Best Large PC Monitor?

A

Accumulator

Well-known member
Accumulatorette wants my ViewSonic P220f, so it looks like I'm gonna be buying a new monitor. I'd appreciate some help in coming up with my short-list. I trust you folks a lot more than the usual internet site comparisons.



What're the best ones in the at-least-20" size? By "best" I mean image quality and color rendition. I don't care about a compact size or a flat screen, I want what has the best display. When I got my ViewSonic a while back the CRT ones still had the best picture but I don't have a clue what's what these days...haven't thought about stuff like refresh rates or resolution specs in so long I don't know what I'm doing at all :o
 
I haven't checked on the Samsungs in a while, but they're on sale at Best Buy this week. Ticks me off that I could get a 20+ inch LCD monitor for what I paid for my 17" LCD a year and a half ago. They're "instant savings" so none of that mail in rebate crap.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
What kind of resolution do you run on the ViewSonic you have now?
Click to expand...



Beats me :nixweiss



How's *that* for an answer from a guy who taught computer programming :o I did a quick plug-n-play when my previous monitor suddenly died and I lost all the ViewSonic documentation when we moved. Never got around to downloading a copy and optimizing it (I *know* it needs properly recalibrated).



[insert Accumulator's acknowledgement of well-deserved lecture here...]



Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'll check out newegg.com.



Yeah, 30" would probably be too big for me too.



Accumulatorette might want my whole PC (her desktop *is* awfully old and creaky, even compared to my dinosaur, and her laptops have other limitations) and if I have somebody build me a system I can go with whatever cards/etc. are optimal. I'm assuming that having a private (supposed) expert build me one will be a better way to go than ordering from Dell/Gateway again, at least with regard to bang-for-the-buck and minimal useless bundled software.



The whole idea of getting a new PC is pretty daunting...I just know *nothing* about hardware (or even today's software) so it'll be hard for me to know if I'm getting BSed :think:
 
I meant what is your resolution set at? One of my sticking points about changing from a CRT to an LCD is the "native" resolution that the LCD's run at, and many times they don't work so well at non-native resolutions. The native resolutions on the good LCD's tend to be really high, which makes everything really small. I've liked the ViewSonic CAD monitors like yours is (I think), and also the Nokia's, and I have a Dell Trinitron at home. I just transitioned at work from a last-gen (after Viewsonic bought them) Nokia CRT monitor to a Dell Ultrasharp LCD, and I think I'll stay with the LCD, which I seem to have gotten used to (perhaps running it on a digital signal has helped me).



As far as the "daunting" and BS...I don't know how old your system is, but for most uses today the systems are so high-peforming, I don't think you need to worry about having someone custom build it. Even if you were a hard core gamer, which I highly doubt ;), you could get an XPS system from Dell. If you have old Windows software you can run that on XP in emulation mode, so compatibility isn't the issue it once was. You can just go to the Dell website and play around with some configurations, see what is bundled and not. Just stick with the Pentium D, which is based on the Pentium M architechture, and runs a lot cooler than the previous Pentium 4 generation (less fan noise, etc.).
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I meant what is your resolution set at?
Click to expand...



That's the sort of thing I simply don't know :o



I played around a bit trying to display the current display settings but never found them. Y



You guessed right about my not being a gamer ;)



As for the new system, I'd want to go with what would no doubt be a silly-overkill setup, as part of getting into digital imaging (and, eventually, finally posting some pics here). What others would only get out of necessity I might well get just because I'd enjoy having it.



As you can tell, I know nothing about what I'm talking about. I don't mind the hardware being all black-box to me but it makes it hard to know what to get without more research than I'm likely to put into it. My wife's old Gateway is acting *very* funky and it looks like I might have to do something quickly. Somebody will probably make a bit of money off my ignorance but that's something I'll have to live with.



The software can be from scratch- I'll need to get PhotoShop/image filing/etc. stuff and I want a full version of a word processor and spreadsheet anyhow. What I do *not* want is all the BS software that came already installed on the Dell and the Gateway.



On the custome building, I somehow find it hard to believe that I'd get something I'd like as well if I went with Dell/etc. There are a number of guys locally who build systems and have decent local reputations. When I ordered from Dell and Gateway it seemed like I was nearly arguing with them about how "powerful" a system I needed, as soon as I said I wasn't a gamer they seemed to get into a certain mindset. When both of my last two PCs arrived, I was immediately disappointed by how slowly they ran the stuff I do and how quickly I ran into system limitations (running multiple linked spreadsheets for a simple variance analysis was too much for my Dell, made a simple project a pain).
 
Thanks, Tort! Have to see if that'll work with my Windows ME.



My continued willful ignorance of hardware is catching up to me...I gotta study up on all sorts of stuff I couldn't care less about.
 
Well, I looked around the MS site, found what I needed (good thing Tort kickstarted me, gee, search for info on the MS website, who would've thought of *that* :o ) and played with my resolution...to no good effect :(



I'm running 800 x 600, anything higher is much crisper but far too small for my post-LASIK eyes. GRRR....frustrating.
 
Accumulator said:
My continued willful ignorance of hardware is catching up to me...I gotta study up on all sorts of stuff I couldn't care less about.
Click to expand...



LOL, that's the story of my life. I feel your pain. I simply do not grasp the simple concepts present with most electronics equipment, from PCs to stereo equipment. I just want something that performs well and doesn't break the bank.



Having said that, I do not see how I could live without my Dell laptop. It's an Inspiron 6000, and it does everything I ask it to do well. I'm not a computer gamer (X-Box, on the other hand, well...) and I just love being able to sit anywhere in my house, including in front of my TV, and surf the net with its internal wireless card. I do wish I would have gone ahead and got the XPS, but I thought it may have been overkill for simply surfing the net, the occasional Word and Excel document, and using Quickbooks.



Personally, when I look to get a new computer, I think I may look into the new Mac's....



None of that really has anything to do with your needing a new big monitor so I'm going to shut up now :doh
 
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.
 
BlackSunshine- My wife feels the same way about her laptops as you do :D



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 :o ).



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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 :chuckle: ) 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 :o
 
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.
 
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.
 
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