Arcade build tips: monitor, stand

teufelskrapfen

Hi,

I've build a Bartop Arcade case a while ago with GPIO arcade buttons and joystick, monitor and arcade casing and all the bangs and whistles...

The good thing about my first approach is that it looks very nice, but its not very versatile and not easy to manage (especially when the GPIO cords come off inside the case...) and I came to notice some shortcomings over the past few months which I want to overcome with my 2nd build.

My goal is to get the whole set up lighter and easier to manage. I don't care about the optics so much this time around.

This is what I have in mind:

get a 4:3 TFT that is thin and light with VESA mount
get a monitor stand for the TFT that is also very light, on which the monitor can be rotated. I don't need to have the monitor be hidden inside a cabinet as is common for bartops.
The foot of the stand will be encased in a Box on the bottom where I will also place the Raspberry Pi inside... not sure about the material yet, but probably lightweight wood. I can probably build a case like this myself.
Instead of the hassle with GPIO buttons and joysticks, I would rather go with 2x Hori Fighting Stick Mini that will be attached to the Box somehow.

My questions to you would be:

what lightweight and thin 4:3 monitor can you recommend?
what lightweight monitor stand, that can be rotated, can you recommend? It would be nice if it was possible to pull the cables through the stand pipe so that they come out at the foot
any ideas for an Arcade joystick like the Hori Fighting Stick Mini?

Thanks and best
Gregor

Dipkid

This post is deleted!

rkoster

A common recommendation over at the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum are the Dell monitors. They come with great stands that support rotating, and are among the best resolutions you can get in a non-widescreen.

There are two sizes people commonly use, the 20.1" Dell Ultrasharp 2007fp -- I saw one in a thrift shop yesterday for $30 -- and there's a smaller one, which i also saw in a thrift shop yesterday for a whopping $3, though it had a scratched screen, with variety of model numbers -- Dell P1914S, P1917S, etc. The 20" is 1600x1200. The 19" is 1280x1024.

They aren't really light though.

rkoster

I should add, in case you don't know:

There mostly aren't new 4:3 panels being made, and they're not for the consumer market. Hence my suggestion of a decade-old model that won't be that thin and light. New 4:3 monitors are mostly aimed specifically at the medical market and cost quite a lot more than a regular monitor for a PC.

Another popular choice is to just go with a rotatable widescreen, and use the extra space for overlays, marquees, etc.

teufelskrapfen

Thanks and sorry for my late reply, was a crazy week so far...

I think your suggestion using a widescreeen and overlays is a good call, though I could potentially go with a 5:4 monitor... I just want it to be as lightweight as possible ... had a look through some of the available monitors but was hoping someone already had the same endeavour and could reccommend the lightest monitor. The Dell you mentioned i.e. is about 6.9 kilograms in weight, and I saw some monitors weighing around 2-3 kilograms ... was wondering if there are even lighter ones :)

rkoster

Mostly not at 4:3 or 5:4, as I said, because they haven't been manufactured in bulk in almost a decade. It is actively hard to find a brand new 4:3 or 5:4 LCD panel. 99% of new monitors are 16:9 or 16:10.