Triple Monitor Setup...

I've been playing with my three, 24" monitor setup for a couple weeks now. It brings the computing experience to another level. Being able to see so much at once just makes thing so much easier to look at things. It can mean looking at multiple pages or documents at once at life size or looking at just one thing huge. One of my favorite applications is mapping software. Running Google Maps or Earth is just an amazing experience! It's the same with Microsoft's or Yahoo's site too. You can see just so much area in a level of detail which is not possible with just 1 or 2 monitors. Everything from data visualization, to office productivity is improved with a multi monitor setup.

Here's how you get your computer set up for multi-monitors. First, I have the 3 monitors laid out vertically. Horizontally, it would be too wide. This brings up another issue with the monitors. Viewing angles. Most of the less expensive panels are TN, which have a very limited viewing angle, especially in the vertical direction, which become the horizontal direction when rotated. You at least need to get a VA or IPS panel monitor. Otherwise, the narrow viewing angles will make the images go black if you are sitting even slightly off center or move your head in one direction. My 3 monitor setup are a Dell Ultrasharp and 2 HP LP2475W monitors. The HP's are IPS panels, which do look slightly better than the Dell which is a VA panel. The colors on all 3 monitors are slightly difference, so I'm still trying to get them to match.

The other issue is that you need 2 video cards with 2 DVI ports to drive 3 monitors. I'm using 2 GeForce 9400 GT cards. I needed to custom build my system in order to get this configuration. You may be able to use the built in video card on your monitor and an additional card, but this does depend on what kind of motherboard you have. Also, you really need to turn down the brightness. Three monitors at their default brightness is too bright. I had to turn the brightness way down because my eyes hurt after about an hour. Lastly, all these monitors put out a lot of heat and you can definitely feel it sitting in front of these.