Love the setup. I’ve got the same arm holding a Samsung 225BW. I’ve been debating buying another one for my old 17in Samsung screen but can’t justify the price. However the amount of desk-space these things save is awesome.
Wow… I’d been thinking about LCD arms for the past 2 years, but had been put off by relatively high prices at lcdarms.com and other websites (plus expensive international shipping). This post just renewed my interest in them again - going to do some shopping around soon.
Jeff,
Where did you get that lamp? I think this was asked repeatedly in the comments for the “five things you don’t know…” post, but was never answered!
Hey Now Jeff,
Your workstation looks even better now. I just noticed you don’t have a mouse wrist rest/pad. I really like to use them I’m curious why you don’t prefer them. The arms look really good.
Coding Horror Fan,
Catto
Disclaimer - Lazyweb post.
With a 3 monitor setup, is it possible to have a dual monitor configuration with the 3rd monitor (or wide-screen tv in this instance) detatched for running things like full screen movies simultaneously?
So in a nutshell - a virtual monitor consisting of 2 physical monitors, and a separate monitor capable of fullscreen mode. I have searched and searched for answers and software.
Jeff, you seem to be quite familiar with software that increases usability, have you come across anything that would make this feasable?
Jeff,
A while ago I bought a fairly cheap monitor arm (http://www.mosolid.com.tw/product.php?mode=showcid=74pid=45) for my 20" widescreen Dell but I have ended up going back to the original stand. Just wondering if your arms (as the in LCD ones :-P) suffer from any of the problems I had:
- The upright flexes left and right even when securely fastened to the desk (I even tried screwing it to the wall with 3" screws)
- when fully extended to the left or right the screen is no longer level as the weight of the monitor flexes the pivot joints.
- Moving the screen a lot (as you do when you first get it set up) causes the pivot joints to become loose and don’t hold the screen in position.
Some photos of the LCD arm I have:
http://djedmunds.steamerlanding.com/photos/d/577-4/000_0099.jpg
http://djedmunds.steamerlanding.com/photos/d/592-4/000_0101.jpg
Thanks for blogging, I appreciate it
Doug from Australia
The nice thing is, with that many monitors arranged like that, there’s typically a focal point where you can set a bag of microwave popcorn and have it pop. Sitting at that point is not recommended.
but do your SyncMasters have a background music that you can hear if you turn the volume up?
Electrical noise (eg, coil whine or buzz) is usually only audible at extremely low sound levels, but it is present in most electronics. In this case, it seems your sound card is picking up and amplifying that electrical noise. Electrical noise is very difficult to “fix”, so I recommend fixing the amplification problem. Have you tried different sound cards, or relying on external USB sound solutions?
Just wondering if your arms (as the in LCD ones :-P) suffer from any of the problems I had
No, I don’t think so, at least not in the week I’ve used them. The Ergotron LX arms are quite solid for me.
to get two arms, do you just buy two whole arm sets
They sell a dual LX, as well as arm extensions and laptop platforms:
http://www.provantage.com/scripts/search.dll?SEC=@ERGTQUERY=ergotron+lx
Where did you get that lamp?
It’s not very exotic… it’s an inexpensive flourescent desk lamp I picked up from Home Depot around 2003. It’s an unusually nice design for Home Depot, though. If I was buying today, I’d go with one of the Koncept LED desk lamps:
@Rah: If by detached, you include a 15 ft dvi cable (or 30 ft s-video cable if you’re just watching movies) then yes, by all means. Most (all?) video card drivers allow you to set one screen as the full-screen device. You will probably need two graphics cards (but then you can have three monitors + tv = awesome 
Jeff: sweet setup! At work I have a 24" and a 19" in portrait mode, which makes them very close in vertical size and resolution.
– bjorn
Dear Jeff.
First thanks for such a great blog, your an inspiration to us all.
I’m a long time reader but it still maybe a lot to ask. what happened to your image hosting with amazon S3? i see you switched to flickr? i dont really care about your choice but unfortunately my office blocks all these image hosting sites and i cant really enjoy your blog as much.
I wonder if other readers have the same problem as me.
Dear Jeff
I understand this is off topic slightly but do your SyncMasters have a background music that you can hear if you turn the volume up?
My SyncMaster 225MW plays strange music in the background and every time there is no sound playing you can hear it, Its a pain and I can find no reason for it or how to fix it.
I’d appreciate any help any one can offer.
hi there, i have a ergoton 3 screen monitor stand and they are awesome! mine has a single base which sits flat on the desk, uses up a little desk space but overall i gain from loosing the other bases. i have pictures of the setup on my facebook. now im using the ergotron stand (160), 3 X 19" LCD monitors (150 each) and a triplehead2go unit (160) so the lot is worth around 770 for the setup, i got the whole lot in eaby for 450! bargin! anyway the triplehead2go unit from Matrox is awesome and can be used with a single graphics output as it basically emulates a massive monitor! 3864 X 1024 i think is the res, then it splits it accross your 3 screens. this means i could attach this to any computer and it would work. the great thing is you can play games accross all 3 monitors and not just the center one. for work purposes its awesome, i orginally thought the problem i would have would be when i maximise a program it will span accross all three, but no it doesnt! it maximises to the monitor the application is most on, this is due to a handy little app that matrox provide with the triplehead2go unit.
these some links to the units pages
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/jp/gxm/products/th2go/gaming/list.php
its awesome for world of warcraft
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/jp/gxm/products/th2go/gaming/wow.php
a 19" in portrait mode
Be careful with portrait mode (eg, rotated monitors) because that changes the RGB element alignment of the display, and that in turn breaks any fancy RGB rendering techniques-- such as ClearType.
No OS supports changing RGB rendering strategies per-monitor that I know of… and even if it did, a 3X apparent increase in vertical resolution is nowhere near as effective as the 3X apparent increase in horizontal resolution you get with standard RGB element alignments.
I suppose you can switch back to plain old greyscale font rendering, but ClearType is awfully nice.
Thats the thing its not static, the monitor/tv itself actually makes the Music! it like elevator music just playing low in the background, it gets really annoying :X Thanks for your suggestions though.
One other big benefit of monitor arms like this is the fact that if you’re tall, you can get a longer pole and position your monitors at eye level height, rather than having to peer down at them with normal stands.
I’m 6’5" and have the ergotron twin arm setup at work with a (I think) 70cm pole and it’s been a great improvement.
Of course the ideal would be a height adjustable desk but I haven’t been able to get one of those yet.
Where are your images hosted today Jeff? I can’t see them at work which means the site that hosts the images are blocked for me. 
I’ve had 2 of these monitor arms for a year now and frankly, I can’t imagine a desk without them. THEY ROCK. Note: I PAID full price for my monitor arms, so I’m less biased and equally enthusiastic.
Oh, and if you want to make your setup more awesome, get thee to your local IKEA. Grab some velcro cable straps ( the arm’s one weakness is their cable runs don’t hold very well - the velco straps are better than duct tape!) and a box of the white LCD strip lights. You use the mounting clips and double sided sticky tape and mount 3 or 4 of the lights in a rectangluar array under the monitor that sits over your keyboard and you have the SINGLE best dark office desk/keyboard light you’ve ever dreamed of. It is a pure white, very soft light with low illumination, but still plenty bright to see the keyboard and anything right nearby. Cable strap the power switch to the arm and you can reach behind and flip it on and off at will. Truely awesome! ( http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50119407 )
I’ll post pics if anyone is interested (once I clean my desk)
Damn your desk looks nice!
Other people also post pictures of your desks, im getting a new table for my pc and I will post pictures.
Xepol, post picture.
I wonder exactly how many sales this one blog will generate. I just ordered one for my boss. I’m sure I will order one for everyone else in the office. ( All 5 of us )
Thanks almighty blogger.