Planning an upgrade

[glight]

Guys, I'm thinking about upgrading my rig but I need some advice.

Firstly I'm thinking of adding motion but I'm not handy enough to DIY (nor do I have the time) so the simXperience stage I is quite interesting. I've read the Q&A thread and it sounds like a very good buy however I'd like to hear from a few more users' opinions.

Second I want to go for bigger screens. I can get 3x32" LED 720p for about $1200 OR 3x40" LED 1080p for about $2000. Will 32" be enough? Will 720p be enough? I am leaning more towards 32 since they are a nice price (keeping total cost of upgrades below $4000 would be nice) but what do you guys think?

 

[Eric. K]

Frankly I would never buy 720p monitors for gaming. The monitor might be large in size, but the viewing estate will be 50% smaller than on a 1920x1200 screen!! and 30% less than on a 1080p one.

 

[glight]

You're right Eric. I had a look in the store today and I realize now there is a very very big difference between 32 and 40". So not only would the 32's be too small they're only 720p. I managed to negotiate a set of 40" 1080p LED 120hz Samsung's with a smaller bezel for $2400 (sale price would have been over $3300).

 

[Eric. K]

You're right Eric. I had a look in the store today and I realize now there is a very very big difference between 32 and 40". So not only would the 32's be too small they're only 720p. I managed to negotiate a set of 40" 1080p LED 120hz Samsung's with a smaller bezel for $2400 (sale price would have been over $3300).

You got 3, 40" for $2400!!! Nice!!! I want to see some pics of that setup! You must be either single or have a very understanding wife

 

[glight]

Haha, yes I am a lucky duck that I get away with all this. Though I think I will have to promise a trip somewhere tropical to make up for it!

Still trying to figure out the logistics of mounting the screens. I figure I need about 8ft of width to comfortably place them (between 7.5-8ft mounted?). Since they're LED's I could mount them off the wall with an arm mount for about $100 each. Does that make sense?

Edit: OK, had a chance to think (sleep) on it. If I put the chassis in the corner of the room I will gain room width wise. Also, if I use the TV mount the obutto came with then I don't have to worry about buying/placing 1 of the mounts. I still have to get the measuring tape out though. Anyone tried mounting a 40" LED to the obutto? (TV weight is 30lbs)

Edit#2: Aha! Yes We Can

 

[Jim Cole]

with the rig setup to look into a corner of the room, you can get away with 2 wall mounts and a stand for the center one. This will give you 45 degree angle on the side monitor which isn't a bad thing

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

Nice rig! I'm blown away at the price you paid for your TV's. Btw can i offer you some Gravol and a large pail just incase you start feeling carsick from viewing such large monitors.

 

[glight]

Thanks Hiroshi,

Though you can never trust a salesman I was told I would be helping meet the January quota and since we're only a few days away from the end of the month that helped lower the price a bit more. Plus I had a few pics on my phone of my current setup to give the guy an idea of what I wanted to do, naturally I offered him a go if we made a deal

Realistically speaking the 32"s were actually going to come in around $1700, 46"s would have been closer to $4000 so really the 40"s were the best bang for the buck.

and what makes you think I'll get carsick? It's not like I got 46" screens like Vito:

 

[glight]

Started installing things yesterday, here's an update on the progress:




The upstairs has 2 bedrooms one is a bit larger than the other but was used as a guest room. In the interest of having some space for spectators I figured my rig was better off if it traded spaces. A lot of work but at least now I have a blank canvas to redo my rig (and hopefully do better cable management this time)

I had a feeling the screen was too low but a quick check of some onboard videos (from project CARS) makes me think it will be OK. The way things are I can't mount the TV any higher since it mounts with VESA 200x200 pattern and the Obutto mount is only good for 200x100.

What I had to do was drill out two of the 200x100 holes to fit the TV's mounting bolts and just use the top two mounting bolts to mount the TV (assuming the bottom 2 holes would make the TV lean forward). It's a good thing I bought LED's since they're only 30lbs and 1.2" thin!

 

[glight]

couple more pics showing the other 2 screens in place...

 

[Devil_Dog]

Drool!!!

Very nice. Now once these kids of mine get a bit bigger then my turn comes.

 

[Jim Cole]

I sure hope you can close a curtain on that window heheh. Very nice setup and I see that you used wall mounts for the side monitors, glad it worked out for you

 

[Neil Tasker]

wow thats cool hmmmmmmm got me thinking about a tripple screen set up now

 

[Brian Clancy]

yeah, thats some serious flat panel real estate!! LOL

Looks sweet and a nice idea to wall mount the outer two

 

[glight]

Thanks for the comments guys. The mounts I bought were the articulating arm variety, which was great for getting the correct angle/position; the tricky part was finding the right wall stud to bolt them to! (however I am sure this was the right solution).

Final pics in the cockpit thread

 

[Brian Clancy]

Indeed, looks great and thanks for sharing!