Need Monitor Help: Which Triple Screens Or Ultrawide?

matt3

Member
Jun 15, 2009
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Perhaps the wickedfire bretheren may be able to steer me in the right direction here...

So I normally work off a 17" laptop (1600 x 900) so I can take my work with me whenever. When docked at my standing desk, I use the laptop on a stand as left screen, and two 19" ultrasharps at center and right screen.

My work normally consists of browser tasks... building out sites, marketing campaigns, and so forth. I normall work off a todo list or outlook calendar in left screen, main dev on center screen, and refreshing current changes or multitasking in right screen.

Last weekend I got the bright idea to order a new 24" ultrasharp to use as my center screen, and then rotate my 2 19's to use in portrait mode on either side.

Well the portrait combo sucks. Pretty much everything I open other than text files is too wide. Scrolling left to right is annoying as it gets.

So what to do now? Three 24's seems like a monsterous amount of screen area (overall screen height is a bit tall) for the tasks I do, and it's "almost" wide enough to run two windows in each screen but not quite.

Does anyone have an ultrawide used in conjunction with something else and love it? Looks like those might be a good option so you get the working width but they're relatively short.

Suggestions?
 


Looking fOrward to hearing the replies to this thread. Been kicking around the idea of a third screen for a while
 
from the sounds of it the 19" ultrasharps are not even running on 1080p resolution

screen real estate is going to be largely decided by the resolution of your monitors, running anything less than 1080p is some straight up peasant caveman shit that is stifling productivity

running 2 portrait and 1 landscape is extremely awkward, i'd recommend picking up a vesa monitor mount and even running with just 2 if not 3 24" ultrasharps that are 1080p (in landscape mode of course)
 
What do you mean "too wide"? Apps are going full screen and you don't like it because you're not used to it, or what? I run a Dell 24" ultrasharp and an oldschool Viewsonic 4:3 21 inch on the side.

I'm waiting for the 32" Asus Pro Art to drop and that will be my next monitor. Unless the response rate is totally ass, it's the one spec they haven't released yet but BenQ has managed 4ms on the same panel, so it should be OK for gaming too if Asus can match them (or get at least 6ms or less).

I can't imagine working on anything smaller than 24" now.

My ultimate dream setup, which I never actually made happen, was to take, say, a Dell 30" ultrasharp at 2560 x 1600 and mate it with two old school Dell 20" ultrasharps at 1600 x 1200 in portrait mode, as they are nearly the same height in portrait as the 30". The old Dells don't have great viewing angles and are hard to come by though.

Now I think I'm just going to get this new Asus when it's out, and find a pair of the nicest monitors that have the closest vertical height in portrait mode to match it. I'm guessing 19". Will need to upgrade the video card to a pair of high end cards. Ignore the terrible presentation from last year and just marvel at the hardware...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh16cJbuNwo[/ame]

It was supposed to be out in November, but they've just reannounced it at CES to be released soon. Soooo pimp.

I've also contemplated the LG 34" ultrawide at 3440 x 1440... LG 34UM95-P: 34

They make a curved version of it as well.
 
I had the same problem, kind of, used to work on a 17inch laptop.

Bought a 24 inch monitor at 1920 resolution. I don't know how you guys work on this, but the text looks pixelated to me, especially when you play with zoom in Photoshop.
So I ditched the 24 monitor and bought 3 BenQ babes at 21.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution. I am very satisfied with them, the text is clear because the dpi is enough at 100. 24 inch with 1920 gets you to 96 or 94 dpi and I managed to notice the jagged text.

Another thing that I love with 3 monitors is that it gives you this "zones" feel. I keep X on left, Y on mid and Z on the right. Pretty simple and I know where to look everytime I try to switch to something, no more minimize,maximize frustration, just mouse dragging. It speeds up the workflow considerably.

I also had the chance to look at a 27 inch with 2560 resolution. Text is clear and there are no problems but I personally hate just one screen. For some reason I was having the need to maximize every window. On the other hand, I could see myself working with 2 monitors at 27 in, especially because of the room you get in Photoshop/Illustrator.
 
I run a triple monitor setup with two Asus 27" PB278Q monitors with 2560 x 1440 resolution each, and a much older 27.5" Hanns-G with 1920 x 1200 resolution. When the Hanns-G dies I will be replacing it with another of the Asus 27".

I don't see how I could ever go back to something smaller. Whenever I travel I take a 15-17" laptop and a 19" widescreen, and it fucking kills me. Main problem I've had is finding a desk I like that can also support the monitors.
 
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Make sure your desk is big enough. I have 3 monitors, one is sitting in the closet because it cramps the shit out of my desk. Also look into a triple monitor arm mount for your desk. Some of them don't require you to drill into the desk which is nice. Like this one Mount-It! Triple Freestanding Monitor Stand for Widescreen Monitors Up to 24" - Newegg.com

This sounds obvious but look at the back of your monitor to actually check there is a mount. I had one in the past that didn't have one and I bought a dual monitor mount only to shit myself when I looked.
 
I'm contemplating the AOC U3477PQU, it's an ultra wide. I've heard 4k does not scale well in Windows and the ability to have 3 split screens across one monitor it tempting.

Comes in at a better price than the LG equivelant and less IPS screen blur.

u3477Pqu-front-on.jpg
 
I'm contemplating the AOC U3477PQU, it's an ultra wide. I've heard 4k does not scale well in Windows and the ability to have 3 split screens across one monitor it tempting.

Comes in at a better price than the LG equivelant and less IPS screen blur.

If you're comparing to the LG 34UM95-P I linked to earlier, the panels are probably identical, possibly manufactured by LG themselves.

They're both 5ms IPS panels at 3440 x 1440 resolution. They both have nearly identical specs, 99% sRGB, 178 degree viewing angles, slightly different contrast ratios, but are more or less the same.

The differences seem to be that the LG has 2 x Thunderbolt inputs and the AOC has a pair of 3w speakers. The AOC is £80 less, but I would probably go with the LG myself. I don't know shit about AOC as a brand, don't need speakers and those Thunderbolt ports might come in handy some day.
 
I don't have anything helpful to add as far as your problem goes, but I absolutely fucking loathe that portrait shit with a monitor. Back in my poker days, I tried a setup with a large screen in the center landscape with two smaller monitors on the side portrait and wanted to tear my fucking eyes out.