Rory's Christmas Shopping: Widescreen on steroids

By Rory Reid on 13 December 2005, 4:40pm

Last time out, I blew a substantial portion of my virtual Christmas wad building a PC that was cheaper and faster than an Xbox 360. It's probably not the wisest way I could have spent my virtual cash (I already own several PCs) -- but my insatiable urge to prove a point simply got the better of me.

Never one to learn from my mistakes, I'm going to blow an even bigger portion of my remaining cash buying eight units of exactly the same thing. No, I'm not crazy -- I simply want one of the most obscene multi-monitor set-ups money can buy.

Perusing kelkoo.co.uk for a cheap, branded 19-inch panel, I stumbled across the BenQ FP931, which costs £190.35 including delivery from qed-uk.com. But I couldn't stop there. Eight monitors clumped side by side isn't stylish enough for me. I needed to go one better.

For this, I visited the online premises of Wedgwood IT group, peddlers of monitor stands that hold two or more LCD screens. I had intended to be careful with my spending, but after seeing the ridiculously sexy Vision Tree VT8 4x2 touchscreen stand, I couldn't help myself. It costs a whopping £1,169, but it'll hold eight LCD monitors in a four-by-two horizontal orientation, and the best part is -- it'll fit on any ordinary desk.

The total package costs £2,692, but the mating of the BenQ FP931 and the VT8 is as natural as breathing smog in London. The end result is a combined resolution of 5,120x2,048 pixels, which I think you'll agree gives new meaning to the term 'widescreen'. -Rory Reid

Rory has bought these items:
VT8 4x2 touchscreen stand
8x BenQ FP931 19-inch TFT
Nvidia Geforce 7800 GTX 512MB graphics card
Asus A8V-E SE motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ CPU
512MB DDR SD-RAM
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 60GB hard drive
LG GCC-4521BB 52x32x52x16 CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
Belinea 102005 20.1-inch TFT screen
Ebuyer Extra Value MG-415 ATX Middle Tower Case
Call of Duty 2 (PC/DVD)
Ezkey Black Office Keyboard and 3 Button Value Mouse

He has £1,154 left to spend before Christmas Day. Click here to find out more about Crave's virtual Christmas shopping spree.