3 monitor setup with TN panels

[badunk]

I've been reading a lot about what monitors people recommend here, but everyone is suggesting to go with IPS. I would do IPS, but 3x of those is out of my budget.

I'm willing to sacrifice image quality, viewing angles, and even refresh rate for simply the immersive effect of 3 monitors. I think simply having coverage of my periphery would be a huge upgrade in itself.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a thin-bezel 60Hz TN monitor with support for display port? I'll be using this for some gaming and productivity with eyefinity.

Thanks

[McBen]

hi there,

i dont have the perfect answer for you,
but i can really recommend 22 inch monitors, i have 3 BenQ Gl 2250 and i love them.
that saved me a lot of money, though they dont have displayports =(

[Gilly]

What is your budget for all 3? I see people saying that the Dell U2312 (for example) is around $200 quite often, would be $600 for all 3.

[Abram]

I'm sure other swill scoff at the idea, but i run an IPS as my centre, and TN panels on the sides. It took a bit of tweaking to get the colors to match, but I'm still quite happy with what i have. Though now that I've used an IPS for a while, I can say with certainty that I'll never buy a TN panel again.

[Gilly]

I'm sure other swill scoff at the idea, but i run an IPS as my centre, and TN panels on the sides. It took a bit of tweaking to get the colors to match, but I'm still quite happy with what i have. Though now that I've used an IPS for a while, I can say with certainty that I'll never buy a TN panel again.

I wouldn't scoff at that idea at all, sounds very sensible!

Saying that, the S23A750D Samsung screen scored 1.8 or something DeltaE deviation, so its colours are pretty much as good as you can get (in terms of human vision being able to pick up faults, anything below 3 is undetectable) AFAIK. And that also boasts 120Hz @ 1080p. Nice screen by all accounts!

TN panels seem to be getting better, although suffer with viewing angles, as long as you stay within the limits, it shouldn't be too bad!

[badunk]

Thanks for the replies

Slight digression..
I was originally going to do 3x1 portrait with TN panels. My reasoning was that more pixels would be within your focal view, and your video card rendering isn't being put to waste. But after doing a bit of research I found that people are saying the viewing angles are bad. Furthermore, I tried to do 22" portrait at work, and the lack of horizontal space annoys me. It might be something I could get used to, but the bezels are somewhat within focal view. I believe in order to do portrait mode, I would prefer a 27" on 1920x1200 pixels. This sounds expensive considering I'd need a video card powerful enough to run those extra pixels in addition to the larger screen size etc..

My budget is somewhere around 500-800 I would say. I'm definitely going for perceivable value/dollar of course. I'm willing to spend more if there's some sort of major difference.

If only 1600 x 1200 monitors were more popular and cheap, that would be the ideal multi monitor setup. As of now, it seems like a more economical solution is to do a 22"+ 1080p 3x1 landscape. I'm just watching the deal websites I frequeInt for any models that dip around the $150 range with a thin bezel. I'm definitely going to be bezel stripping them and perhaps wrapping them in electrical tape.

Thanks for the Dell suggestion, I'll keep my eyes open for price drops.

[badunk]

Just an update

With eyefinity 2.0 supposedly supporting PLP monitor set up, I think I can have the best of both worlds.

A nicer 24" 1920 x 1200 landscape monitor with smaller 19" in portrait (in reduced resolution) on the sides might end be being the best value. I'd be maximizing the amount of pixels in my focus, while reducing the overall amount of pixels rendered. This should result in a better framerate.

[ugzz]

Just an update

With eyefinity 2.0 supposedly supporting PLP monitor set up, I think I can have the best of both worlds.

A nicer 24" 1920 x 1200 landscape monitor with smaller 19" in portrait (in reduced resolution) on the sides might end be being the best value. I'd be maximizing the amount of pixels in my focus, while reducing the overall amount of pixels rendered. This should result in a better framerate.

i didnt hear about eyefinity 2.0 adding that, thats some cool news.

so i have 3 tn panels in L, and i flipped them to P just to screw around, and it turns out while the side/side angles arent too bad the bottom-up view is absolutely terrible. so either way i turn them either the right or the left side panel i am viewing it bottom up. its so incredibly bad the entire seam where it touched my center monitor is almost black, completely unplayable.

just throwing my exp out there, cause thats something to watch for

[ViciousXUSMC]

Fixed your triple post ugs :D

As for PLP I would be all for that if I was building a new system and did not already have a 3xL setup.

The important things to look for IMO is that the monitors size match perfectly and that it retains 100% compatibility compared to matching resolution monitors.

But the good thing is that less desk space would be needed, lest cost is a possibility, and of course more performance is possible.

I assume that if the resolution does not match the center monitor that it lets the monitor scale, so some image quality could be compromised and it would have to use a resolution of the lowest common denominator.

Probably would still work well though since the center monitor would get most of the attention and be the only one that really needs a sharp native resolution.

Ironic I just did a new kind of video I call 50% eyefinity where I cropped 50% of the 2 side monitors away in a 3xLandscape setup and this would be pretty close to what you could see if in a PLP setup :D

[ugzz]

thanks, i was posting that and the site was being goofy, then it went all the way down. i checked 5 min later, and refreshed, then 10 min later it came back i reposted and i only saw it once on my screen. but it makes sense. i definitely reloaded at least 3 times.

^thats an interesting shot cropping out there.

ive actually looked into this before, not for gaming, but for work.

you can do a 24" center with 17" wings and it lines up pretty much perfect. The catch is that 24s come in 1920 x 1080 / 1200 / 1280. and you would need a 1920x1280 (25:16), which i have honestly not seen in person, i always see 1920 by either 1080 (16:9) or 1200 (16x10).
So these are more rare, but definitely plenty out there. but that would line up pixel for pixel with a 17" @ 1280x960.
your final res would be something like: 3840x1280.

So you get as much width as you would with a 3x1 19" 4:3 monitor setup in L. (like i have, as my res is 3840x1024)
i think 3840 is plenty and am very happy.

if you wanted to step that up you can get a 27" center with 19" sides,
or a 30" panel with 20" sides.
if you get the right models you can get those setups to line up pixel for pixel as well.

you could get a 2560x1600 30" and two 1600x1200 20" panels.
that 30" would definitely cost some big scratch though :D

personally id love a setup like this as when games DID NOT support triple monitor gaming, i could use the nice center 24".

[LeandroJVarini]

Ever tried a friend's Eyefinity with IPS, they look really pretty much the TN, currently use 3 e2260w LG's, I'm enjoying them very much,I do not see a big difference in image quality between them and the IPS and my friend of my e2260w!
If you can test a display TN quality do not think so think twice in buying them

[moa]

I can recommend Iiyama E2473HDS - it does not have pivot, but has VESA support, the quality is very nice and bezel is quite thin! Price is great as well ;)

My setup running BF3 on these monitors:

[badunk]

Nice!

Never heard of the brand - where did you purchase them?

I found the hanns-g 22" hl227dbb to be a pretty good value as well - thin bezel at a low cost. However, I do wish they were 23"+..

Their 23"+ models have a thicker bottom bezel, but I suppose that doesn't matter in 3x1 landscape

[Gilly]

Nice!

Never heard of the brand - where did you purchase them?

I found the hanns-g 22" hl227dbb to be a pretty good value as well - thin bezel at a low cost. However, I do wish they were 23"+..

Their 23"+ models have a thicker bottom bezel, but I suppose that doesn't matter in 3x1 landscape

Iiyama were better known for their CRT monitors in the Pentium 1/2 days, they made some of the better/ best 17" ones (Vision Master Pro in particular).

Not so sure on the quality of their LCD's although, of course they don't make their own panels, just put them together and mash some electronics on the back.