Hardware

[icycalm]

This is a really cool solution to the huge desk problem with triple-large-screen setups:

img00827201106051620.jpg (62.77 KiB) Viewed 6091 times

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/336 ... r#t2508335

It hadn't occurred to me and it's great because you can even use some kind of stool if the screens' stands are not too big, which cost virtually nothing while still leaving plenty of space for a properly placed sound system or other stuff, plus you can pull yourself back from the desk distance you'd be more or less forced to use with a desk and use either a coffee table if you don't mind slouching, or get a small desk if like me you want perfect ergonomics because you are into 5- or 10-hour gaming sessions.

Note that I don't advocate multi-screen setups for that size of screen -- or for any size really -- and projectors is where it's at, but there are legitimate budget/hardware reasons one might prefer them for, but I'll leave those for the huge and exhaustive article on the State of Gaming Rigs I've got coming up soon.

[icycalm]

The number one advice here, if you are shopping for 3-display setups, is either to buy all three at the same time, or if you are buying them one at a time to make sure you get all three before the model goes out of production! With TVs it's the worst, since manufacturers refresh their lines every 12 months. Luckily I am all sorted there (I got three LG 42LM660S TVs earlier this year). With projectors things are a lot better, because most of them stay in production for several years. Still, I just managed to snag my third Acer H5360 from the last reliable vendor on Amazon US that was selling them. Acer replaced this model earlier this year with a newer one that's not Nvidia 3D Ready compatible (only 3D Play TV, which sucks).

And now I am thinking of a triple 1600p setup, made up of course of the best monitor in the category, the HP ZR30w.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B003Z0Z ... ct_title_1

It's currently at 1,033 euros on Amazon.de, the lowest I've ever seen it in Europe, and the only thing keeping me back is that I am not sure when I'll have 2,000 more euros free to order two more of them. It's a pretty old monitor and it could be discontinued at any time. And there's no way I could afford two more of them before the spring, which is a long way off.