LCD screen question

[_Martyr_]

Given your partener's main use will be text based, DEFINITELY go for an LCD. The argument for CRT in any application is really diminishing, LCDs are getting so good, in a few more years, big box CRTs will be completely out for most people. You'll also save on your electricity bill, LCDs use less power.

A little hint, if your wife has problems seeing small text... Hold down Ctrl, and wheel the mouse wheel up and down to resize all the text on the screen. Works in browsers and in plenty of other apps. Its handy for me, and my eyesight is pretty good!

[Boohugh]

LCD's are definitely the way to go for both office applications and games nowadays. I've got a nice 19" Viewsonic LCD screen and it plays all my games beautifully with no blurring or the colour distortion that was common on older LCD's, and LCD's have always been superior for viewing fairly static images such as text based applications.

The only problem is LCD's need to be used on their native resolution to look their best with is generally 1280x1024 on a 19", meaning newer games can put a serious strain on your sligthly ageing graphics card

[Xiahou]

The only problem is LCD's need to be used on their native resolution to look their best with is generally 1280x1024 on a 19", meaning newer games can put a serious strain on your sligthly ageing graphics card

That's the reason I havent gotten an LCD yet. I have a 19" CRT and I run my desktop and games at 1024x768. Since a 19" LCD would actually have more screen space going 1280x1024 wouldnt be a big deal for my desktop- but my gaming performance would almost certainly take a hit.

[Beirut]

Given your partener's main use will be text based, DEFINITELY go for an LCD. The argument for CRT in any application is really diminishing, LCDs are getting so good, in a few more years, big box CRTs will be completely out for most people. You'll also save on your electricity bill, LCDs use less power.

A little hint, if your wife has problems seeing small text... Hold down Ctrl, and wheel the mouse wheel up and down to resize all the text on the screen. Works in browsers and in plenty of other apps. Its handy for me, and my eyesight is pretty good!

Good point on the LCDs phasing out CRTs. One bonus to that, though, is being able to get a 19" or 21" graphics series Viewsonic for a pitance.

I'm getting her a fancy black Microsoft keyboard that has a slider on the left that zooms in and out on the page for easy viewing. I think that's really going to work well for her. She also does some website maintenance, so that slider will be very handy.

I'm ordering her a Samsung 930B today. The 17" is $330 and the 19" is on sale at $359. Gee, which one should I get?

I'm very tempted to get one for myself.

[KukriKhan]

That just shows the hard-learnt "don't be an early adopter" lesson. In 1999, we bought 2 15" HP LCD screens for $1500 apiece. For that money today, I could get 9 19".

For $30 difference, "super-size" me, I say.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Yeah, go with the 19".

Interestingly enough I am using a Samsung 930B right now. It is a very good choice!
I only have a 17" though.

[Beirut]

It's done.

No Samsung 930Bs LCD (19") available at the store or from my computer dude. Now only the 940BF (19") is available for $500 instead of the 930B for $359. Gah! So I ordered a Samsung 740B (17") for $299. Should have it Wednesday. I'm a bit bummed out that it's not a 19", but I'm sure she's going to like it far more than the four year-old ugly beige Samsung CRT she has now. Ordered her the fancy Microsoft Digital Media keyboard as well.

I'm going to test out her 740B screen on my rig to see how well it works with IL2-PF. If it has the same screen size as a 19" CRT and looks good flying, I might get myself one as well. 80% of my game time if flying, so if the screen doesn't look good in flight, it's no good to me at all.

Also ordered myself an Nvidia 7800 GS AGP card to replace my 9800Pro. The AGP version is $200 cheaper than the PCI-E version and I can keep my present MB and CPU. Can't afford to change everything in one shot and go PCI-E. Should have the card Wednesday as well. I'll be flying IL2 at ultra-max settings with that puppy 'till the wee hours as soon as it's installed.

Toys-toys-toys.

[Productivity]

This one's minor but it's worth it - from memory the 740B has both a digital and an analogue input. The picture quality will be better on the digital - however a lot of older video cards don't have a DVI output. It won't be a major improvement but if your wife doesn't play games she won't need a expensive video card so you may want to think about upgrading that.

The difference is in how the signal goes. CRT's need an analogue signal to display, LCD's need a digital signal. Video cards output in digital, so the train goes something like this.

CRT

Video card --digital output-> digital to analogue convertor --analogue output-> display

LCD (Analogue input)

Video card --digital output-> digital to analogue convertor --analogue output-> monitors analogue to digital convertor --reconverted digital output-> display

LCD (Digital input)

Video card --digital output-> display

The elimination of the conversion steps stops a loss of quality on each conversion. Also a digital input means that things such as adjusting monitor boundaries can be automatically carried out without the monitor having to approximate (which they are admittedly now good at).

The quality loss is not huge, but I've had two identical LCD monitors side by side one on analogue, one on digital and the digital one is definately sharper.

[Just A Girl]

most £30-£50 cards, seem to have DVI output.
you know older ati cards that were new at one point excetera.
so an upgrade to DVI should not be expensive Even if it was essential.

[Papewaio]

I've got a Samsung 930BF as one of my monitors on my desk. It is a sweet monitor that looks good and performs well.

Do you have a separate games machine? Have you tried the monitor on that to see if the tearing is a graphics card issue?

[Beirut]

Do you have a separate games machine? Have you tried the monitor on that to see if the tearing is a graphics card issue?

The screen works fine on her vanilla office machine which is on the desk beside me. It was when I hooked it up to my rig (AMD64-3000/9800Pro) that it got a bit bonky. A fella at another site said it was probably the V-sync that needed to be enabled.

As soon as I find the V-sync, well, darnit, I'll enable it!

Mind you, me and the kids were flying around in FS2004 an hour ago and it looked really nice with no tearing at all. It only happened when things got fast and close in IL2.

I'm looking at this one for myself. Tomshardware.com gave it a very good review for games.
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/de...xseries/vx924/

[KukriKhan]

Congrats on your new "baby".

VSync is an in-game setting, right? Different for each game? Not something ajustable in Windows. Or do I misunderstand?

[Xiahou]

I can adjust it globally in the ATI tray tools that comes with the Omega drivers. You can also try to turn on AA and AF for games like IL2, which I believe, dont have in-game support for those features.

[Beirut]

I never did find the v-sync. Odd.

I did have the AA and AF enabled in the Catalyst Control center that ran my 9800Pro.

I said "ran" because I just got my Nvidia BFG 7800GS 256 meg AGP card installed. Yay!

Beiruty-Patooty is going to be up late flying tonight. I'll give a test report later. I've only had it in the machine for fifteen minutes.