Show Your LCD(s) setups!!!

That was twards you and I saw that you had already answered what you use it for :) someone else had a touch screen and I got confused.

Great setup man. A lot of good ones in this past 2 pages
 
The USB display maybe a solution for me once I go surround displays, since I'm going to need something for our clans/fleets chatrooms in MMOs. Voip is no problem, that displays on my G13, but I usually keep my ingame chat window on team (group) and my chat window outside of game on our clans channel (using pidgin).
 
That is always a pain on a multiple gpu amd setup since running in a window / windowed+maximized drops down to a single gpu. If you can't pan your mouse outside of the game screen and across to the other monitor's while in a game, it severely limits the usefulness of having other monitors outside of being merely pre-loaded readouts. I'm not sure if modern nvidia multi gpu setups have any bugs in doing so.
.
On amd multi gpu setups - for voice apps its useful whether on keyboard lcd or other auxiliary monitors even if only to see the highlight of what nickname is talking. You can also pre-load images of maps or walk-throughs, specs or whatever on auxiliary lcds, where they would still prove useful for reading even if you can't mouse over to them.
.
When I first saw that lcd I thought it was a tablet, which would be its own device/OS and touchscreen. I believe there are a few android versions of popular voice chat apps now, though some might still be in beta. I always use a hotkey on my pc so that I can chat on the fly. My tablet has a keyboard dock but I wouldn't want to reach over every time I wanted to say something. Multiple logins would solve that perhaps, one on the pc (that you can't see because your game is full screen) and one on the tablet, utilizing the tablet as the readout but broadcasting your chat from the pc version of the app with hotkey.
 
For me the USB was a good option although there are some bugs with NVidia control panel.
I don't play multiplayer and I don't need to chat during games. I generally use it to monitor my system while playing. Still some bugs to work out.
 
Pretty simple setup here.
Crossover27 LED-P
Dell U2412M (portrait)
8576503144_2be5d5923a_b.jpg
 
Blech71 said:
Hey all. I have been a long fan of this thread and used it as inspiration for some of my Eyefinity setups in the past. My first was a triple setup with 3 24" Acers with a 4 being a 47" LG. Now I run 3 46" Toshibas (in gaming mode/ no input lag). I am currently designing a cheap french cleat system to hang them on the wall behind where I am sitting in the pic.

It's a bit of an older pic and I need to get some newer shots to show some updates.
That is SWTOR on the screens and since they have fixed so much or the rendering and looks so much better than here in these.

img2886g.jpg


img2876h.jpg
Click to expand...

This is a pretty sick setup man, it looks amazing.
 
Hiryu said:
CoolHandsM3, amazing setup -- I'm inspired! Intrigued by the powder coating process for the metal frame of the monitor. I don't know much about it, but believe that the process involved baking the coating at very high temperatures. How exactly did you do that (can the entire monitor sustain those temps or did you have to somehow detach the metal frame?) Did you do it at a shop or DIY?

Also, I think that particular model of monitor is UK only? Do you know the equivalent in US?

Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...

Hi !

I removed all the plastic bezel then popped off the metal bezel and took it to a professional powder coating place.

Your right, the monitor I have is from Europe, I got it imported ;) Its the best 32 monitor/tv out there IMHO :)
 
Did some freelance work recently that I have used to pay for my newest monitor upgrade.

My favorite monitor layout (from an aesthetics point of view) was this 6-screen 13 megapixel LLL/PLP using a 30" 2560x1600. 2x20" 1600x1200 in portrait, and 3x20" 1680x1050:


asymetric_six_monitors by rtangwai, on Flickr

Using 3 dual vertical monitor stands (actually one is a quad-stand with only 2 monitors) allows me to bend it for a more "Star Trek" feel. It's chief drawback is the lack of support for PLP in Eyefinity, ruining the immersive feel of games. To get around that I built a 19 megapixel LLLL/LLL using 4x20" 1680x1050 and 3x30" 2560x1600:


IMG_0305_edited by rtangwai, on Flickr

It worked great for Eyefinity on the 3x30" but I missed the elegance of the 6-monitor layout. To try to combine both into a single layout I did the following:

  • Bought a used IKEA GALANT corner desk off Craigslist to give me more desk space for monitors
  • Bought a new IKEA VIKA table to go behind the GALANT because it wasn't deep enough.
  • Bought a second used Ergotron DS100 vertical monitor stand to replace my Atdec because the Atdec cannot offset monitors horizontally
  • Bought 4x22" 1920x1080 LED MVA monitors (BenQ GW2255) to replace the 4x20"

Got everything yesterday and proceeded to build this 20 megapixel layout (finishing at 5am):


7 monitors balanced by rtangwai, on Flickr

Had to get some sleep and wait for daylight to take a half-decent picture, but overall I'm please with the results. The heat that comes off the 30" monitors is quite considerable, so much so that one of my 20" monitors above the 30" was overheating and shutting down. The new monitors are all LED and MVA so little heat and great viewing angles. Since the upper monitors are secondary it wasn't necessary to go IPS. I'm lucky the LED monitors are so thin and light because they are exactly 2 inches too wide for my quad-monitor stand (a Moview rated for 22" 16:10, not 16:9) and I had to do some finagling with the monitor arms to make everything work.

The only thing that really bothers me now is that the upper corners are *JUST* outside my peripheral vision range, making them difficult to track simultaneously. I had considered in the past mounting speakers in the gaps on the old setup, but my satellites aren't all that big (I use a Logitech Z-680) so I felt this was a better layout. I'm hoping I'll eventually get used to it.

This isn't officially the maximum sized layout I can achieve on my computer (I could get 6x30" 2560x1600 and a 1920x1080 for 25 megapixels) but this is pretty close. I considered using 3x29" 2560x1080 (those superwide Dell's) instead of 4x22" 1920x1080 but it ends up being exactly the same number of pixels and all four 22" monitors cost less than a single 29" (although I could have saved $140 by not having to buy a new dual vertical monitor stand).

I sent a picture of this to my ex-wife this morning - she texted me back saying that I'm overcompensating again :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
rtangwai said:
I sent a picture of this to my ex-wife this morning - she texted me back saying that I'm overcompensating again :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Did you call her crying, "If you didn't divorce me, I wouldn't be in this situation..."

That should show her you're a man!
 
rtangwai said:
  • Bought a used IKEA GALANT corner desk off Craigslist to give me more desk space for monitors
  • Bought a new IKEA VIKA table to go behind the GALANT because it wasn't deep enough.
  • Bought a second used Ergotron DS100 vertical monitor stand to replace my Atdec because the Atdec cannot offset monitors horizontally
  • Bought 4x22" 1920x1080 LED MVA monitors (BenQ GW2255) to replace the 4x20"
Click to expand...


Can you take some pictures of your desk setup with the GALANT and VIKA from side and back, not sure how you joined those. Thanks.
 
pheonix991 said:
Did you call her crying, "If you didn't divorce me, I wouldn't be in this situation..."

That should show her you're a man!
Click to expand...

No, she knows there was no way he would be in the situation of having 6 monitors, if you hadn't of divorced her :p
 
That is just too much, I think there is actually a limit and you crossed it. Could of built your own desk too instead of cheaping out on the ikeas and bodging them together. Soon we will have monitors that big and outspread.
 
Bratman said:
That is just too much, I think there is actually a limit and you crossed it. Could of built your own desk too instead of cheaping out on the ikeas and bodging them together. Soon we will have monitors that big and outspread.
Click to expand...

[H]ardOCP?
 
not a fan of oversized monitors at desk distances personally, even outside of pixel density considerations. I had a 37" westinghouse back in the day and it was literally eye-bending (+ perhaps even minute neck bending) to the periphery. I moved it back 4' or so on a pillar stand and sold it soon after. I would like bezel-less monitors someday but anything over 30" for main gaming focus is too big imo. If games allowed you to set a virtual primary monitor space in the middle (like a windowed game with invisible borders sort of) with all extents outside of it as added game world FoV, it might make sense to have an oversized monitor in front of you for immersion. As it is, it only makes the scene and all scene objects jumbo, pushing them and huds, notifications, pointers, messages etc into the periphery. Perceived screen size (and ppi) is relative to viewing distance too of course.
 
elvn said:
not a fan of oversized monitors at desk distances personally, even outside of pixel density considerations. I had a 37" westinghouse back in the day and it was literally eye-bending (+ perhaps even minute neck bending) to the periphery. I moved it back 4' or so on a pillar stand and sold it soon after. I would like bezel-less monitors someday but anything over 30" for main gaming focus is too big imo. If games allowed you to set a virtual primary monitor space in the middle (like a windowed game with invisible borders sort of) with all extents outside of it as added game world FoV, it might make sense to have an oversized monitor in front of you for immersion. As it is, it only makes the scene and all scene objects jumbo, pushing them and huds, notifications, pointers, messages etc into the periphery. Perceived screen size (and ppi) is relative to viewing distance too of course.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right about the bezels, even with bezel compensation I have a hard time ignoring it. This is the reason I dumped a 5x1 portrait 24" 1920x1200 setup after less than 2 weeks. Fortunately for me I play games like Star Wars The Old Republic so I can put up a bunch of menus and vertical quickbars on the wing monitors and still have a 30" monitor in the center devoted to direct gameplay. If games could be multi-windowed (and if Crossfire/SLI could ever accelerate in windowed mode) I would prefer that and be able to go back to 20-30-20 PLP like my old setup. Given how much trouble I have been having trying to drive 12 megapixels in games even with tri-fire I would have no problem dropping back if AMD/nVidia supported it. Unfortunately PLP is not coming anytime soon, possibly not ever according to AMD due to fundamental problems at the hardware level in current designs. 27" 1440p monitors are now cheap enough that you would need a pretty good incentive to pay the premium for 20-30-20 PLP (assuming you are buying new).

Unfortunately it will be a *LONG* time - if ever - before multi-window games become a standard. This rig isn't the ultimate layout (that honor goes to 5x30" 1600p portrait) but it will do me just fine until 4K becomes affordable. I am more than a bit curious if an interim standard will be released since full-aperture 4K is 12 megapixel and most other 4K standards 8 megapixel, compared to 1080p at 2 megapixel. I would think that a 4 megapixel standard (which coincides with a 1600p monitor) makes sense to make the transition to higher resolutions a lot easier on manufacturers. Then again the Blu-ray/HD video people had no hesitations on going way beyond the DVD standard in terms of storage to achieve their goal, so maybe the monitor/projector people will think that an intermediate resolution is a waste of resources.

I wish I could push the monitors back a bit but I ran out of desk space (even with the extra table behind the desk) and more importantly at the PPI I am using the font sizes are small enough I have trouble reading the screen (I'm used to 17"/19" monitors with PPI from 96 to 86, compared to the 100PPI of my rigs). I can't resize the fonts because I test applications for compatibility and bugs and I have to keep everything standard for a proper test environment. That goes double for the VM's as changing the font size of the host OS has no effect on the VM's. I'm glad I swapped the upper monitors out as I can now test VM's at modern desktop resolutions. I used to have to stack the VM screens to get more than 3 working at once, now I can do 7 and see everything at once (*REALLY* helpful when checking/comparing screen compositions in different browsers/GUI's).
 
For gaming, I think this is the ultimate setup currently. Dedicated desktop/app still imagery task setups are another matter.

Vega's Perfect Motion Clarity 2D Lightboost Titan Portrait Surround Gloss Build

By the way rtangwai, my previous comments were directed more at the guy using 46" tv's for gaming. Using three 27" or 30" monitors in landscape mode , when games support multiple monitors properly, still keeps all game elements within a focal size and scope / range in front of you at normal desk distances, with the sides being peripheral intentionally for immersion - where huge tall wall monitors in front of you do not.

For me personally, I'd rather game on a zero blur lightboost monitor at 1080p so that a gtx680x2 sli setup could feed 100fps or 120fps to a 120hz monitor for greatly increased motion tracking. If I could afford multiple titans for multi monitor setup at that kind of fps I would but its unreasonable to me. I don't mind adding another $2k to what I already have in gpu(s) ($1k of 680x2 or a single titan) and a new monitor ($500), but multiple $1k gpus is pushing outside of my budget.
 
Last edited:
Very nice setup there John.

Those Samsung's are beautiful. Floors too!

Doesn't the case being where your feet go get annoying though? Mine is on my desk, not sure I would like it there.
 
Damos said:
Very nice setup there John.

Those Samsung's are beautiful. Floors too!

Doesn't the case being where your feet go get annoying though? Mine is on my desk, not sure I would like it there.
Click to expand...

Temporary placement as I just built the desk and put the monitors on. I don't have DVI-D cables long enough. I just shifted it to the side for now. Not 100% done yet!
 
Decided to show off my setup as well...

Here it is, sorry about the quality. My friend borrowed my camcorder for a movie so I used my webcam.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Diazzlash said:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/38791094/nurkka_0313.jpg
Click to expand...


Nice. I kind of like monitors with "ears" on the sides like that. Looks very usable, especially with windows OS's double click on window borders to reach top/bottom and drag to maximize functionality. Personally I would probably set them up uniform on the bottom or use displayfusion to put taskbars at the top off all three so that my mouse could cruise along the taskbar between all three on the same path.
 
illybang - Those are World of Warcraft miniature action figures, they are part of a role playing board game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top