Tiggs

Want twin screens so i can do twice as much work!

couple of questions before i order....budget is £180 each. are they all pretty much the same at that lower price bracket?

aria.co.uk do a pixel check for £20...worth it? do they often have dead pixels?

do i want DVI? or not too important? seems if i get a low refresh rate i loose dv...which is more important?

few im looking at

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.a...SubCat=MON-T19

cheap for the dell?

http://www.mcscom.co.uk/product.php?xProd=1931&xSec=1

cheapest viewsonic with dvi

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...ufacturer_id=0

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Okay. First off, Dead Pixels are suually covered by the manufacturers warranty. If you look around further then this should be covered. £20 is a waste of money IMHO.

The Dell doesn't menion how quick it's response time is. The other 2 do (8ms). The less the ms number the faster the screen will work, especially if playing fast paced computer games this is essential, or you will noticed blurred images when moving a character in FPS games.

I currently have a LG 1710B 17" TFT monitor (had this for over 2 years now) with a 16ms response time, which I used to use for gaming, and it wasn't too bad. Now I just use it for Surfing the web etc.. But I have this connected up via the DVI connector. IMHO gives a sharper and crisper image. Tried the VGA lead and connector and noticed the image wasn't as sharp. And some instances a bit blurry.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Here is some info about the new 19" TFTs:

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/03/27...collection_uk/

Tiggs

so sounds like i need 8ms and dv is possivble then.

Tiggs

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...6279&pc=kelkoo

looking like this is the one then.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

looks good.

Tiggs

jpor....thanks for your help!

all ordered...i'll stick up a pick of it next weekend when its all here

hope it will write my reports for me faster

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Forget mention. Does the monitor come with a DVI cable? Not all manufacturers supply these. The LG Monitor I have had both cables supplied (VGA & DVI). Worth checking. As DVI cables are expensive (around £20 each!).

Tiggs

dont think so but i can "get" leads via my brother....i assume it will be a whole lot better with a dvi cable?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Had a re-look at the graphics card on your PC spec. The 6600gt has 1xDVI and 1xVGA Output. Looks like you'll be best in the meantime to run 2 x VGA (1 for each monitor) Hopefully the Graphics card should come with a DVI-VGA adapter (They normally do).

So not too much of an issue.

Tiggs

quick question.......the two screens below are similar price yet one is widescreen.....does that make it the better choice or is there more to it than that?

ViewSonic ViewSonic
Model 19" ViewSonic VA1912w 19" ViewSonic VA912
Price ex VAT £ 172.97 £ 168.45
Display Type LCD LCD
Screen Type TFT TFT
Screen Size 19 inches 19 inches
Viewable Area 19 inches 19 inches
Width 451mm 424mm
Depth 197mm 186mm
Height 391mm 442mm
Weight 4.5 kg 5.5 kg
Compatibility PC & Mac PC & Mac
Native Resolution 1440x900 1280x1024
Brightness 300cd/m2 250cd/m2
Contrast 500:1 600:1
Response Time 8ms 8ms
Colours 16.2M 16.2M

Interface 15-pin , DVI-D 15-pin , DVI-D
Power Usage 32W Max 60W Max
Speakers Yes Yes

Tiggs

should i upgarde the card or is the vga ok?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

The VGA should be okay. But I have noticed your having an SLI rig. With 1 card. You could always buy a second 6600GT. then you will have 2xDVI outputs. But remeber your TFT monitors may not have the DVI leads. so another 2x£30 on the price.

Tiggs

so....

i either have 2 x dvi at the cost of leads and another card or

i use vga for both

how much better is dvi???

and is the SLI rig something that "should" have twin cards? am i wasting it by only having one?

(and what about the widescreen q above )

jpor

iTrader: (1)

DVi is the equivelant of having High Definition television on a computer monitor.

2 cards if you want to play some serious games. 1 card is good enough for gaming. Although you may notice one screen sharper than the other if using 1 x DVI 1 x VGA. You're call.

Tiggs

so i can run one on DVI and one on VGA and see if the DVi is THAT much better......if it is it means twin cards?

if its not much better i either leave them as it is (maybe use the DVI on the primary screen for games) or go VGA on both so they match?

sound ok?

what about the widesceen in my earleir post? worth an extra £10 for the wide one?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Yes.

Yes. But if playing games, then you do realise the 6600GT is not a top of the range SLI card anymore.
These are:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/7900_Series.html

And they have 2x DVI connectors.


Yes.

Makes no odds. Will you be watching a lot of DVD films? If so maybe worth it.
Not sure if it makes playing games or surfing the web any better. Besides you're having 2 TFTs. Apart from taking up more space, I don't think an extra £10 is worth it.

Tiggs

interestingly....it seems another 6600GT would be far cheaper than replacing the 6600 with a single 7900.

that would give me the dual DVI but would it be a bit cack compared to a 7900 (bear in mind my current graphics is errrr.....i dont even know if i have one!!!!)

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Or 2x 7900 as you have the ability to do so But it would cost the same as your entire components. So that would mean your new rig costing over £2k!

Just to give you an idea of the 6600GT power against more concurrent cards.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphi...=283&chart=102

Tiggs

lol......ok....so that card is crap!!!!

what should i do...budget is not unlimited!!! add another 6600GT or get a 7900GT?

Tiggs

think the 7900 is just too much ££££

would twin 6600GT give better graphics or is the dual DVI the only improvemnet i'd get?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

If you're seriously want to game then the 7900GT. Or stick with you're original card and upgrade later.

I take it you know the top notch one has 512MB RAM @ nearly £500. A 256MB one is around half the price. I'd get 2 x 256MB. Have them in an SLI config. And you can't go wrong.

Frosty The Snowman

Check the dead pixel policy of the manufacturer, they are all different and some are better than others. I paid the £20 to Aria for the check as my friend had just bought 2 TFTs each with a couple of very noticable and very annoying dead pixels.

I got the Dell 2001 FPW, I think thats the model, a 20" widescreen which is lovely, the refresh is fine for playing FPS games.

Tiggs

out of interest...how do these compare with things like Xbox / xbox 360? miles worse/same???

jpor

iTrader: (1)

There about the same, but getting better. The reason for that is that Graphics cards keep having extras bolted onto them which then game manufacturers exploit.

To give an un-biased point of view:

X-Box360:

Pros:

Excellent Graphics

Can play games as well as watch films, and listen to MP3s

Can play on-line straight away with the X-Box on-line feature without installing or setting things up like a PC.

Can get updates to games via on-line

Free games can be downloaded

Price around £300 -£400 at the moment

If it can be done, then for an extra £50 -£100 could be chipped to do extra stuff. Like what the original X-Box can do and maybe more.

Cons:

Need an Plasma/LCD Big HD T.V to get the most out of the graphics

Games expensive at around £40 -£60 each

Need a broadband connection to make the most out of on-line gaming. Note you would have to share the connection with your PC.

At this moment in time a few X-Box 360s are crashing (my mates was doing this a lot last week when he bought his) now waiting on a replacement from microsoft.

XBOX 360 Graphics cannot be upgraded.


PC:

Pros

Can be used more than playing games like the X-box but you can do things like use Microsoft Office, render graphics

Games around £10 - £40

Can surf the web and download content etc...

Price of a PC can vary between £300 - £2000 for a gaming machine

Parts inside can be upgraded to keep the PC up-to-date

Can burn Music CDs, Films etc.. to Blank storage discs.


Cons:

To be able to have the best graphics, you tend to pay more for graphics card(s) than x-box 360

Upgrading your PC can cost more

PCs crash as well. But you have to know what the cause is.


Your decision.

Iain Young

Consoles have a fixed lump of hardware, whereas pcs can have an almost unlimited combinations of bits inside, which are being updated at very short intervals. This means (from a development point of view) that consoles should be easier to program for, should have more reliable code (i.e. less bugs in games), and should make it easier to extract the most from the hardware.

Also, you can buy a whole 360 for less than a top end pc graphics card, so in theory it should be a better buy.

Having said that, the graphics on my pc are definitely superior to the 360, and I can do a lot more with it. I could have bought ten 360s with what I've spent on the pc so far though

I must admit I do the majority of my gaming on the 360 though, (or at least I did until it went wrong at the weekend ), despite having a ninja pc...

Tiggs

ok...makes sense.


on the card issues it seems my pc builder has found a 6600GT with dual DVI on it so thats one issue sorted!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Nice. When does it all get delivered?

Tiggs

pc comes thurs/fri....screens come thurs

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Nice. I take it your TFT monitors come with DVI cables? Or you have purchased 2 x DVI cables as extras?