #1A, Web browsing (everything from forums to youtube to web articles) and text work (writing documents, emails and code)
3. Amateur/hobbyist grade photo editing and design (Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier)
4. Minor CAD work for school. Will start playing around with Blender soon too.

I'll put it out there: 1 and 2 FAR outweigh 3 and 4. The final two are truly either for school, or hobbyist level dabbling for which I wouldn't want to pay top dollar. It's the first two that I really want done well.

I want at least 1440p resolution, but obviously not 4K. On to refresh, 144Hz/120Hz seems unnecessary, since it'll be hard to push, but I'd rather have it than not so as to try and be at least a little future proof. 75Hz or 100Hz definitely makes a lot of sense. G-sync (not freesync) is something I do really want, seeing as how it'll be useful for the lower frame-rates I'll likely be pushing at 11 million pixels. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to get it seeing as how it adds a price premium. One more thing: curves. I'd really like to have em', but I don't think there are any 16:9 1440p curved screens. Ultrawides are ok, but that extra real-estate is honestly being wasted, and of course the crazy price.

As for panel type and price, you guys tell me. All I'll say is that I want to go no higher then $1000. I know this isn't much for 3 screens, but there's no way I'm putting in more for the time being.

I was considering the following setups so far, but wanted more options (if there are any):

1. Triple HP Omens (Pros: Price is good, 75Hz. Cons: No G-Sync, not curved)

2. Triple 30" Dell 300wfp or 30" Koreans (Pros: Cheapest option since they're cheap on Ebay and I have one already, overclock a bit. Cons: Bad pic quality due to dated monitors, huge bezels, not curved)

Any help would be appreciated, and of course, thank you!
 
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Triple Omen: We are talking about 32" beasts!?
Triple 30": This is even bigger thanks to bezels and CCFL backlight. also, CCFL will make the setup quite warm, which maybe an advantage in cold places or a huge problem everywhere else. Did i mention that running triple DL-DVI is a PITA?

Curves are over-hyped and currently outside your budget.

My suggestions:

Triple portrait P2416D or U2515H.

They have pivoting, so portrait becomes an option, the U2515H has an MST hub, so linking 3 of them is very easy (and with CRU and custom timings, 3 should run out of a single Displayport). It's contrast is below the Omen, but above most 27" koreans.

The 75hz on the Omen are wasted thanks to slow pixel transitions times and the Omen has a VA gamma shift greater than 4k 40" panels around, which reaches my final suggestion:

Have you considered a 40" 4k TV with 4:4:4 chroma?
 
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You aren't getting three monitors with gsync unless you drop to 24" and coming from a 30" you won't be happy.

I have a triple Omen setup now. It's serious overkill for browsing and some games. It's 81" across including bezel overlap and the slight curve. That's just too big to see the outside peripheral vision areas without turning your head. So for gaming it has to be a game that centers your hud on the Middle screen. When the content on the outside screens is adding detail but not hosting critical game hud information the experience is incredible. There are applications that help with this.

Flawless widescreen is one I use.

I just finished Shadow of Mordor on my eyefinity setup and it was simply fantastic! The extra peripheral view was awe inducing. FoV was great, it looked amazing, and that game alone would sell a three monitor setup to anyone dubious of the tech. Framerate at high detail at 7680x1440 on my pair of Fury X cards was about 70FPS. Framerate at high detail on a single Fury X was about 50FPS.

Both super silky smooth because of free-sync

I owned a Dell 3014 for two years as my primary monitor before the HP Omen. I like a single Omen monitor better for gaming (freesync and 75hz are both positive, noticeable improvements) so the poster above and I don't agree. IMO, the Omen is a fantastic monitor for gaming, but word is it only supports 75hz on AMD graphics cards and for nvidia cards there is frame skipping at >75hz. I don't know if that's universal or a unique setup/driver issue but I've seen several Omen users report it.

Freesync or gsync is a big big deal for that many pixels. It makes a game feel so smooth despite some frame rate variance. But it sounds like it isn't an option in your case since you have an nvidia card and can't afford gsync monitors.

For desktop use, the screens are so wide I typically shut it down to a single monitor. I can easily fit two windows wide by side on my single 32" and have plenty of working space for casually PC use, web browsing etc.

I tried a 37" HDTV and thought it was too big. (Not to mention TVs usually truly do have more input lag than a gaming monitor)

I also tried the 2560x1080 35" ultrawide panel and found that pixel orientation too height limiting and preferred 16x9 or 16x10 aspect ratio monitors.

Your cheapest route is buying two more Dell 3007 monitors. That'd only cost you about $400 total and you can try triple screen surround and see if you like it, and if you don't you can sell off the panels at basically no loss and go a different direction.

You can wait for gsync monitors to come down or nvidia to support freesync, but neither of those ideas are happening immediately so you might as well buy a couple Dell 3007 and establish your preferences for next upgrade cycle.

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The OP already got a GTX 1080, so the Omen freesync is not relevant for the OP.

For single monitors setups i would take the Omen over my 30" ACD/ U2515H any time.

triple monitor? with that gamma shift across 81"? No portrait option?
Compromises, compromises.
 
At $1K max
I can't find curved 32" monitors at 1440p for your price range ---- and 32" at 1080p - the pixels are too for up close use IMO. (especially coming from a 3007 right now)
I can't find gsync monitors at your price range unless 24" (you won't like 24" coming from 30" -- because the main primary display will be too darn small)
I don't see many options for three new 1440p monitors at your price range period.

You'll probably have to just save more money and re-evaluate which aspects are most important to you.

  1. Curved
  2. 1440p
  3. >=32"
  4. gsync

Any three of these will characteristics together will cost you like $750 per monitor panel, I'm not even sure they make a monitor with all four attributes!?!? You can get two of the four elements for $350 a monitor or so.

I didn't like a single curved, but three curved might be cool. The less curve the better IMO if you have a choice between two ratings for curved monitors.
 
geok1ng said:
The OP already got a GTX 1080
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I'm not sure where this came from, but I do not own a 1080. I'm currently rocking a 770, and will soon be making a new thread regarding building a new PC for a total of $2000. I just wanted to keep AMD out of the picture because (and I mean no offense here) their products don't seem to be doing too hot. I don't think they will release a true competitor to the 1080 next year, and certainly not the 1080ti. Regardless, I doubt the small possibility of me using AMD cards will affect this monitor decision, due to the fact that G-sync is clearly out of my budget and I'll consider freesync a plus no matter what.

The thing is, that when I realized that I'd be spending a grand total of $3000+ on the PC and monitors combined, it made me realized that I can't spend the whopping $1K on monitors. My new priority for this purchase is budget, so that I can spend little and use this setup until I have more cash and there are better options. Unless there is an option that truly seems like it'll be nice for good while, I doubt I'd even stick to that $1K budget. I know that almost makes this thread pointless, but still.

geok1ng said:
Triple portrait P2416D or U2515H.
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I love the look of triple (or even 5x) 16:9 in portrait. If I were to go this route, (especially if it were 5) I could easily go 1080p instead of 1440p. I'd also be willing to go 24", as it would be fine in portrait. This would throw curves out the window, and while I don't know for sure, I don't think G-sync at 1080p would cost too much. It's a viable option but it has 2 major drawbacks.

1. First and most important, I've heard terrible things about multitasking in portrait. The middle screen is just too damn narrow. Yes, this is mostly a gaming rig, but I still use my computer as a browser a LOT of the time, and would hate to see it suck at playing YouTube videos.

2. Much less important (and more psychological) is the fact that I'm paying more for 3 1080p monitors than I'd be paying for a 4K TV which might serve me better. I'll explain my gripes with the TVs bellow.

The budget is not one of them, because I think this would fall within 1K and I'd be willing to spend on this due to the fact that it seems like a setup that would last a couple good years.

geok1ng said:
Have you considered a 40" 4k TV with 4:4:4 chroma?
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I have. I truly have. I've considered it, thrown it out as an option, and considered it again many times over, and am still doing so. There's just something about the bang/buck you get with the TVs. Paired with the fact that their picture is often better for BOTH gaming and text-work makes it quite difficult to resist them. Here are my gripes:

1. They are touted by as being amazing for multi-tasking by people who've done multi-monitor setups for may years, and have grown sick of them. I'm the opposite. I've never done multi-monitor, and think I'd prefer it for multi-tasking. Sure, a 4K 40" can show A LOT, but being the undisciplined type I am, I feel like I'd just end up full screening a word document instead of windowing it off. I feel like I just wouldn't know how to naturally display multiple things at once on such a screen. This is based on the fact that I often full-screened on my 30" instead of windowing, despite ample screen space.

2. I feel like immersion would be better on a triple setup as compared to a 40" single display. I have nothing to truly back this up, but it seems gamers all around love the wide concept, and I can imagine why. Having the whole image increase would lose that feeling, I think.

Even as I'm typing thing out, I'm seeing how a TV could easily be a better option then the previously mentioned portraits. They cost a lot more and the added experience likely wouldn't be worth it. I almost feel like deleting that part of the post. lol

Archaea said:
Your cheapest route is buying two more Dell 3007 monitors. That'd only cost you about $400 total and you can try triple screen surround and see if you like it, and if you don't you can sell off the panels at basically no loss and go a different direction.
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As I've been mulling it over, I've really started to re-convince myself of the TV option. However, the triple 30" was where I was most leaning prior to this. It again has the option of being just as budget friendly as the 4K TV. The only difference is that the total number of pixels is actually far greater than that of the 4K (of course, this may end up biting me in the rear come graphics power). It's also overclock-able to get more than 60Hz. Heck, I've seen Reddit posts with multiple people claiming their 30" Korean Qniz were stabilly overclocked to 96Hz. There's only 1 big gripe:

1. Bezels. It there were some way to de-bezel these, I think I might be all in. It should be noted that I actually like bezels in multi-monitor setups, because they help separate the screens for productivity purposes; I actually want to feel like I'm using multiple screens. So in actuality, I just wanna make the bezels considerably smaller, not eliminate them completely.

There's also the problem that I don't know which 30" to buy. Some say more 3007wfps, but I've heard that it's picture quality can't compete with most modern displays. Of course, they go up all the say to the 3017, which is over $1K itself. I'd probably buy another 3007wfp and one better 30" for the middle screen. Even in this case though, I'll need to make sure the "better" middle screen isn't so much better than the side 3007wfps that it there's a highly noticeable difference. This option does have this other con... it's so complicated and time consuming what with the display matching and de-bezeling. Still, it gets me the most excited. Out of all of these, I feel this would be the best balance of a true "upgrade" feeling and a low-ish cost spent.
 
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If you put the bezels behind each other you cut bezel width in half. Works for me.
 
Archaea said:
If you put the bezels behind each other you cut bezel width in half. Works for me.
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Even then, the bezels of a single 30" are huge. I really think de-bezeling is the only way to come close to the ultra-thinness modern monitors offer.
 
I've done 3 different triple monitor setups, you couldn't pay me to go back after using a 34" ultrawide or a 40" 4k. Seriously look at a high Hz (75-100)34" 3340*1440 ultrawide, it's the best thing in gaming right now.
 
I decided to stick with my 3X 144hz 1080P setup for a while longer but I was seriously considering the Dell S2417DG. It's 24" 1440P and has G-Sync. I don't think you could quite get 3 for 1k but I have seen them as low as $359 - but I think $420 is the more common street price.

I like the idea of larger screens, but with 3x landscape monitors, 24" screens are still a lot to take in. If you have a game that supports it and you can get good fps, there are few things as fun as a good triple wide gaming system but the downside is that they require a lot of care and feeding and you will still end up playing half your games on just the center screen.
 
Archaea said:
I have a triple Omen setup now
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Archaea said:
I can't find curved 32" monitors at 1440p
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Archaea said:
  • Curved
  • 1440p
  • >=32"
  • gsync
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I had a question for you two. Is there any monitor out there that's basically a curved Omen? Just 32", 1440p, and curved is what I'm looking for. Freesync would be a nice plus, but not necessary. Is there ANYTHING at all like this? It seems that no 16:9 are curved, and the ultrawides are too pricey and insane for triple. Let me know if you can find anything, because I sure can't.
 
Panel said:
I had a question for you two. Is there any monitor out there that's basically a curved Omen? Just 32", 1440p, and curved is what I'm looking for. Freesync would be a nice plus, but not necessary. Is there ANYTHING at all like this? It seems that no 16:9 are curved, and the ultrawides are too pricey and insane for triple. Let me know if you can find anything, because I sure can't.
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Nothing yet released that meets your requirements. Just 1080p curved like this
http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/led/samsung-32-curved-led-monitor-lc32f391fwnxza/
 
Triple CRTs ;)


You would have to buy a new a steel desk to support them.
 
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