Best Large PC Monitor?

[Setec Astronomy]

Accumulator, the great thing about Dell's website is you configure the system yourself, you don't have to talk to anyone. Select the fastest processor, whatever you want. The native resolution for a good 20" LCD is 1600x1200...800x600, being half, may display properly. Look at something like an XPS 400, or the small form-factor XPS200, if you don't want to chance the E series not having enough horsepower for you. You can always call and ask some questions, and then go back and finish your online configuration.

You can return a system you buy from Dell within 21 days, so if you really don't like the thing, you can dump it. I don't think you can really get taken for a ride these days, the biggest error you can make is just buying more processor, memory, graphics, software than you actually will use, but the prices are so low relative to the old days that even if you stuff the thing full...it's not that many dollars. FWIW, I have been configuring/buying PC's online with Dell for as long as they have been doing it that way. If you're only doing still video editing, I'm not even sure you need to go for an XPS, the E510 is probably fine. Check it out, and come back and ask some more questions.

[Accumulator]

BlackSunshine- My wife feels the same way about her laptops as you do

I used to be pretty geeked about equipment of all differenty types, but now-a-days I just want the hardware to do what I ask of it transparently. Which means I can sometimes get taken for a ride cost-wise.

Setec Astronomy- Yeah, I'm gonna do a little looking and start a new thread when I can do so intelligently (well, a little more intelligently than I can right now ).

As I consider getting into digital photography I dread not having physical negatives/slides, so I'm gonna want a second hard drive to avoid losing everything if one of those it-won't-happen catastrophes hits. Not sure how to integrate that.

Also I want to run several applications simultaneously and I'm not sure what that'll require. I suspect it's sorta like having a tuner car built...what is originally considered overkill ends up being not even close to what I actually expect/require and it can be hard to convey my real needs/expectations to people who don't know me ("oh, you decided you want to do *that*... well, who woulda thought thunk it").

On the subject of software, the stuff I used when teaching is so passe I might as well get new stuff (full versions) and get used to it. My Dell and Gateway both came with a boatload of software already loaded and I could never figure out how to get rid of it. Sorta bugged me, if only on principle. And the mini versions of the MS Office stuff was a joke.

[toyemp]

If you want to run multiple apps simultaneously and want to see all of the apps at the same time (vs. having one window open and all the others minimized), then that is where the new widescreen LCDs have an advantage.

I have 2 Dell 2405 24" widescreen LCDs side-by-side connected to my main PC. Each has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, so my desktop is really 3840 x 1200. On one screen, I usually watch TV (via a built-in tv tuner) and have either my RSS reader or Newsgroup reader open plus Outlook. On the other screen, I usually have 2 side-by-side browser windows open. Each app window shows as much info (actually more) than a single 800x600 full screen window that you are currently running, and I have 4 or more open at one time.

However, as stated above, LCDs do not downscale very well and will either appear blocky or "soft" if you run them at less than native resolution.

[Setec Astronomy]

As far as the data integrity, there is a factory installed Dell "DataSafe" which is an integrated second hard drive for backup, your only issue is if you have a failure between backups; you would want to mirror (RAID 1) for that, which will protect you against hard drive failure but not controller failure (which would write bad data to both drives). The factory RAID option seems to be only on the XPS700, which doesn't seem to have the "DataSafe", but if you add an extra drive and get XP Pro as the O/S, you can schedule backups to the third drive.

If you want to run multiple apps, I think you should be fine, just stuff the fastest processor you want to afford in there, and 2 Gb of memory (they allow you to put in 4 Gb, but last I heard, 32-bit XP will only address 3 Gb and only if you change a setting, and only if the apps you are running are capable of taking advantage of that.) If you're not doing FEA, gaming or video editing, I can't imagine you'd have any problems running many apps with a 3.2 processor and 2Gb of memory. For the kind of stuff it sounds like you'll be doing, PC's don't really need the kind of customization they did back in the old days...and I remember those days! But, if in doubt, select the top model, and put in the biggest processor, most memory, largest drives (number and size), etc. At least then you will have something to compare to if you go to a local builder.

[Accumulator]

Here's another Q: I'd always thought that CRT monitors would give the best overall display, is this correct?

It seems that most people insisting on CRT ones are gamers who want the fast refresh rate, and I'm not a gamer.

I do want to work with video on it at some point as well as watch streaming video. When it comes to doing PhotoShop work/etc. I want the best image I can get. Guess I'm unclear as to which attributes make for "the best picture".

This ViewSonic was rated quite highly when I got it, and I consider it minimally acceptable and actually pretty irritating.

I dunno how comparable the technology between TVs and PC monitors is, but the flatscreen TVs I've seen always looked awful to me, just not sharp, even the expensive ones.

[toyemp]

Modern LCDs have a sharper/finer display than CRTs but for photography/image editing, CRTs have better color fidelity. As far as refresh rate, the higher-end LCDs are just as good for gaming as CRTs but you wont find the higher speeds in the typical LCDs you see at Costco (i.e. the ones you see on sale for $200-300)

Setec, RAID is also available on the XPS400. I have an XPS400 and run RAID 0 on my machine. I believe the XPS200 has the RAID controller too, but you dont see it listed as an option because the case on the XPS200 only has the space for one internal drive. (can't run RAID with only one drive ) but if you got creative, you could convert the other internal SATA connector to eSATA, plug in an external drive, and then RAID 1 across the 2 but it would be easier (and cheaper) to buy the XPS400

EDIT: I stand corrected. I thought the XPS200 used the same motherboard as the XPS400 but I just looked at the tech specs and it uses a different, lower end chipset. Never mind the comments about RAID above

[Setec Astronomy]

Accumulator, a few years ago I spent many hours in computer/electronics stores trying to get myself to like LCD monitors; I couldn't. I also felt that they weren't as sharp and didn't have the color saturation of the Trinitron/SonicTron CRT's I was used to. Also, they seemed to give me a headache when reading text. My more recent experiences, with Dell UltraSharps, particularly running with a digital signal from the video card has been much better. I'm not 100% sure I'm saying goodbye to my Nokia CRT, but I think I am. With LCD's, it's not the refresh rate but what is called the response speed, that is critical for video. They are much better than they used to be, but can still "smear". Regarding your existing monitor...I think there is some combination of continuous improvement and age-related deterioration...we have several large monitors at work, and for the most part (a Nokia that's about 8-9 years old being the exception), the older ones, including a ViewSonic that may be the model you have, are just about unusable IMO in comparison to the newer one that I have been using.

Toyemp: I did see RAID 0 (striping) on the XPS400, I wasn't thinking when I posted that of course if it has the RAID controller it can be configured for mirroring; not sure if they will set it up that way from the factory--probably not.

[toyemp]

Actually, mine came from the factory with RAID 0. I could have also specified RAID 1, but I am less concerned about data integrity and wanted speed instead. I have a couple external firewire drives attached that I use Acronis TrueImage to take a daily snapshot image to in the background for backup purposes so if I ever need to recover, I can either extract individual files from the archive image or worst case, I can re-image the entire array back to the previous day's snapshot. I've had to re-image the array a couple times (not due to drive failure but because I was messing around with stuff and corrupted windows, etc) and it only takes about 30 mins to re-image the array -- around 400GB of data on average.

[Setec Astronomy]

RAID 0 was the only config I saw, and Dell can be pretty rigid about how they factory configure, I remember getting into this with the partitioning on a server, it was their way, period. I think for what Accumulator wants, a RAID 1 array of two drives, with a third internal for backup, is the way to go.

[toyemp]

I would agree. XPS700 is the only model they have that will hold 3 internal drives unless one doesn't mind external drives. Some people dont like external units. With the XPS700 though, he would end up paying for a lot of features that he may never use (dual/quad SLI video capability for instance)

[Setec Astronomy]

I think the DataSafe arrangement is probably fine, except that Accumulator has stated he wants to be protected against the stuff that "can't" happen.

[TortoiseAWD]

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Thanks, Tort! Have to see if that'll work with my Windows ME.

Yikes. I didn't realize you were still on ME . . . definitely due for an upgrade. You'll find XP much more stable and pleasant to work with (well, as pleasant as any M$ GUI is to work with).

Windows ME ==