Tri-Monitor Arrangement Help

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1

Hey everyone:

I'm building a work-computer for 3ds Max, Vray, CAD, and Adobe CS. I'm planning on creating a 3 monitor display with the concept being a larger central monitor for the viewport, a portrait monitor mainly for menus and toolbars, and a portrait (probably) monitor for miscellaneous web pages and the like. My plan was to set it up something like these:

or this minus the top monitor (cool setup though)

In my head the centerpiece monitor will be a larger diagonal than the other two (like 21", 21", 27" or 24", 24", 27"). My question is whether or not this is going to create headaches in my workflow. I've seen some problem stories about the different resolutions creating weird object size changes as well as gaps between the displays (in the mind of the computer) so that the mouse doesn't flow cleanly between the displays.

I'm on a bit of a budget (as much of a budget as you can be on and still get 3 monitors) and this won't be for gaming so colors and viewing angle are much more important than refresh rates. To keep it cheap I'd planned on all 3 monitors being the same resolution but I think that's where my hesitation comes in on the size change.

Also, any recommendations on monitor models and/or stands would be great as well. My budget is about $500-$600 all in and I'd love to keep it on the lower end of that. I was planning on using individual stands for each (as those combo stands could easily eat up more than half of my budget but I'm open to all ideas.

Thanks in advance!

2

Could just get one like one giant 40" 4k display, but what was your budget?

3

how are you mounting them?

4

I probably could stretch the budget and manage a lower end one but my rationale was that the tri monitor display would be easier to partition and manage in terms of viewports and work flow.

5

Unsure. My plan was to desktop stand mount them all individually to save money but I'm open to altering that plan.

6

500-600 then, not actually much to work with for a multi monitor set up

Also what's your GPU? is it a workstation GPU with like 4 display port outputs?

also are you doing any gaming on this set up?

Well there was this 21:9 1080p display at only $150. But it's now sold out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824025212&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

It's a little more pricey at amazon at around $170, dunno if there are 3 available for around that price
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0170TSYGK/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

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But of course the issue with 1080p is limited vertical pixel space, otherwise best you could do is 2 1440p korean displays

7

He showed $500 to $600 in his initial post

8

Otherwise, just buy 4 1920x1080 IPS displays and call it a day, really even 3 of those would be fine and they're only $100, these have VESA

dunno if your GPU can handle that though

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-i2269vw

9

It'll be a 980 Ti or a 1080. I'd also thought about an M4000 but I think I'm going to go the GTX route for now and see how that suites. I won't be doing any gaming on the system.

10

if you want three monitors on a budget, go with 3× 1080p monitors. Get IPS panels. look around and be patient and you'll find them for $125-$175 (in the US, anyway). Get them all close to the same size (significant differences in PPI is an issue). Don't skip the monitor arm — it's more benefit, and less cost, than you think.

This is what I did, except I found a really good deal on the secondary monitors and they're TN panels. they're "good enough" but i can't use them in portrait (horrible viewing angles on that axis). I have a single 750ti that drives all three just fine.

11

For 3 panels on that config, mine idea will be make the height of the horizontal the same as the widht of the vertical ones. With the same aspect ratio I believe you will get it good looking. Now is find 1080p monitor, but the middle one will be less pixel per inch/cm that the other two, are that a issue?

12

I think what I'm trying to grasp is the PPI differences between the different sized monitors. I have very little idea what I'm talking about, but I assume that is what leads to things changing visual size when moved from one monitor to the other?

If so I see three solutions:

  • Get monitors of the same size and resolution. That way, even if two are in portrait, everything will still scale uniformly.
  • Get monitors where the PPI scales to a near match. Without doing the math that might equate to something like one 1440p 30" main monitor and two 1080p 21" portrait secondary monitors. Again, I'd have to do the math (or hit up the google machine) but that's just a concept.
  • Get a 21:9 main monitor with two 16:9 portrait secondary monitors (like the second picture above I believe). This gets me a larger central screen but an identical PPI.

Sound logic? Or am I completely off?

Edit:

This is what I want to avoid from a scaling perspective (exaggerated):

It would be great to achieve something like this:

13

OMG! The bezels just made me blind! Nice going guys. :S

14

These are all the same solution: same (or similar) PPI.

15

Right. I guess the question then is how close is close enough? That, and is this something that I can correct with software if they are different or am I stuck with the physical numbers?

That is what was happening in that second image above. The guy was using a monitor with half the PPI and then used zoom to make the Surface screen scale similarly.

16

i think this depends mostly on what you find acceptable… my secondary monitors are about 8% smaller than my primary (and they're the same resolution). I can deal with it.

As for scaling… how well it works depends on how well it works, i suppose : )

(edited: bad math.)