- Aug 9, 2006
- 35
- 0
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Anand forum peeps,
I have read almost all of XTknight's excellent buyer's guide, plus his article on his website. Also have been lurking here for about 3 weeks reading any thread on 20 inch widescreen displays, as well as hardocp and widescreengamingforum. This user base seems to be the most knowledgeable and wideranging in usage (not always hardcore enthusiast, not always gaming)......
So here's my deal: I don't have a ton of money to throw at my computer, and being a bit older than most of you (almost 40) with a family I don't game as much as I used to. The monitor has to last me a while (my current monitor is almost 9 years old, lol, a 17 inch CRT), and my wife does not want a 23-24 inch monitor on our desk at this time (not to mention that with my slow upgrade timelines I will likely not be able to drive a 1920x1200 monitor for many years to come). Currently running an Athlon 2800+ and a Geforce 5900, 1gig of ram in my system, and not likely to make the next upgrade until 9-12 months down the road. I game about 4 hours a week (right now it's RTS oriented, but then I will go to FPS when one appeals to me which seems to be getting harder to do), sometimes a bit more. Will use the monitor to play kid's titles (in the basement when I need kid's entertainment while the adults are hanging out having dinner etc.), my wife will use for web and text docs for work, and I do some very minor photo and video editing..... in summary a little bit of everything.
Given all that, here is my thought process, if anyone can think of anything I might not be thinking about, please feel free to fill in:
Dell 2007FWP - Nice overall display, but some monitors if not upgraded with new firmware will exhibit excessive color banding. Has scaling resident to the display, so if I wind up with an ATI card in my next upgrade, and I can't run games at a widescreen res, the display will be able to handle without any stretching. Has the USB ports, and can be adjusted every way til sunday.... Went on sale today at 20% off, so is only about $379US... cheapest of the three
NEC20WMGXA - Great picture, but has the coating on the screen, and I have a light directly behind where we sit, although it is on the ceiling. Without being able to test prior, I am concerned about glare, particularly since we live in the northwest and can't always count on sunny days to keep the lights off, not to mention most of my computer time is at night anyway. Has lots of great inputs, USB, and a tv tuner. Can't do it's own scaling, so would need driver software to do that, or some other third party program which I assume someone has created by now.... Most expensive of the three at a low price of $571US. Limited physical adjustments....
Samsung 215TW - Good overall display, does everything very well but nothing extraordinarily well. No USB. Has all the physical adjustments.... I can pick up (and thus return) at my local Best Buy, cost is $499US as of today. Seems as though quality on these is generally good, and if there is a problem the 3yr warrantyon the box will at least make a person feel good...Can't scale independently, will need a video card driver or other software to do this......
If anyone sees errors in my analysis, please feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance!
RE3
I have read almost all of XTknight's excellent buyer's guide, plus his article on his website. Also have been lurking here for about 3 weeks reading any thread on 20 inch widescreen displays, as well as hardocp and widescreengamingforum. This user base seems to be the most knowledgeable and wideranging in usage (not always hardcore enthusiast, not always gaming)......
So here's my deal: I don't have a ton of money to throw at my computer, and being a bit older than most of you (almost 40) with a family I don't game as much as I used to. The monitor has to last me a while (my current monitor is almost 9 years old, lol, a 17 inch CRT), and my wife does not want a 23-24 inch monitor on our desk at this time (not to mention that with my slow upgrade timelines I will likely not be able to drive a 1920x1200 monitor for many years to come). Currently running an Athlon 2800+ and a Geforce 5900, 1gig of ram in my system, and not likely to make the next upgrade until 9-12 months down the road. I game about 4 hours a week (right now it's RTS oriented, but then I will go to FPS when one appeals to me which seems to be getting harder to do), sometimes a bit more. Will use the monitor to play kid's titles (in the basement when I need kid's entertainment while the adults are hanging out having dinner etc.), my wife will use for web and text docs for work, and I do some very minor photo and video editing..... in summary a little bit of everything.
Given all that, here is my thought process, if anyone can think of anything I might not be thinking about, please feel free to fill in:
Dell 2007FWP - Nice overall display, but some monitors if not upgraded with new firmware will exhibit excessive color banding. Has scaling resident to the display, so if I wind up with an ATI card in my next upgrade, and I can't run games at a widescreen res, the display will be able to handle without any stretching. Has the USB ports, and can be adjusted every way til sunday.... Went on sale today at 20% off, so is only about $379US... cheapest of the three
NEC20WMGXA - Great picture, but has the coating on the screen, and I have a light directly behind where we sit, although it is on the ceiling. Without being able to test prior, I am concerned about glare, particularly since we live in the northwest and can't always count on sunny days to keep the lights off, not to mention most of my computer time is at night anyway. Has lots of great inputs, USB, and a tv tuner. Can't do it's own scaling, so would need driver software to do that, or some other third party program which I assume someone has created by now.... Most expensive of the three at a low price of $571US. Limited physical adjustments....
Samsung 215TW - Good overall display, does everything very well but nothing extraordinarily well. No USB. Has all the physical adjustments.... I can pick up (and thus return) at my local Best Buy, cost is $499US as of today. Seems as though quality on these is generally good, and if there is a problem the 3yr warrantyon the box will at least make a person feel good...Can't scale independently, will need a video card driver or other software to do this......
If anyone sees errors in my analysis, please feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance!
RE3