Perfect dual display setup?

[Joerg]

Currently im running 2 17" rosewill monitors i picked up alittle over a year ago for about 200 each. Im about the sell this setup for 250 and get something alittle nicer. The big thing is i want more screen space, and less gap between the two monitors. Im trying to stay under 500 as a budget but of course there is always leeway. Anyways the biggest thing im wondering is would i be more satisfied with 2 widescreen 19" displays at 2800x900 or 2 normal displays at 2560x1024, im thinking the widescreens would be amazing but at the same time it is less overall pixels. So im asking you guys if youve had experience here? Also i am desperately searching for monitors with the least amount of bezel space around the edge currently mine have about 1/2inch of bezel all around and i would love something with closer to 1/4 or less that way when running them in dual display the gap isnt so large. And the last question is ive seen monitors that you can rotate vertically, and im wondering if anyone has used a pair of these in a dual screen setup and used them both vertically making a display that is like 1800x1400 which would be pretty cool in my opinion.

 

[Joerg]

I hate to bump, but anyone have any suggestions?

 

[smopoim86]

I might be interested in the two 17s.

I have a little experience with dual displays, but never done it with widescreens. I have used both 17s and 19s and really preferred the 17s better.

I have never saw a setup with the displays turned on edge but would imagine that would be an eye catcher. What are you using them for anyway?

 

[Joerg]

As far as the two I have now, i have a friend here that might be interested in them so he will kinf of have first dibs on them, the displays are still in great shape too no dead pixels on either of them, im wondering if maybe 250 is enough to be asking?

Anyways why did you prefer the 17s to the 19s? Just curious.

The displays will be for graphic design work, flash, illustrator, photoshop, some autocad, and 3dsmax and maybe alittle gaming but nothing huge. Im an industrial design student so i kind of do a huge variety of productivity stuff.

Yah im thinking 2 displays on edge would be sooo sweet, it would be like 1 massive normal aspect ratio monitor, although im not 100% sure i would like that better than one very wide screen.

 

[mc866]

I'm running two of these right now

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824002314

with this stand

http://www.ergotron.com/ProfessionalPro...l/Product/mid/396/PRDID/3/Default.aspx

and it works out great. I'm not saying it is the greatest setup ever, but I like it. The NEC's have a fairly thin bezel and great picture.

 

[Penth]

I've got 2 Dell 2007FPs and it's awesome. My plan is to get a 30" 3007FPW and put it in the middle with the 2007's on their side, but I'm trying to hold out for a DX10 video card before I make the jump. 2x2007FP would run you about $800 but if you subrtract the $250 from that then you are pretty near your $500 budget

Also, 1600x1200 on each screen is very nice. I had a 19" trinitron I ran at 1600x1200 before I got these. It died but on it's way out I tried running it at 1280x1024 to make it live a little longer. After running at that resolution I decided 1600x1200 was necessary for me.

 

[bfonnes]

Why not one wide screen and one regular? get the best of both worlds?

BFonnes

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I ended up with three 2007FPs for $364 earlier this year. I'm only using two as I think with three I'd be moving my neck around = bad news. (So my parents are using the third as a TV)

3200x1200 is just about right I think.
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/spmclaughlin/web/Random/Dells.JPG

 

[crispy2010]

Any of you guys able to span games across monitors? If so how?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: crispy2010
Any of you guys able to span games across monitors? If so how?

Unless I had three, I wouldn't bother even trying to set it up. Bezel in the middle of the screen area = bad news.

 

[Joerg]

Ok so this is maybe a dumb question but would i be able to find a widescreen that would fit with my 2 17s i have now? Like i want it to match of dimension wise. Also i have a geforce 6600gt now with dual dvi and i dont want to invest a ton in a new graphics card so would i be ok just grabbing a cheap pcixexpress card to run the other 2 on? Im kind of confused as to how that situation would work as far as like if im gaming on the middle monitor should it have the fastest card? By the way im running a DFI NF4 board with 2 PCI express slots but not SLI.

 

[bigstrickler]

Just wondering how does 2 displays work for gaming? seems like even the slightest gap between the screens would be distracting...also I have 2 19" LCD's one is some random brand and one is a viewsonic so could I hook these both up together...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Joerg
Ok so this is maybe a dumb question but would i be able to find a widescreen that would fit with my 2 17s i have now? Like i want it to match of dimension wise. Also i have a geforce 6600gt now with dual dvi and i dont want to invest a ton in a new graphics card so would i be ok just grabbing a cheap pcixexpress card to run the other 2 on? Im kind of confused as to how that situation would work as far as like if im gaming on the middle monitor should it have the fastest card? By the way im running a DFI NF4 board with 2 PCI express slots but not SLI.

A 19" widescreen might be the same height as your 17". For it to look "normal" though, you'll have to match the vertical resolution too.

You can get a cheap videocard to run one of the monitors you're only doing 2d on.

I think gaming on a single middle monitor is what most people would do.

 

[Joerg]

Well there is no way im going to match resolution between the three, i cant afford anything except a 19" widescreen if i dont sell the two i have. As for matching physical dimensions doe anyone have experience with this? Manufacturer information is to vague for me to tell wether they are talking abotu bezel dimmensions or dimensions of the montior with stand and all. Also would it be possible to even run 3 monitors with 1 being set to a different resolution but still have it has one large desktop? Or should i just get a third 17 maybe? I kind of want something bigger to game on although i do alot more graphics stuff than gaming and at least there would no longer be a bezel right in the center of my scree just one on either side lol. I need suggestions, i want the maximum screen space for the lowest price, dang it why dont lcds just have 16x12 native resolution on the cheaper models.

 

[Joerg]

Oh and as for gaming on 2 monitors, shooters and racing games are alittle weird but stradegy games are freaking amazing, alot of games dont support 2560x1024 res though.

 

[bigstrickler]

How is it for movies? Also can you connect 2 monitors that arent the same brand together...my graphics card is the Asus x1900xt, i am pretty sure it can handle dual displays

 

[mc866]

You can connect any two monitors but like said earlier it doesn't scale well if they aren't the same size. Watching movies probably wouldn't be good because anything on the center of the screen will be split in two by the bezels of the two screens. So any game or movie where the focus is the center of a normal screen would less than desirable because you have the bezels of the two monitors to look at. I tried playing titan quest on the two monitors but it didn?t work well because the game tends to keep your character on the center of the screen which makes it a pain. I just picked up Age of Empires 3, we?ll see how that looks. I think that may work a bit better.

 

[Joerg]

Yah movies are a pain with 2 monitors plus you are going to need to set your accelerator from hardware to software and play with the overlays in each program to get the video to even show up on 2 screens at a time, thats why i stream all my movies to my xbox and watch them on my tv. Anyways its kind of sad my 17inch monitor at newegg is the same price as a brand new 19 which is just retarded.

 

[bigstrickler]

so why would anyone want dual screens? seems worse than one...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I wouldn't want to use dual screens for games or watching videos. I find it useful for everyday internet browsing and doing "office stuff" as I have a lot of space with 3200x1200. For videos, it can be useful to have one monitor showing something while you're doing other stuff on the 2nd.

I like to have my main browser window open on one while I have AIM, Winamp, ripping/encoding, and smaller windows (like this reply window) on the second one.