42"+ TV vs Multiple Monitors

[Yo-Yo Freak]

so i was thinking about on my new computer i am going to be getting of getting 3 video cards and running 2 monitors off of each 1 (6 monitors on 1 computer, 2 per GPU). but then i noticed the price =P. so i started thinking about a 42" or bigger LCD HD TV. i was wundering if to run something that big with 5 instances of WoW on it would it be recomended that i still go with 2 or 3 way SLI? i was looking at either the GTX 260's or the 9800 GTX+'s. would the TV even take advantage of SLI? from my understanding of SLI is that it not only increases the performance of what you are doing if it can take advantage of SLI, but it also increases the resolution output total of the cards by combining them together. do i need to have a HDMI compatible GPU or are they all HDMI campatible with a DVI/VGA to HDMI addapter so i can play blue rays off of the computer?

i figure a decent TV and wall mount will cost about the same as 6 19"-22" monitors and a hex monitor stand. so why should i get something that can only be used for the computer when i could get something just as good that can be used for multiple purposes? IMO a big tv that you can use as a monitor and can be split into 5 instances of WoW vs 5 monitors is a much better deal. anyway i just wanted any opinions on this and any help on these questions i have.

Thanks in advance. ^_^

~Yo-Yo Freak

[Tsunami]

1. there is no gain in performance between 2x sli and 3x sli. so save your money on the third video card.

b. the difference between DVI and HDMI is the sound signal. so if your monitor has speakers and you want to hear those speaker you need to use HDMI. If your monitor has no speakers than it will have the DVI connection. you can buy a DVI to HDMI connector for $5 online.

3. you could use a 42 in. t.v. for your monitor but I would not recommend it, for many reasons: Distance between desk and monitor would need to be about 5' min. and at that distance your better of with a 24' monitor 2 feet away. Another is picture quality, the 42" will not display text or fine detail as well, plus the response rates are not that great for t.v's that big. it might be fine to run your alts on, but I would not run my main on it.

I have a 19" as my main and have a 24" for my alts. the 24" is about 2 ft. behind and to the right of my main. when I am not playing I use it to watch t.v. with this setup I have min. head movement to focus on my alts screen and by using the larger screen for my alts they have more space on the screen for easier viewing. also 24" is just too big to surf the internet on. 24" screen is perfect for running 4 alts on.

One thing I am interested in trying when I have the space is to use a DLP/LCD projection T.V. These t.v.'s can display 1080p and go up to 100"+ so then I can have my alts projected onto the wall behind my computer. about 15 feet away. this would allow me to view my main and my alts without moving my head.

[Yo-Yo Freak]

hmm interesting and thank you once again, i like your setup, its fairly cheap compared to most other build people have and it sounds like it works very well. i kind of want my slaves a little bigger though then what they would be split on a 24" monitor, so what about running slaves on the tv and running my main on a 19"-22" monitor? maybe a smaller tv to save a little more money. i might look inot those projectors, they sound really interesting but the only problem is you have to be in a dark room. i might even go with a 19-22" for my main and 2 22" for my slaves but i'm still undecided. thanx for the info though it has helped alot, not just here but everywhere. ^_^

~Yo-Yo Freak

[pythos]

I've often thought about getting a LCD TV and using the PC input and plop it down on my desk. I really thought about it once I started multi-boxing. I ended up just buying another 20" widescreen (have 2 now). It's not as nice as my mains Samsung, but my 9600GT supports dual DVI so it did not take much at all to get it setup, plus I save a lot of money. As said earlier, the downside to the TV setup is the quality in the finer things like text and also the response time. I've heard "ghosting" is a big problem for gamers who try to go the TV route. It works great for sitting on your couch with a wireless keyboard/mouse, just not for gaming. There might be some really high dollar TV's coming out with faster response time, but again you're paying a lot for those I imagine. The monitors are close enough that I can easily read the alt's screen with 4 windows on it. I had some problems reading the hotkey buttons with the default action bar size, so I just changed the size of those to where I can even read them now. I'm really happy with this setup now.

Once I figured out how to use the Maximizer in Keyclone I'm so so so happy I decided to go with the dual 20" widescreens. No frames on the individual screens makes it look clean and the mouse over focus makes it really easy to switch screens.

Dual widescreens gets my vote.

[Dumbfounded]

3. you could use a 42 in. t.v. for your monitor but I would not recommend it, for many reasons: Distance between desk and monitor would need to be about 5' min. and at that distance your better of with a 24' monitor 2 feet away. Another is picture quality, the 42" will not display text or fine detail as well, plus the response rates are not that great for t.v's that big. it might be fine to run your alts on, but I would not run my main on it.

I use a 42in lcd hdtv Sony Bravia as my computer monitor. I sit about 1.5 meters away from it (not sure how far that is in feet) but I find that it works well. I use it from watching vids, dual-boxing wow and posting on this forum.

The resolution is great on the lcd since it runs off the lcds native resolution of 1920x1080, so fine detail is as good as it is on any other lcd montiors. I hear its different on plasmas tho, which apparently upscales? dont quote me on that tho, never used a plasma. Tho when up against a wall of text (like doing a work word/excel document), its easy to get lost at where you're reading.

i dont notice any response time issues either, I find it similar to when i had my dual 19in set up. I still have trouble with wow latency tho, sucks to live in Australia.

multiboxing however isnt as great. 2-3 wow windows is fine side by side, but with 5 or 6 wow clients u would lose a lot of resolution on the slave clients as u would need to some how splice 1920x1080 in an appropriate manner. which then you would have trouble reading text, but keyclones pip function helps with that.

I cant say much about video cards, all I know is that my current video card/setup cant handle 3 - boxing onto a single 42 in lcd as it failed on me last week.

I think overall, a single 42 in isnt enough for 5 boxing. I kinda want to add an additional 19in (maybe 2 even...) but my video card made a weird noise when i tried...

[-silencer-]

The problem with using TVs as monitors is that none of them (at a "reasonable" price) support a higher resolution than 1920x1080 (1080p), which is worse than a standard 24" LCD monitor (1920x1200). When you're trying to fit multiple windows in 1920x1080, you run out of viewable space quick. Just because it's larger in inches doesn't mean it holds more discrete pixels. The only upgrade in my view to a 24-28" 1920x1200 monitor for multiboxing multiple windows is a 30" 2560x1600 monitor.

(A 42" TV at 6-8 feet away isn't going to look much bigger than a 24" monitor 2 feet away, and the 24" will be clearer when reading small text.)