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Bullwinkle58 -> RE: OT-CyberPower gaming PCs (6/8/2011 11:07:51 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Sredni
I've been looking around at monitors lately and getting excited about eyefinity (multiple monitors setup as one big display), but the monitor makers annoy the hell out of me. Nobody lists bezel sizes anywhere so it's hard to find info on which monitors might do well in an eyefinity setup, and it's also hard to find monitors with stands that allow them to go portrait mode. And trying to find a monitor that doesn't have the bottom bezel super wide with lights all over that would work well in a portrait eyefinity setup is also impossible.
And apparently there are issues with trying to display normal desktop stuff well in an eyefinity setup. Imagine trying to read a webpage spread across 3 monitors, bleh.
And I guess only ATI does eyefinity. Nvidia seems to have been surprised by the technology and havn't anything equivalent yet to compete so we'll have to wait for their next tech generation before they might.
And what's up with monitor makers and response time? Reading up apparently response times should be listed in BTB (black to black) but half the time the monitor makers list their response time in GTG (grey to grey), and then more still don't bother listing a type at all. 2ms response time... ok, I'm pretty sure that's probably GTG, but who knows! or what about the 7ms or higher listed monitors. If that's BTB then how does it compare to a 2ms GTG. and it it's 7ms gtg then that's terrible.
So obviously there's no real standards or rules enforced for monitor makers when listing their products stats, which means I'm sure most of them are pulling those numbers out of their asses.
sigh. Buying new hardware is as frustrating as it is exciting.
OK, the thread that will not die!
Exciting times at Chez Bull. Fearless Leader is at work on penultimate day with the kids, then "Friday for grading and Teachers Gone Wild post-game meet-up." Moose not invited.
Pieces and parts of the new rig, which I've named "Gus" (no comments Alfred!), are flowing in from all points of the Internets. The monitor just arrived this PM. I had to unpack it to check for hidden damage, right? And to check for dead pixels, right? So I lashed it to this 2003 laptop, loaded the drivers, and fired her up. Simply amazing.
It's an HP, 24-in, LCD, S-IPS-screen, model ZR24w, with a 16:10 ratio and native 1920 x 1200 rez. My research told me that rez and aspect are getting rare in the lower price ranges, but I find that the extra 120 vertical pixels makes a difference to my eyes. Just running from the laptop's old card, no anti-aliasing, filtering, etc., the clarity and color saturation is stunning. With that much real estate at that rez a Word document at 100% and 12-point is extremely easy to read. Going to be fun to do some writing on this baby.
The mount is full ergo--up and down, tilt, twist, and 90 degree rotation to portrait mode. Buttons on botom right, very small, one blue power light button right too, good on-screen menus. Didn't do any color calibration, but there's help for that on the included disc. I don't do pro photos or graphic design, so I probably won't sweat a colorimeter.
Fired up AE after setting the widescreen switches--just wow. Those of you with big monitors for awhile are probably laughing, but it's like a whole new game. I can just barely get the edge of SF on the right and see the tip of PH's inner range ring on the left. Whole freight trains of TFs marching across the Pacific. Can see Timor all the way to Saigon pretty much. Makes planning and visualizing ranges so much easier. The scrolling is clunky with this old horse pulling the plow, but I expect to fly around with Gus.
I did a fair bit of research on monitors in my price range. Came down to this one or the 24-in Dell. It's a bit more modern looking, and got slightly better ratings on the blacks (they look fine to me), but it was $100 more, and I've had to deal with Dell India before, and monitors can be worth a lot of calls to tech services if there are any stuck or broken pixels. (The HP has none.)
I ordered through Amazon from an outfit named HPP Enterprises in Georgia. The order was in their queue when they opened Monday (it's Wednesday afternnon now), I got the shipped e-mail Monday PM, and it arrived FedEx Ground, sig-required, at 1430 today. Lowest price, standard shipping was $17.03, and FedEx beat it by several days. No damage.
Last thing--the response time game. The 2ms you see are almost all (all?) for TN screen technology monitors. It's cheaper, faster, but has big color saturation weaknesses versus IPS, and can have a very narrow viewing angle. On some of those monitors if you go off center just a little the picture is very poor. Mine is rated 6-8 ms, which should be fast enough for old guy eyes, even with shooters. I watched a lot of YouTube videos of various monitors being used, and this class seemed fine for my needs. As I plan to write on it, as well as watch some streaming TV, color saturation was important to me as well as speed.
I've used multiple monitors in a work environment--not eyefinity though--and I personally don't like the experience. I know it's becoming the bragging rights thing with leading edge gamers, but I'm old school. I don't want to have to sit back or swivel my head. If they were seamless it might be different, but I went nVidia, so . . .
Anyone playing AE on an old monitor--a new, bigger, higher rez might be the best single investment you could make to extend the life of your current PC. I'm sorry now I waited so long.
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