Finally up

[hapiguy314]

Just four 22" Viewsonics and a Laptop.

Vetra KM switch still on the way.

Unfortunately, I have to return the Top Left LCD because there is one dead pixel that just stays red :(

Thanks Xzin and company for all the help.

http://hossguild.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5252&stc=1&d=1181986124

File wont load - Can go to this link:
http://hossguild.org/forums/attachment.php?s=e3db5823956828f858c362a7a11a8da0&attachmentid=5252&stc=1&d=1181986124

[Los]

wow thats one good looking screen setup if you ask me, gz m8

[hapiguy314]

It was very pleasing to see the finished product. But after testing it over the weekend, getting 22" monitors may not be the optimum 5 boxing for me.

It's too big and I barely look up to look at the other 2 chars because it literally takes my head from looking straight to looking up. Maybe 19" would be more otptimal for 5 boxing (even 17"s). I can't imagine Xzin playing on 30"s. Unless he sits like 5 feet from them heh. My eyes hurt after just 1 hour of playing.

Furthermore, I thought LCDs cause less heat than CRTs, but these LCDs feel like they're burning my face - like im having a tan at the beach. I had to point a fan at the monitors to alleviate my face.

Friend said to put the fan in the back to dicipate the heat, but the back of these viewsonics were cool to the touch - it's the front that are hot (well very warm).

The vetras still hasnt arrived so I'm still using 3 keyboards. As it seems, I think I might end up buying another couple of computers coz lowering the resolution and g/x makes me cringe on how nice the bottom 2 look like on max settings and the top 2 look crappy since I have to turn down the effects at its lowest to prevent lag.

Overall, I'm really happy. My research with stocks and such has gotten much nicer also. Last thing I might do is probably get 15" cables for monitor / keyboard / ethernet so I can disperse the computers in different areas of the room to prevent my desk, bottom and top, from feeling like hell. :twisted:

[Los]

Mm never sat behind a 22" but really that much heat?

And for the distance to look, get them back a bit and change the ui scaling a bit?

[hapiguy314]

Hehe - No more room to push them back :) I'm sorta used to Highest Resolution (with little fonts and stuff). If I blow them up to get bigger, sorta not "my style" hehe. Maybe I just need to burn in these monitors.

(No AC in my room - so assed out).

Thinking of getting another one of these to help cool the room:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11218981

[Xzin]

I actually only use half of the 30" to play WoW on - my 30"ers are mounted vertically - not horizontal as usual (this required custom mounting). Anything bigger would be impossible to multibox. When/if I decide to pony up $7k PER monitor for 4 more monitors, I will be able to run 8 instances of WoW on 4 monitors - seamlessly. With separate machines driving each copy of WoW.

But for now, I divide the screen in half - so when I need the 30" real estate, I have it - flip a switch and presto - 2x 15" screens for WoW with less seams between monitors.

By the way - they give off A LOT of heat. Average 17" monitor uses 15 - 30 watts. the 30" ones use 130ish watts. EACH. But they radiate the heat and its mostly out the back.... so you can easily cool the space, assuming you don't mount them against a wall (I didn't). I just picked up a 1.5ish Ton AC unit to better cool my computer and server room. Most of it will be cooling the computers but the rest is needed to offset the heat from the monitors :)

Kind of sad really but such is the woe of those on the cutting edge.

[Xzin]

P.S. Your fan will do nothing but circulate the heat around. Thats great if you sweat a lot. Not so great if you actually want cooling without massive fluid loss :)

Ideally, you need one of these:

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/M12CF.html

Quiet - remote controlled - one room specific cooling. You can get one for around $800 - install is tricky for a DIY though as you need to cut holes on the wall, install 220 volt service and charge with refrigerant.

Or get a portable AC unit (still needs outside drainage). Or reroute your internal AC to better serve that room only.

Or simply get a window mount unit and deal with the noise of the fan.

Or vent the air outside.

Or suffer :)

[hapiguy314]

But they radiate the heat and its mostly out the back.... so you can easily cool the space.

That's why I'm sorta concerned why my LCDs heat up in the front rather than the back. As far as I know, its just 2 florescent lamps in the bottom and top of the screen with the crystals in the front panel. Why it gives off so much heat infront, I have no clue :cry:

Could this be because of the way I stack them close to each other? Still doesnt explain the fact that the back panel isnt warm at all...

[Xzin]

It could be poor design work.... perhaps they don't have much airflow out the back, which traps heat to the front?

Hard to say - I only have experience with 17" and 30" - which are night and day when it comes to heat production. I have taken apart many a monitor though (used to make my own projectors). There are usually 2 CCFLs - on the top and bottom or sides (not both) and they are the source of almost all of the heat - the other heat generation is from the driver board - they are usually located on the back though, behind the LCD (not at the bottom or anything).

My personal suggestion is to replace them with 17" monitors.

Worth mentioning: make sure the heat is not coming from your computers and warming the screens up a bit (in addition to the heat being generated from the screens). This might be unlikely though - you can touch the monitors and pretty much tell. But, 4 or 5 boxes giving off a small amount of heat each in a room with a small size and poor air circulation is a recipe for sweat - even if its not heating the monitors.

Check the power bricks or the labels on the monitors. How many watts do they consume?

[Xzin]

Also, I don't mean to sound critical but another issue you are facing is the fact that you are always looking at a single box, which is not flanked/surrounded by other boxes as it would in a typical 5 boxing arrangement. This combined with the 22" size is going to make it hard to box effectively. When your main screen is flanked by 4 screens, it is much, MUCH easier to see a change in your peripheral vision than if you are looking, say at your lower right - especially if you use 15 or 17" monitors.

P.S. - Dispersing the computers is a good idea to avoid hot spots but they will still heat the room just the same. You have to physically either vent all of the air, cool all of the air or physically move your computers out of the room.

I ultimately had to do all three but I wanted to get rid of the noise and I have 12+ computers and a whole bunch of other stuff needing cooling.

[hapiguy314]

The monitors are the Viewsonice Q22wb featured in this link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824116076

It says it only uses 45 watts. I'll try to set it up and put a wider distance between the monitors and see if they'll still produce as much heat.

As far as the peripheral aspect of viewing large monitors, putting 2 pillows on my chair which elevated my height helped a lot (I'm only 5'11"). However, over the weekend, I didnt have time to buy a new chair and I wasnt willing to play sitting on two pillows :) Maybe for PVP - its quite important to see what happens with ur other toons. However, for 5 boxing instances, I really just need to see the MT and the Priest.

WOW aside - these large monitors are amazing for other tasks. I might just buy 5 19" monitors for a $100 each and keep these four for my stock research / DB reporting utilities.

[hapiguy314]

Had to return the top left monitor coz there was a dead pixel. I thought, that it would light up in a few days (just like what some people in the new egg boards claimed) but it didnt. I also had to dismount the top right monitor to not offset the weight only being on one side....

Sigh - No 5 boxing for me for about a week :(

[Xzin]

You think thats bad? I ordered 6 30" monitors from Dell.

I had to send 5 of them back. Backlighting issues, vertifcal lines, dead pixels, you name it.

Their refurbs are junk :(

I then bought 6 new 3007WFP-HCs. 5 worked flawlessly. The last 1 had to be returned 3 or 4 times. It finally came in yesterday and is finally mounted. Flanked by my 17's .... thats 35 megapixels - nearly 7 feet by 7 feet of viewing area. Driven by 2 computers, with switches for the Zins boxes.

Can't say I recommend Dell but at least they have a reasonable return policy (even if it took me what, 2 months to get 6 working monitors?).

Dead pixels RARELY ever fix themselves.

[hapiguy314]

Another thing I hate is the fact that I have to pay for shipping to RMA it when they were the ones who sent in a defective item in the first place :roll:

[Xzin]

For Newegg, yes. They even hit you with a 15% restock fee for some RMA items! Riiiight.

For Dell, no. They simply issue a UPS pickup and away it goes.