I thought putting together a triple monitor setup would be hard — but I did it with three budget monitors and a mini PC

Tom's Guide

5 hours ago

Whether you're putting together a desk setup for work or gaming, the one thing you can't overlook is your monitor or monitors.
Equally as important as the desk that ties everything together, the type and size of your main display is something you're going to want to have in mind throughout the process. Among the best monitors, there are almost too many choices—which is why you want to figure out what works best for you right from the start.
Maybe you prefer a single, high-resolution display, an ultrawide monitor with extra screen space on either side, or perhaps like with me, one monitor just doesn't cut it anymore. Power to you if a single monitor suits your workflow but once you decide to add a second or even a third display, things become increasingly complicated.
After using a single ultrawide monitor for years, I decided to add a smaller, portable monitor underneath it. While that setup still serves me well, I kept wondering what it would be like to try something different, so that's exactly what I did. I started off by testing out a stacked dual monitor setup before giving a more traditional, side-by-side dual monitor setup a chance.
Though there are benefits and downsides to all three of these configurations, there's one that's always eluded me: a triple monitor setup. Since I was a kid, I've wondered what it would be like to have a more cockpit-like workspace where I was surrounded by screens. From the cable management to getting the bezels to line up just right, there's a lot that goes into building a triple monitor setup and I just wasn't ready to take a chance given how easily things could go wrong.
Since starting at Tom's Guide though, I've put together countless desk setups. In fact, I often do a new one every time I review one of the best standing desks or even one of the best office chairs. With years of experience under my belt, I decided it was time to finally tackle a triple monitor setup and after using it for the past two weeks, I absolutely wish I had done so sooner.
Although I wasn't quite ready to put together a triple monitor setup in the past, I constantly thought about how I'd go about it. Sure, you can use any three monitors you have lying around but for a clean desk setup, I knew that picking up three identical monitors at the same time would be the best way to do so.
Fortunately, Philips reached out to me about its new line of V8 Series budget monitors. Starting at just $69 for the 22-inch model and at just over $100 for the 27-inch one, these new displays were the perfect fit for building a triple monitor setup without breaking the bank. Likewise, with a setup like this, you really don't want to spend a lot on each monitor because that kind of defeats the purpose. With a bigger budget, you'd likely be better off going with a single ultrawide or even a super ultrawide monitor instead.
Before Philips sent over the monitors, I checked to make sure that they would be easy to integrate into a triple monitor setup and that all their cords wouldn't overwhelm my cable management tray. You see, oftentimes with cheaper monitors, they use an external power brick as opposed to an internal power supply. This is fine with a single display but when you have three of them on the same desk, you want as little extra bulk as possible.
Another thing I liked about Philips' V8 Series monitors is that they had just the right amount of ports for this project. Sure, I doubt I'll be using their legacy VGA connector but a single HDMI port is all I really need for this particular setup. Don't get me wrong, DisplayPort connectors certainly have their place among the best gaming monitors but when I set out to build a triple monitor setup, gaming was really the last thing on my mind. Surprisingly, this actually ended up being one of my favorite things about this setup but more on that later.
Around back, the 27-inch Philips V8 Series monitor's stand slots in at the bottom between its power connector and its other ports. I gave the included stand a try and set it up just to test it out before working on my triple monitor setup. It works well for the price and I didn't have any complaints even though I wasn't planning on using it in my setup.
Instead, like with my other desk setups, I prefer using the 100 x 100 VESA mounting holes on the back with one of the best monitor arms. Not only does this free up valuable space on your desk but it also makes cable management a lot easier as you'll see shortly.
Even at just over $100, you get quite a few useful features with this monitor. For instance it has a refresh rate of 100Hz, adaptive sync tech inside, a wide 178/178 degree viewing angle and most importantly for my triple monitor setup, minimal bezels on the sides and top of the display.
With all three monitors unboxed and ready to go, it was time to start putting together the desk setup I've been longing to build for years now.
Philips 271V8LB: $109 @ AmazonThis 27-inch, full HD monitor is a great budget pick for work or even some light gaming. It has a 100Hz VA panel with extra wide viewing angles as well as thin bezels and it also features adaptive sync to prevent screen tearing. The included stand does the job well but there are also VESA mounting holes at the back if you'd rather put it on a monitor arm instead.
As I used the 51-inch wide version of the Oakywood Standing Desk Pro for my triple monitor setup, I had to get a bit creative with how I placed my monitor stands. Looking back on it though, using a narrower desk really worked out here as it helped me achieve that cockpit-like look I've always wanted.
Besides being very affordable at just over $30 a pop, I love how little space these monitor stands take up on my desk. Plus, they have built-in cable clips at the back to make running the power cords and HDMI cables up to each monitor very simple while also giving things a cleaner look.
I have to admit, it did take some back and forth to get these stands positioned correctly. The one for the monitor in the middle was easy but I spent some time fine-tuning the positions of the ones on the left and right side of the desk. There's also a slight gap between the monitors on the sides and the one in the middle. However, when everything is powered on and you're sat in front of this triple monitor setup, you barely notice it.
With the monitors in place, I had to decide on the computer I was going to use to power my triple monitor setup. As I challenged myself to only use the HDMI cables that came in the box of the Philips V8 Series monitors, I was going to need a PC with three HDMI ports which is harder to come by than you might think these days. Since I also review the best mini PCs, I have quite a few on hand at all times. However, many of them like the Asus NUC 14 Pro, the MSI Cubi NUC or the Geekom A6 just have two HDMI ports. They all support up to four displays though this would require me to use a mix of HDMI cables and USB-C or Thunderbolt ones. That's when I remembered that there's an accessory for my favorite pocketable mini PC that will absolutely do the trick.
The Khadas Mind is one of the coolest mini PCs I've tried yet for several reasons. It's small enough to fit in your pocket, has full-sized USB ports and an HDMI port, can be powered using a GaN charger instead of a bulky power adapter and you can magnetically attach it to two different Mind docks depending on your needs. For my triple monitor setup, I decided to go with the standard Mind Dock instead of the much bigger and more powerful Mind Graphics Dock with a dedicated graphics card.
At $179, the Mind Dock is certainly more expensive than your typical laptop dock. However, it's packed with ports and features. Up front, I have an easily accessible SD card slot, a headphone jack and a USB-A port in addition to a volume knob on the right and a fingerprint reader on the left. Around back, there's a USB-C port for power, two USB-A ports, a 2.5 gigabit Ethernet port and most importantly for this setup, two HDMI ports. With the full-size HDMI port on the back of the upgraded Khadas Mind 2S I'm currently testing out, I now had three HDMI ports for my triple monitor setup.
To give you an idea of why I wanted as few cables as possible, here's a shot of my triple monitor setup from the back with everything connected. The Khadas Mind is right underneath the middle monitor and to hide the four cables going to it, I put a desk shelf over it.
For some extra light on the desk itself, I have the BenQ Screenbar Halo on top of the middle monitor as well. I first tried out a monitor light bar last year and since then, I've tried to incorporate one into all of my desk setups. The BenQ Screenbar Halo is by far the best and most premium one I've tested yet though.
To keep the cables from the monitors on the left and right tidy, I actually added a few screw hooks on the edges and the backside of the desk. I normally wouldn't want to add any extra holes to a desk as beautiful as the Oakywood Standing Desk Pro but for this setup, I kind of had to.
Now that I had everything hooked up in place, it was time to take my newly built triple monitor setup for a spin.
As I technically use three displays at my main desk setup (two Chrome windows side by side on the ultrawide, another on the portable monitor), I was immediately at home at my new triple monitor setup. It did take a few hours to get used to but once I figured out the best configuration for my workflow, using this new desk setup became almost second nature.
For the most part, I have Gmail open on the left, Slack open on the right and Google Docs open on the monitor in the middle. Since window snapping in Windows 11 doesn't make it intuitive to have two browser windows side by side with multiple monitors, I tend to have whatever service I'm currently using in a full-sized window.
I bet some of the people reading this are wondering if using a triple monitor setup like this hurts my neck. Honestly, no it doesn't and that's because instead of turning my head each time I want to look at something on either of the monitors on the side, I just use my eyes or my peripheral vision if I want to check if an email or message has come through.
No good desk setup is complete without an office chair to go with it and at the moment, I'm currently using the Herman Miller Vantum gaming chair with this one. When I do need to really look at something on one of the monitors on the side, I've started turning my chair to do so instead of my neck.
There was one thing that threw me off at first about having a triple monitor setup and that was finding a nice wallpaper for my desktop. With three 1080p displays that each have a resolution of 1920x1080, if I wanted my background to look natural across all three monitors (without being stretched or tiled) I needed a picture with a resolution of 5760 x 1080.
You can easily find plenty of wallpapers online for dual-monitor setups but ones for triple monitor setups at this resolution are few and far between. Thankfully, I remembered that I recently bought Wallpaper Engine on Steam while testing out my first QD-OLED monitor as I wanted an animated background to prevent screen burn-in. Wallpaper Engine did the trick and that's where I found the multi-colored wallpaper you can see in some of the photos above.
With my wallpaper squared away and a browser window configuration that suited my workflow, I decided to boot up a few of the best Steam games and see what they would look like on my triple monitor setup. At first, I just used the middle monitor to play some less demanding and older games as I was using a mini PC without a dedicated graphics card to power this setup.
Curiosity got the better of me though and I started looking into ways to combine all three monitors into one big display. People online recommended Nvidia Surround but that wouldn't work as I didn't have a Nvidia graphics card in this system. Instead, the Khadas Mind 2S has an integrated GPU or iGPU from Intel and a very capable one at that. In fact, the whole system is a real power house with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor, 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM, a 2TB SSD and most importantly, Intel Arc 140T graphics.
To that end, I downloaded the Intel Graphics Software app and started poking around as maybe there was a way to combine my three displays into one there. It took a bit of digging but I finally found it. In the app's Display menu, you can tweak the settings for each individual monitor or combine multiple monitors into one large display. This is exactly what I was looking for, so I loaded up some older titles on Steam as I didn't want to push the Khadas Mind 2S too hard.
I started simple with Half-Life 2 as I knew the Mind 2S would be able to run it across three displays without any issues. From there, I installed Portal 2 and played through a few of the game's first tests. Since everything was working quite well, I decided to take things slightly up a notch by trying out Bioshock Infinite.
Making my way through the early parts of the game's floating city of Columbia was quite the experience and something I never imagined I'd do on a triple monitor setup back when I first played it in 2013. Everything ran great and the adaptive sync feature on the Philips V8 Series monitors meant that I didn't have to worry about screen tearing at all.
Now with a few slower-paced games out of the way, it was time to see if a racing game would run on my triple monitor setup. Besides productivity, sim racing rigs often incorporate three displays for extra immersion and though I didn't set out to build one, I've always wanted to see what having one in my home would be like. To that end, I decided to download Dirt Rally as like with the other games I began my testing with, they're all at least a decade old and I figured they'd have the best chance of running well on the Mind 2S' iGPU.
It's the kind of thing you have to see in person to fully take in but wow, playing Dirt Rally on my triple monitor setup was enough to almost convince me to build a dedicated sim racing rig next. Driving around in first-person view with the wheel and dashboard visible was super cool but for the sake of my son, I switched to third-person so he could see the car in action.
I honestly didn't set out to build a triple monitor setup for gaming but thanks to all that extra power in the Mind 2S, I was able to play a lot more titles than I expected, even without a dedicated graphics card. One that really stood out to me in terms of sheer fun was booting up Rocket League and having a full view of the pitch in my peripheral vision. I plan on trying out a few more games before I break this desk setup down and move onto the next one though.
So should you pick up a trio of budget monitors and build your own triple monitor setup? Well, that really depends on a few things. If you want the most screen real estate for your buck, then yes. However, if having a slight gap between full-screen apps or games across all three monitors bothers you, then probably not.
Another big thing to consider is how much space you have in your home office or game room. A triple monitor setup like this is a lot wider and bulkier than your typical desk setup, so that's definitely something to keep in mind if space is at a premium. You also aren't able to break down something like this as easily as you would with a traditional desk setup.
Cable management is another factor to consider. If you don't mind taking the time to neatly tuck all of the cables for a triple monitor setup out of the way, then I'd say go for it. However, if you're the type of person that plans to eventually get around to managing all your cables, then you're going to have a mess of wires going every which way.
Like your desk and the monitors themselves, cable management is something you want to keep in mind from the beginning when building a triple monitor setup. If you don't, it's going to be a lot harder to achieve the clean look you likely had in mind at the outset of a project like this one.
If you like the look of this desk setup but prefer using one of the best laptops over a mini PC or a desktop, there is another option. With a laptop screen extender like the one I tried out from Siavala last summer, you get the benefits of having three displays without the bulk. Plus, since you are using a laptop, you can bring your triple monitor setup with you. I did get a few odd looks in the coffee shop when trying out that laptop screen extender but I was pleasantly surprised by just how easy it was to get everything set up and put back into my bag when it was time to go.
I plan on keeping this triple monitor setup in my office for at least another few weeks as I've become quite fond of how it looks and working on it has really given my productivity a boost. After I do break it down, what kind of desk setup would you like to see me put together next? Let me know in the comments below and stay tuned as after this triple monitor setup, I think I'm ready for anything.