Triple monitor setup with one big and two half-sized portraited screens

At the moment, I'am equiped with a Benq XL2420T 24" LCD:

Benq XL2420T

The resolution is 1920x1080 with 120 Hertz refresh rate.

I want to build something like this I saw somewhere on forums already, but didn't found any advices.

This is the pic from forum

Soo the questions is, which configuration should I look for for these two both side monitors ? How to calculate the resolution and dimensions of these screens to make it the same heights in portrait orientation ?

Thanks

aspirinemaga

Posted 2013-06-16T11:27:39.587

Reputation: 229

what was your final setup with? did you manage to find a monitor that matches the size and resolution? I am thinking of a similar setup. it would be helpful if you share your side monitor model – shababhsiddique – 2015-07-26T15:15:22.163

It's a bit hard to work out what's going on in the picture, but it looks like there are two distinct start menus (I think I can see two start buttons) and the two right side monitors are spanning with the first one separate. It also looks like the third monitor is running at a different resolution because of the apparent height of the start and title bars. I did have a think and off the top of my head can't see a way to get the resolutions to match natively for various sized monitors. – Ian – 2013-06-16T11:39:40.780

Answers

To get the same dimension, take the height of the large monitor and match the width of the smaller monitors to that. Make sure that can rotate a quarter. The cheap models usually do not support that.

To make the effective resolution identical look for side screen with a resolution of 1080xsomething.

Also try to get screen with IPS panels for the side monitors. That way you get a good viewing angle. Avoid panels based on TN panels for all configurations where do not like look straight at the screen.

(In the picture you provided you would look reasonably straight at the screen, however IPS get more important with the size of the screen and with larger angles. It also has the advantage of producing better colours).

Some more detailed information:

A modern monitor usually comes with a panel based on one of these three techniques:

TN
PVA/MVA
IPS

Twisted nematic (TN) displays have the following qualities:

Fast screen drawing (which used to make then better for gaming, though the other two techniques have caught up and are also fine for gaming. A 15 year old IPS panel on the other hand might not suffice for gaming. But unless you are going to buy ancient monitors you can forget about this)
Poor colour quality. (Do not do graphic design on these. For gaming it is fine).
A not all that great horizontal viewing angle and colour differences depending on the angle. This is visible in the picture I took. If you are looking directly at a small or medium (say up to 20") screen this is not a problem. The display shows in the picture is a 26" at a small angle to my main screen and here it already become visible.
A poor vertical viewing angle. Usually not a problem unless you rotate the screen. If you rotate 90 degree then you effectively swap vertical and horizontal angles.
Cheap to produce in on direction. (e.g. make a long/wide screen). This sells great.

PVA/MVA (Patterned vertical alignment / Multi-domain vertical alignment

Better colours and better viewing angles than TN

IPS

Good colour.
Good viewing angles.
Usually more expensive.

Note that a good TN panel can be better than a poorly build IPS panel. Takes these as general guidelines. Read reviews before buying anything.

Hennes

Posted 2013-06-16T11:27:39.587

Reputation: 60 739

That's what I wanted to mention, when I rotate a screen vertically, I have bad feelings in my eyes, something tearing. Now I see that was a problem in low-quality lcds. – aspirinemaga – 2013-06-17T08:55:00.503

Also, one question to ask as I discovered some obstacle here: For gaming, is it important to have all screens the same resolution ? Could I use 3 screens on one GeForce 580 ? – aspirinemaga – 2013-06-17T09:02:41.857

Re poor quality: Added some text to the answer (TN vs PVA vs IPS). As to same resolution: 1) Depend ont he game, the settings (high, ultra, low, ...) and the 580's performance. 2) If you are going to rotate the screens then you are not using the same resolution unless you find something like a 1024x1024 screen. (same vertical as horizontal resolution). I never saw those in a common setup. – Hennes – 2013-06-17T09:57:10.490

Thank you for well explained answer! Now I'am trying to find out which of mine actual monitors are TN, IPS or PVA/MVA. thanks – aspirinemaga – 2013-06-17T13:00:14.527

I know this post is nearly 7 years old, but as far as I can tell, the outside ones are 4X3 and the middle one is a 16:10.

For the middle monitor a = arctan(aspect ratio big) where aspect ratio = width/height, ex 16/10 in this case

height = diagonal_big * cos(a)

Diagonal_small_monitor = height / sin(arctan(aspect ratio small)) In this case, aspect ratio = 4/3.

Thus Diagonal_small_monitor = diagonal_big * cos(arctan(aspect ratio big)) / sin(arctan(aspect ratio small))

A reasonable guess at this setup is a 24" 16:10 center monitor and 16" 4:3 side monitors. Scaling up, 27" main, 18" sides is also possible.

pyro226

Posted 2013-06-16T11:27:39.587

Reputation: 1