I'm sure Chris from Obutto, Joe Keefe, and others will drop by soon to totally disagree saying the immersion offsets any benefit of running sidebar apps and performance, but like I said, 2 cents.
Well, it is primarily a question of what you are trying to accomplish. Doug, for you you sit in this thing and do more server administration than gaming during an rFactor session. So for that, a primary/secondary monitor configuration is great. I know you also sit there and game, and for that I do think three monitors are preferable. Yeah, it takes more resources, but you can still do it with a mid-range GPU. I am willing to turn down settings if it means getting useable framerates on three monitors, because I feel that the tradeoff is worth it.
The best of both worlds (and the solution that costs the most money and takes up the most space) is to have three monitors for the primary app plus a fourth monitor that serves as the utility monitor.
