I have a chance to pick up three new cheaper 22" monitors at a very low price (Acer Model X223WBD for $99 each) Mixed reviews on Newegg but generally positive even at the price they list. My question is really whether or not this is old tech and something I should pass on considering that while the monitors appear to be a good deal I would still need to buy the Matrox TH2go and probably a new graphics card to replace my long in the tooth 8800GTX. With that said the "upgrade" goes from $300 to closer to $900.I am planning a CPU upgrade once th I9's arrive after the new year for now my OC'd Q9650 will soldier on and I believe by then Nvidia will have a new generation of cards out. I have been looking at ATI's eyefinity tech since multi monitor simming is the direction I want to go but not sure if I want to go that route yet or not either? So I am wondering if it's best to sit tight for now or not. Even if I decide to wait it out I will probably buy a couple of the Monitors I listed above to display my other apps on (Flight sim Commander, ASA, etc) even if they don’t turn out to be very good quality monitors I am only out a couple hundred bucks, I can live with that.Lastly, display port connectors are these going to become the new standard for connecting monitors? I have not read much about them. Thanks,Robert

Yes, you are buying old tech. I suggest you check out other user reports of ATi's new Radeon HD 5 series cards on these very forums before you make your decision.

Robert- you didn't say if you sim with 2D panels or Virtual. TH2Go is the choice for virtual- but if like me, you prefer 2D, then you can drive 2 monitors with your present video card and add a second card (compatible with the present card) for the 3rd monitor. For the latter case, I think your deal on 3 monitors would work very nicely despite not being the latest techn.Advantage with 2D triple monitors is you get 3 different FS views for a very wide Field of View. With no panning or zooming!Whereas TH2Go stretches a single virtual view across the 3 mons. I believe most TH users apply some Zoom Out which can increase the Field of View- but can also create distance perception problems. In this case the advice to go for better monitors is good.(I'm using an older Acer 17" LCD along with an IBM 17" LCD and an ancient 19" CRT in a 2D triple views setup. With a bit of colour balancing I can't tell them apart!)Alex Reid

I fly in VC mode using Track IR 99.9% of the time. However if 2D panels can be opened undocked and moved to another monitor I may wish to do this even if it means flying in windowed mode. I use two monitors now a widscreen Samsung 244T 24" for my main view and a 19" 4:3 Microtek for viewing FSC. I have two 880GTX's with two open DVI conectors 1ea remaining. I have been following most of the threads here that have to deal with multi-monitor set up. Will read more on the ATI card but seems like until more display port monitors become available it would be best to wait awhile?

I fly in VC mode using Track IR 99.9% of the time. However if 2D panels can be opened undocked and moved to another monitor I may wish to do this even if it means flying in windowed mode. I use two monitors now a widscreen Samsung 244T 24" for my main view and a 19" 4:3 Microtek for viewing FSC. I have two 880GTX's with two open DVI conectors 1ea remaining. I have been following most of the threads here that have to deal with multi-monitor set up. Will read more on the ATI card but seems like until more display port monitors become available it would be best to wait awhile?

Robert- It's very simple to open 2D views and popups. For an additional view, just key [ to open a mini view overlayed on your main view. Undock it and drag to a secondary monitor where you drag edges to resize to suit that monitor. Use the num KB to set the views- num lock on- key Control & Num7 for View Left Fwd, Control & Num8 for View R Fwd.Or for a popup, just undock, drag and resize.You can make Windowed mode look almost same as Full screen by Auto Hiding top Menu and bottom Task Bars, change Title bar colour to black with dark green letters and set Desktop colour to black. It's a new flightsim when you have a wide field of view! Here's a pic.Alex ReidBaron 58 near Victoria BC, over Vancouver Island

Alex,Thanks for the tip but I'm not really asking a how to, more of a should I? or a what would you do type of question? I'm not sure if it

Alex,Thanks for the tip but I'm not really asking a how to, more of a should I? or a what would you do type of question? I'm not sure if it

I have a chance to pick up three new cheaper 22" monitors at a very low price (Acer Model X223WBD for $99 each) Mixed reviews on Newegg but generally positive even at the price they list. My question is really whether or not this is old tech and something I should pass on considering that while the monitors appear to be a good deal I would still need to buy the Matrox TH2go and probably a new graphics card to replace my long in the tooth 8800GTX. With that said the "upgrade" goes from $300 to closer to $900.I am planning a CPU upgrade once th I9's arrive after the new year for now my OC'd Q9650 will soldier on and I believe by then Nvidia will have a new generation of cards out. I have been looking at ATI's eyefinity tech since multi monitor simming is the direction I want to go but not sure if I want to go that route yet or not either? So I am wondering if it's best to sit tight for now or not. Even if I decide to wait it out I will probably buy a couple of the Monitors I listed above to display my other apps on (Flight sim Commander, ASA, etc) even if they don

RobertRegarding your original post, if you are serious about those monitors and TH2go, you may want to make sure that they work at the odd refresh rate (57 hz) associated with the desired 5040x1050 resolution. (I'm assuming they are native 1680x1050 monitors.) I checked here on the Widescreen gaming forum, and there is a model listed that looks similar on the 'good' list. Dunno. That's a killer price and may be a good stop gap.Interestingly enough, I'm in the same dilemma. I have an aging C2D and 8800GTX that I'm running multiple monitors with.1. Is the i9 going to provide any benefits?2. Is Eyefinity going to have bezel management soon? And I keep seeing complaints with the ATI cards and FSX weather.3. Is nVidia's Fermi worth waiting for?4. Are DisplayPort monitors going to be widely available? And for that matter, ones with thin bezels, or maybe no bezel issue?5. And there's always the TH2go DisplayPort edition...coupled with a Fermi card? Would that be better than the Eyefinity setup?6. Surely SSD drives are bound to get better...and cheaper.If I were to jump today, I'd OC a i7 920, use an SSD HDD (in conjunction with a normal HDD), put in two (independent) GTX285's on a MB supporting 2x PCIe 16x, with TH2goD and 22" monitors for the outside views. I'm sure I'd see an improvement. But with most of the items above likely to be cleared up in the next 6 to 9 months...I suppose I'll just wait. If nothing else, the same items I'd buy today, should be a little less expensive down the road.Let us know what you decide to do, and how you make out. Good luck.Noel W

I ended up taking a more cautious approach for now...I picked up the monitors the price was too good and I read somewhere that once you start multi-monitoring you can never have too many displays? I figured for the price if I didn't like them I could either sell them off or use them as non essential displays for other aps or for viewing charts etc. They're not bad especially when the priice is considered but I am sort of spoiled by my older Samsung 244T.I am not going to shell out the $ for the TH2go, at least not yet. I am going to wait a bit and see how this eyefinity as well as the newer display port TH2go pan out. Noel W is right there are too many unanswered questions that remain. So in the meantime I got a sweat deal on a BFG GTX275 and I am going to install it and wait for the chips to fall on all the new tech coming down the pipe. Once alot of that stuff gets hashed out I'll build a new system around an I9 + Windows 7 64 and use my current machine as a client via FS Wide. For now I'll do as Alex said and just enjoy flying what I have.Robert