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Chip's development computer — Parallax Forums

Chip's development computer

Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
edited 2018-05-17 15:52 in General Discussion
Yesterday while having a Skype conversation with Chip he showed me his computer setup. What a sight to behold!

3x 55" 4K monitors turned vertical. He picked them up on special for $250 each. But he has to drive them in a lower resolution because the characters are too small AND the monitors are too smart so they dither the edge of the characters which actually makes them blurry. Driving them at a little lower resolution prevent the smarts from working, resulting in great viewing.

Jealous? You bet!!!

Comments

  • Oh man, I saw this and I thought "OH MY GOSH! Chip is getting ANOTHER new computer!?!"

    We first heard about this setup when heater gave Chip a visit and was shown around the palace. I have to imagine 3x 55" monitors is even more magnificent in person than reading about it. I'm sure imagine is all I'll ever be able to do :P

    I do have to wonder though... doesn't his neck start to hurt? Unless they're so far away that he is wearing binoculars (which, come to think of it... not a bad idea), he must have to move his whole head & neck about quite a lot.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Somewhere here Chip posted a picture of this set up. It's an upgrade over the one I saw, which was already impressive enough.
  • DavidZemon wrote: »
    I do have to wonder though... doesn't his neck start to hurt?

    His biggest issue is that he gets so focused on design and coding that he forgets to breathe.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    edited 2018-05-19 01:52
    If anyone in the San Diego area wants my 4K monitor I'd sell it for $200, pickup only. Dell P2715Q 27" LED, mint condition, original box and cables.

    I switched back to 1080 monitors. The 4K native resolution was okay with 150% scaling, but a lot of the work I do doesn't support scaling. My eyes feel great now. It's been months since the switch and I still feel the difference.
  • Are you suuuure local pickup only? That's a wonderful deal. Someone needs to buy that...
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    At work I had 2X 24" Dell Monitors. My new Dell i7 PC just arrived so I've grabbed another 24" monitor for it for now. Once done I am going to keep the 3x 24" monitors as 2X has been great.
    The boss has 4x 24" monitors and my boss has 3x. All the others have 2X.

    I remember being so happy with my 20" CRT monster. A 20" CRT is about equivalent to an 18" LCD.
  • I recently upgraded to two 27" LED displays (HP EliteDisplay E273) and my laptop still sits between them on a docking station. My left monitor is horizontal, but my right monitor is rotated vertically. You can't believe how many jealous comments I get from people. Next up is a 40"+ display up on a wall in my office for when I hold small meetings. A few other managers have that already and it is extremely useful.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2018-05-17 23:14
    At work I have a 42 inch 4K Insignia/Roku TV from Best Buy as my monitor. I am driving it at full 4K resolution. Fortunately the set allows me to disable the dithering so it works almost exactly like four 21 inch 1080p monitors. I think my company ended up paying about $300 for it, plus $500 for a new PC and another $70 for a video card because the brand new Windows 10 PC wouldn't drive it natively. (Ironically, the $200 Windows tablets I now use for portable at work and my main box at home drive it. I plugged the work tablet in just to test the HDMI cable and it came up "OOOH! 4K monitor! and configured itself without being told. If I'd known that when I bought the TV I'd be using the tablet as my main computer at work too.)

  • Cluso99,
    Are you sure those monitors were 55" ? I kind of doubt they were that big... That would be something like 7-8 feet wide with 3 of them (and that's rotated vertically) and 4 feet tall.
    Last I saw he had multiple ~28" monitors rotated. I run one 32" 4K monitor and two 28" 4K monitors (one is above the 32" one and one is on the side rotated). I don't think I could ever go back to lower resolution. :)
  • Heater. wrote: »
    Somewhere here Chip posted a picture of this set up. It's an upgrade over the one I saw, which was already impressive enough.

    https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/166012/25-megapixel-desktop
  • Ah 49 inch... I guess that works... seems just a bit tall for comfort (I think I would have neck issues from trying to read the tops).
  • I've always been amazed by people that use multiple monitors. Personally I find it hard to track things that are more than a few degrees from the center of the screen. I find that the best display size for me is around 24 inches. Even then, I usually move the window I'm working on to the center of the screen, so a 17 inch monitor is more than adequate for me.
  • Dave Hein wrote: »
    I've always been amazed by people that use multiple monitors. Personally I find it hard to track things that are more than a few degrees from the center of the screen. I find that the best display size for me is around 24 inches. Even then, I usually move the window I'm working on to the center of the screen, so a 17 inch monitor is more than adequate for me.

    Hello!
    To quote an old friend, "What he said!"
    I agree. In my far off youth, I did some phototypsetting on a first generation Mac expandable, the Mac II design, and yes it wore two monitors. I kept needing to keep track of its mouse pointer. Finally I programmed in a sound byte to tell me where it was.

    It was fun for a while. Then I got involved with more interesting thing, and that's why I'm here.

    I've seen people use full size HDTV ones (Very big ones.) for displaying their work, of course that was running Linux..... But that's a discussion for a different use case.
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    Yes, finding the mouse pointer adds a bit of fun :(
    So is the stickiness of moving the mouse between screens.
    But after using 2X 24" monitors at work, I am itching to get the 3rd onto my new pc. I mainly have email and the phone system on the left monitor. I'll put the current background task on the right monitor and use the middle for the main work. When I am copying pieces of HTML code from one file I will be able to have that on the right while the working HTML on the centre, and still see my emails etc on the left.
    I often use NotePad++ for comparing two files. That would be a great use for a larger monitor though.
    Damn! Just chucked a 43" std def plasma TV. Should have tried that on my desktop. May try it on my main tv -just another tiny 43" plasma.
    My kids have humongous TVs. Michael has an 80" 4K. Now that would make a nice pc monitor ;)
  • 80" ???
    Wow!

    Does Michael sit in the neighbour house to enjoy that picture ? :)
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    Surprisingly, no.
    They are maybe 2.5-3m away. Looks fantastic with tiny bezel.
  • I have been using multi-monitor setups since the late 90s. My setup always has one main monitor in the center where I have my main editor/browser/etc. window (or game if playing), then I have irc/discord/chat windows on a monitor on the side (rotated). At home, I have a 3rd monitor above the center one, and tilted down so when I look up it's aimed at me to avoid viewing angle issues) that I use mainly for videos (streaming/etc.).

  • Same, but with two monitors.

    For a long time, I used one monitor. Laptop, on the road.

    I have picked up one of those USB panels and can set it up in a pinch.

    I put my chatter, various source "copy from" windows, video, whatever on second monitor.

    Still like to use alt+tab to quick toggle. When I have one screen, it is still fast to work.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,066
    I used multiple networked pcs to get around the single monitor problem in the 90s.
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,253
    edited 2018-05-19 04:05
    Lol, so did I at times. X window system.

    Once for fun, I had one machine serving fonts, one serving the window manager, yet another running NFS mounted on all machines to hold program and data, another handling keyboard mouse, and finally another one running the actual program.

    Edit, another one was serving licenses.

    Two clicks on an icon and all those machines lit up, delivering it to the user as if it were all local.

    :D
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    We now have a couple of 85" monitors at work, for presentations. Until recently you could only get TVs when you wanted large, I think.
  • cgraceycgracey Posts: 14,133
    Soon, 8K monitors are supposed to become common. One 65" 8k TV would be like four 4k monitors without the bezel interruptions.
  • cgracey wrote: »
    Soon, 8K monitors are supposed to become common. One 65" 8k TV would be like four 4k monitors without the bezel interruptions.

    Why, yes Chip, my birthday is coming up very soon!
  • Hey, Chip, what PC is driving all those monitors?
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