My New Eight-Display Workstation with 4K and UltraWide Monitors

I added a 49" 32:9 Ultrawide HDR Display, and two 4K 32" Ergo Monitors.

In May 2020, I updated my workstation. At the time, I added a mini-monitor, right behind my camera, to serve as a teleprompter during Zoom sessions. This month, I upgraded my workstation again.

First, I replaced two 24" HD monitors with a single 49" 4K Ultrawide HDR Display. I can configure it to fit two windows, three windows, four windows, or six windows. I prefer two. This configuration lets me comfortably fit two full browsers. This LG model is curved. The curve also lets me line up the other displays without any gaps. The workstation looks like a continuous display. The display is stunning. The picture does not do it justice.  It illuminates the entire desk. Indeed, I noticed that it was casting a hue on my face during Zoom calls, so I had to change the background to a neutral color.

I also added two LG Ultrafine Ergo 4K HDR Monitors. These 32" inch units can rotate up to 180 degrees--perfect for portrait mode. And they clamp right to a desktop surface. There is no need for any bulky hardware.

My mini-monitor, which I use for Zoom calls, overlaps slightly with the Ultrawide monitor. It is a bit of a nuisance, but there is no way to make the Ultrawide higher, or the mini-monitor lower.

So far, I've really enjoyed this new workstation. The difference between an HD display and a 4K display is significant. The text is much crisper, and easier to read.

These displays should carry me through my next few book projects.

You can see the evolution of my workstations below the jump.

May 2020

December 2016

December 2015

April 2014

December 2012

August 2012

June 2010

Comments

[steve sturm]

You win. Yours makes my 3x28" monitors look rather lame.

[DaivdBehar]

Monitors are for your enjoyment. I am interested in studio quality cameras for the enjoyment of others.

[DaivdBehar]

If this is a recent picture, it is also time for the Samsung S21+

https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-s21-5g/

[DaivdBehar]

Josh also found a good use for his law books.

[John F. Carr]

A long, long time ago I impressed, or at least caught the attention of, some people at work by having four monitors on a workstation. Having more than one was very unusual back then. The most expensive was a megapixel of 8 bit color. That was when we were transitioning from black and white to color CRTs, and black and white had better image quality. Due to hardware limitations I had to have four different types of graphics cards and four different types of monitor.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I had a somewhat lesser situation. Two processors, each with a dumb tube. Early 1980s. One processor was seldom used. The other processor was the workhorse, but its dumb tube was seldom used. It happened one day that I was actually using all four for a short while, and at one point, just as the president was walking through (about 100 employees), I was right in the middle of typing something on all four keyboards, one after another. Ten seconds before, I was watching. Ten seconds later, I was watching. But in between ... what timing! The president was amazed, and had a good laugh when I explained the timing.

[James Pollock]

"A long, long time ago I impressed, or at least caught the attention of, some people at work by having four monitors on a workstation."

Way back in the olden times, we built such a beast using 15" CRT monitors. Then we set messages scrolling across the line of them. That was using win 9x.

In early '95, I was working in the video drivers group at Intel. We had a ginormous CRT monitor, around 3' deep, that one of the engineers put on the computer on his desk. You couldn't really sit in his cubicle and use the monitor, so we'd usually be out in the aisle when we needed to test a driver at the highest resolutions (1600x1200, as I recall). Across the major aisleway was the team developing the PC version of Sonic CD, so we got really used to the sound effect of Sonic collecting a ring. Years later I worked at Intel again, this time in the Demo Depot, which has all kinds of cool goodies that they use at tradeshows. They had one like 60" touchscreen monitor. A lot of games that normally use mouse input play really differently when you're using touchscreen input instead, on a giant screen.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"It illuminates the entire desk. Indeed, I noticed that it was casting a hue on my face during Zoom calls, so I had to change the background to a neutral color."

Not good.

First, Physics 101: Light is electromagnetic radiation within a set of wavelengths (i.e. "visible spectrum") which correspond to certain colors -- red has a longer wavelength than violet. Wavelength = color, although you can have a mix of multiple wavelengths and hence colors.

The human eye evolved to use sunlight, which (other than at sunrise/sunset) is an equal mixture of all colors (think rainbow).

The problem with a LED screen is that it is *not* a mix of colors and should *not* be the source of room illumination. Doing so can cause eye strain and -- depending on who you talk to -- can cause serious eye damage over time.

[James Pollock]

"The problem with a LED screen is that it is *not* a mix of colors"

Depends on how the backlight works.

[nstvm]

For background lighting, there are products like NanoLeaf (https://nanoleaf.me/en-US/products/nanoleaf-shapes/) and various competitors in this space that can be used to create a very aesthetic atmosphere and also provides a nice mix of colors etc.

They tend to be a bit overpriced IMHO, but (relative) price is a matter of perspective on RoI. There is a market for it and lots of people love these things. Those who use these tend to have wonderful looking ambiance and speak well of them.

[Davedave]

How on earth do you come up with this twaddle?

"sunlight, which (other than at sunrise/sunset) is an equal mixture of all colors"

It isn't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffuse_sky_radiation

"Doing so can cause eye strain and — depending on who you talk to — can cause serious eye damage over time."

It doesn't cause eye strain. If the people you talk to can turn eye strain into serious eye damage over time, I suggest not talking to them.

[Krayt]

Anyway I've found a simple table lamp behind the monitor to light the rest of the room eases eye strain so your eyes aren't fighting constantly to adjust to the monitor brightness and rest of room darkness.

Looks like he's got that. I might rotate the whole thing 90 degrees so the monitors aren't blocking the window, so I could more wistfully look out the window, imagining sitting under a tree with a Pushup in hand and a little blue racecar in the other.

[Brett Bellmore]

Some of the modern LEDs produce UV which is then converted to white light in the same manner as with fluorescent lighting. These ones have a mix of wavelengths.

But I would not expect trichromatic light to cause eye strain or especially damage. I can't offhand think of any plausible mechanism. Where you do get eyestrain from LEDs is from flicker; If the LEDs are actually flashing instead of continuously illuminated, this can be perceptible, especially with peripheral vision.

[pjm18]

I am surprised that your laptop's GPU is able to drive that many monitors. If you were to combine all the monitors sizes together It would be about a 16k monitor. I use a 4k monitor on my desktop for programming.

[jdgalt1]

Why not paper the entire room with LCD screens and have done? ;-D

[Robert Efroymson]

Yet you are still using your laptop keyboard? There are so many good ones available!

Anything that uses Cherry switches would be a huge upgrade, though I understand preferences vary.

[ThanksForTheFish]

When I realized that working from home was going to be more than just a few weeks thing, I went out and bought a Logitech 513 Carbon. I like clicky and there is something emotionally satisfying about mechanical switches. Made all the difference from the previous keyboard/mouse combo cheapo I had before.

[The Turtle Dove]

You know there's some science on this. Above a certain threshold of monitor size, the user begins to respond somatically, as if to another person (even absent a mimetic image onscreen). It depends on what you're using the setup for, I imagine -- it cuts against dispassionate and detached encounter, but it probably elicits a more personable self-presentation to the audience.

Mr. D.

[James Pollock]

If you're broadcasting to a class, and the students are sending back images the monitor is subdivided about 100 ways.

[The Turtle Dove]

Right, but the monitor size is the issue, not the mimetic image(s). The body is physically responding to the mediating object, not to the representation. Word-processing and Pong have the same effect.

Mr. D.

[Noscitur a sociis]

The tissue box...

[JohnnyAppleseed]

Why would you block off the only light source in your office? Might as well work in a closet or bathroom. Would be the same energy.

[JohnnyAppleseed]

natural* light source

[James Pollock]

Tech porn? Really?

[John F. Carr]

Oh yeah baby, give me every megapixel and make it hurt.

[TWW]

This makes my brain hurt.

[nstvm]

Prof. Blackman, One of the responders to your tweet about about this blog-post was on the point IMHO.

"you over-indexed on monitors and under-indexed on keyboard"
https://twitter.com/kenberman/status/1395394567738957828?s=20

As an educator and a blogger with a very wide-reach, I think at least some of your readers might try to emulate you. I'm not suggesting that you should try to change your own behavior, but please consider adding a couple of PSA's.

An ergonomic keyboard and mouse (anything from Logi or Microsoft, or specialized options) would do users a great deal of good. But regular keyboards, laptops-as-keyboards etc. actively harm users over time unfortunately.

Monitors #1, #2 (esp. #1) _seem_ a bit too low. I can't be sure since I'm not there - but I'm guessing from the photo; apologies if I'm wrong about this. The usual recommendation is to stay within +/- 15 degrees of the viewing/gaze angle to prevent neck problems over time.

Without the benefit of a good _rolling_ chair and a keyboard that moves along (i.e., repositions well), monitors #3, #8 are also seem problematic - it looks as if they'd require significant neck/torso twisting for routine use.

I realize that individual users sometimes are far less prone to RSI's than others. And sometimes one may have personal habits that happens to under-emphasize/minimize usage patterns that are injurious (for e.g., infrequent use of #3, #8 etc.). Nevertheless, my reflexive response to this setup was "that's awesome - wow!" followed by thoughts like "Wait a minute, there's a reason _I_ don't have this. Every time I've tried to expand my setup along these lines, something hurt and I had to back off".

Also, friends please get a good ergonomic chair. It doesn't have to be an HM Aeron, but whatever works for you even if that's from Ikea or Amazon; it's as important as a monitor or a keyboard.

[Nuke the cane]

Isn't that the kind of rig that got Toobin in trouble?

[Earnest]

TIL it takes 10 monitors, one laptop's CPU, and a box of tissues to produce post after post of bland obeisance to the republican party and post-rationalization mental-gymnastic paeans to Trump.

[ThanksForTheFish]

TIL- some brain dead fuckwad always has to make it about politics and Trump and ruin a good time. Way to kill the vibe captain bringdown.

[MatthewSlyfield]

1. WHY?

2. I hope you use lots of sunblock. 🙂

[Lootarass]

Waste of money…… could have just bought 2 or 3 big screen TVs and divided the space up on them. Orrrrrrrrr……. Do what the rest of the world does…. ALT+TAB

Evidence that some people have money they don’t have any clue what to do with lol. So let’s just waste it. If you were gonna get 8 dam monitors, why wouldn’t you just get a stand that holds 8 monitors???? Newb setup IMO

[3ducerist]

The two monitors on the right, clamped to that top: They're going to warp or break it quickly. And if it breaks they're going to fall and break or hurt you.

I recommend a top that's at least twice as thick as that 3/4 covered particle board they're on. A local woodworker can make you a nice solid wood stand that will hold them easily and without issue. I'd even recommend up to 2" of top to hold them stable.

[Brett Bellmore]

I realize you're trying for this effect, but your paint scheme and that window are really spoiling it.

[John F. Carr]

Please, Josh, give at least one lecture in the costume.

[Shadowy Agent]

I wonder if his GPU is struggling with 3 4k monitors

[Shadowy Agent]

Wait I only count 7 monitors. Am I missing something?

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