Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi,

I have a 670 GTX and a pair of Nice Philips LCD screens (1920 X 1080). I am thinking if picking up a third screen and mounting them all portrait and using them in surround. From what I have seen this should work (and quite well) but I have a question concerning bezels.

Like a lot of screens the bottom bezel holds the buttons and is a bit larger. Now I am planning to have the middle monitor set slightly back and overlapping the left/right ones to reduce bezel somewhat. What I want to to was have one of the screens (the left side one) in a different orientation- ie. portrait flipped so that it's top bevel covers the centrer screens bottom rather than having it's larger bottom bezel in view. I have not got the 3 screens yet so have not been able to do much messing on but I didn't see a was to set this up.

Also a couple of "if this works" questions...

Will it cause problems if I have a 4th screen attached but not in the surround group (my TV is currently plugged in for communal watching) or would I be better off disconnecting this?

Finally am I likely to encounter many problems playing games in this set-up that anyone has came across?

Thanks in advance and fingers crossed ...

Everso.

In answer to 3 monitors in portrait i have found the following:
I found when i tried portrait normally [not how you want to do it] on 3 monitors ,that in games like battlefield ,even with my mouse set to only 200 dpi, that i couldn't aim worth crap.It acted like my mouse was set at 6000 dpi.
Not sure if this is because portrait should have more monitors,If my resolution was set wrong or Something else but it was unplayable for me with only 3 so i changed back to landscape.
Its to bad tho I really did enjoy the extra height on the screen.

Not sure on your budget but The Asus vg248qe monitors have the same size bezel all the way around and i would assume that the 27 inch version would be the same.The power on button sticks out a few mm's extra but with normal overlap you would be able to work with it with out flipping the one monitor.I did find however that while they are fast, they are not a ips monitor and so the colours would change when you shift your head on them.
I would think a better solution may be the asus vg24/27ah,It would fix the colour loss as it is an ips panel.It does however have a slower refresh rate and response time.Bezels again appear to be the same size all the way around.

I wonder why that was. I guess it is something I will have to work on though because I don't think triple landscape is going to happen. These screens are going to live on the end of one or two swing arms in the living room - can you believe my wife agreed to that . I already have two 23 inchers like this so this is just adding in one more. However the space simply will not allow the width of 3 landscape but 3 portrait will fit nicely.



Getting new screens is not really an option any time soon. I already have a matched pair (Philips 231sl) and a spare one or two I can get cheap so replacing all 3 will put the price from about £50 (one screen) to £250 ish for 3 matched screens. I know I can resell the two I have and reclaim cash some but would rather not have the hassle if not needed. I have ordered a triple screen stand cheap (£18). This is designed to hold them in a pyramid style (two side by side and one on the top) but it looks like it can be adapted easily enough.

It all looks like it will work o.k. and even better if I can find a way to put two in portrait and one in flipped portrait so I can hide the larger bottom bezel. It don't look like this is possible with native Nvadia surround but I wonder if throwing in something like softTH into the mix will make it possible. Anyone got any ideas about this?

Everso

EDIT:

The mount arrived today

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VonHaus-Triple- ... le+monitor

Very good quality for £19. The reviews mostly complain about the pole mount and as I am not going to be using that I can live with it. The arms move afar enough apart to take 3 X 23 inch screens in portrait and looks like it till hold them all nice and solid. The only part to work out is how to put it on the swing arm. This is an old one that was designed to old a CRT monitor so I have no concerns about the weight (all up should be about 12=15 KGs).

One thing I an wondering is how is a P-P-P set up for daily use? Will I miss a landscape screen for normal use? When I get the third screen I will be able to place things and see if I can rotate one of the screens to give me a P-L-P for daily use then spin it to P-P-P for games. I won't have the third screen for a week and a bit so it's all going to sit in a draw until then I suppose.

Another - more ambitious - alternative is to make the hole arm rotate so the P-P-P becomes L-L-L but with the screens one on top of the other ... I wonder how that would work. I think the top one would be a bit too high to easily see but the others should be right. I have even less clue how that will be mounted .

Everso