Serious monitor decisions for poker/gaming etc.

[SirFelixCat]

Hey y'all. I'm a membet of wsgf.com as well as anandtech.com etc, but thought this would be the ideal place to ask regarding my monitor(s) that I'm in the market for.

The new rig is going to be a hoss...at least a e6600 dual core w/ 1 (maybe a 2nd) 8800GTX, 4Gig ram etc. Long story short, a beast.

But what I come to you fellas for is monitor advice. I have narrowed this down to 3 general choices and I haven't a clue as to which would be better for me:

1- a single 30" monitor (Apple, Dell, or Samsung...tbd later). Res: 2560x1600 Price: $1300

2 - Dual 24" monitors (Samsung or Dell or ??? TBD) Res: 1920x1200 Price: $1200-$1400

3 - Triple 22" monitors (hooked up with a Triple Head 2 Go ) Res: 1680x1050 Price: $900ish

Now, this monster rig will be used for my poker, gaming, as well as day-to-day use. No video editing etc. Just everyday kinds of things. Now with that said, multitabling is essential to me. I currently have a 24" Sony widescreen CRT that is dying and I can play 4 tables at a time w/o overlap (1920x1200). I need more desktop space, for sure. So the better the resolution the better. But dual 24's would be sufficient as I'd have enough room to 8 table. But I would only be able to game on one, since the "split" between the monitors would be a serious PITA. That's where the idea of the TH2G came from. I'm all ears on that one as well

Now, price-wise, all 3 options are comparable. The price really isn't a big issue for me. I just want a quality, high-end system that I will be able to multitable with as well as have a fantastic gaming experience as well.

What say you and, please, if you don't mind, the reason for why you'd go with one setup vs another.

Thanks fellas!


eta: clarified some details

[TomHimself]

isnt gaming on a 30' not so good because you would have to lower the resolution, correct? but i think i read that more and more game/ graphics cards work well with 2560x1200.

[SirFelixCat]

[ QUOTE ]
isnt gaming on a 30' not so good because you would have to lower the resolution, correct? but i think i read that more and more game/ graphics cards work well with 2560x1200.

[/ QUOTE ]

On older games, yes. On the newer ones, notsomuch. My video card(s) will have enough horsepower to be just fine.

[Shoe Lace]

Why not 2x 1600x1200 non-wide screen LCDs? This is 8 tables without resizing and you won't have to worry about wide screen incapabilities with older games that don't support wide screen resolutions.

If you're hardcore into gaming I'd probably goto craigslist and see if you can pickup a top notch CRT for 1 monitor. Use this to game on, then grab a 1600x1200 LCD for non-gaming.

The CRT I have here cost almost nothing and surpasses any LCD I've seen to date in overall performance. It's an NEC FE1250+. I imagine it would cost about $40-50 off CL.

[cbloom]

Personally I find Dual 24" or Triple 22" to be too wide physically, you have to actually turn your head to see it all, which is a pain in practice. A single 30" or just two 22" works much better.

Triple 22 would be cool for like wrap-around flight sims or something but not for normal use. It's also good for like finance people who want to pull up a ton of charts and mainly use the center screen and just look to the side occasionally.

[funkyworms]

Aren't there 22" monitors with 1920x1200 resolution? If you're going to get 3, why not get 4?

Just get two video cards and you won't have to get a triplehead2go.

[Josem]

30" hands down... unless your content (games, movies, whatever you use it for) is restricted to 1920x1200.

i enjoy playing a movie/whatever full screen on one 24", and 4/tabling etc. on the other one.



also, a 30" with two 20" 1600x1200 monitors rotated to portrait besides it is pretty cool.

[SirFelixCat]

Good points here, for sure.

I'm definitely towards either the 30" w/ 2 smaller monitors on either side or the dual 24's.

The TH2G option is out due to the limited resolution per monitor.

Now just to narrow those two down.

If I were to get the 30" w/ the two other smaller ones in portrait, what's the best size for those two side ones? 20"? 22"? 24"? Also, widescreen or not?

Thanks again fellas.

[luckbox666]

I use 2 22" widescreens, and I love them. I have a dual monitor mount (about $150), so it's really easy to adjust them to whatever angles (both vertically and horizontally) and height I want. I can easily fit 6 tables on each screen (althought I only play 8 - 6 on my left and 2 on my right) with minimal overlap (I can always see my cards, but the middle tables get overlapped). The resolution works well for the few games I play.

I would be hesitant to get a 30" with two side monitors because you would have to turn you head a lot, and it's easy to miss the action on a table if your head is turned the other way. There are, however, tripple monitor stands that would make it easier to adjust to your comfort. I think they are around the same price, but they are heavy. If you have a glass-top desk, be sure to check the weight limit.

Here is my setup. It cost about $700 total, so it's not quite as nice as yours could be.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?...d=1168044601867
http://www.buy.com/prod/ergotron-ds1.../10367923.html

[luckbox666]

Also, if you go with the 30" and two portraits, I would suggest getting a 20" at max, or whatever would match the height as the 30" widescreen. I wouldn't go with 3 widescreens - it would stretch you too far.