PCA Forums

Alright, since I'm about to go spend some more of my money I thought I'd get some advice first. The first thing I am looking for is a LCD monitor. I'm thinking it will probably be either 15 or 17 inches, but it all depends on price. I'd be using it for games, movies, and word processing, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I am looking into getting a UPS since my house is victim to frequent brown outs. This one I think I can mostly figure out, but I was wondering if there were certain brands I should go for or others I should just stay away from. Thanks for your help!

mitsubishi is the best Flat panel I have used so far. I dont really sugest a mag or a viewsonic unless they have updated there line latelly.

Greg

I haven't gone LCD yet, been thinking on a 15 kds from wallmart, down to around $250 now I think.
Not sure I'd like3 LCD or not which is why I am thinking wallmart, take back if I don't like it!

As far as a UPC I recommend getting a larger one for the extra bucks! I got a walmart one for $35 and it turned out to only be about 200watts and ran my system about 2 minutes

Bought a 350 watt one at Best Buy for about $60, nice small unit and runs the kids system fine, but according to the box it should run about 15 minutes. Not very long.

At Sams club I bought a LARGE APC UPS, about $115 670 watts. 1100 VA.
With the big one I am supposed to be able to run several systems off it or my main system about an hour or so. It has serialport conection and cable and software to shut down the system automatically.
Also it said in the manual if you need to you can startup the large one when power is off and run on the batteries. That's nice if the power is off and you got some fast work that has to be done

We lose power here alot! Sometimes for an hour or Two several days in a row this time of year. Probably about the time everyones airconditioners are kicking on! Needless to say we got the brownouts regularly. And at times the power will hammer on and off like someone flipping a light switch several times. That causes surges everytime it comes on and off like that. I am surprised it hasn't blown my well pump or frig.

So really depending what a person needs bigger is better for a UPS. I got the little wallmart 200watt on the vcr and dvd players. Kid has 350watt on her system, she can shut down if needed. And mine has the big one, need lots of power if I am in the middle of burning a dvd or rendering something.

The one on the wifes system is a Triplite 280watts, it's about 4yrs old maybe older and still works great. We shut that system down when power goes off so we don't know how long it would run. All systems are XP1700 or better.

Check out Planar as far as LCD's go. I don't know first hand how they are but I know they have a 15,17, and 19" LCD with a response time around 15ms--which is excellent considering most are around 25-30 (which causes the infamous "ghosting").

[edit]
Heres a link to it @ newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... 14&order=1

What is a good dot pitch that I should be looking for? I'm seeing alot of .297 and .264, but don't really know what's better. Also, a couple say pixel pitch, isn't that just the same thing?

Nate: NEC/MITSUBISH 17" LCD MONITOR ASLCD7V-bk Black Retail
Thats from Newegg too, seems to have about the same response time. The Planars look pretty good, but the 17" one they have is 25ms, and i don't have the money to get a 19" (although i'd love too....), What do you think of that one?

LCD's have usually have a higher dpi than CRT's...so don't let the .29's scare you off.

The best LCD's out for gaming right now all have 16ms response times, and they all come in 17" sizes (because they all use the same panel). Models include the NEC 1760V/NEC 1760NX, Benq something, Viewsonic 171b, Hitachi CM174b, Planar PX171m, and a multitude of others. The Benq is the cheapest out of all that I've seen, so if youre on a budget thats what I would look at.

So additional questions as I am thinking of them. First, I know there are both analog and digital input signals. What is the major difference, will I need anything special for either, and which is recommended? Also, I thought i heard you are supposed to run an LCD at its recommended resolution. What if you decide to run it at a different one (in my case, prob 1024x768 instead of the recommended 1280x1024)?

The difference between Analog and Digital lies in the quality of the signal. Digital significantly reduces the number of visual artifacts and anomalies because there is no conversion from analog to digital. To use a digital signal, you need a video card with DVI-I out and an LCD monitor with DVI-I in. DVI-I is the standard digital input used for displays today, and it looks nothing like the standard 15 pin VGA connectors. All LCD's have a native resolution, that is the natural pixel resolution of the screen. If you use a resolution other than the native one, the monitor can either scale the resolution to fit the screen or simply use black bars to cover the screen where there is no image displayed (in the case of smaller than native resolutions). Scaling on the newer LCD's is actually pretty good, but it does introduce some pixel artifacts into the process. However, its not really noticable. Most 17"-18" LCD's have a native rez of 1280x1024.

on mine, if I run the LCD at something other than it's native resolution, the image is blurred. This doesn't really bother me in games, but I don't think I'd like it on the desktop. Also, it brings down the LCD's life to a significant degree (according to the documentation that I got with my LCD). So, if I were you, I'd run it at it's native resolution whenever you can, and if the resolution is too high, then play around with the text sizes until you find something you like.