Narlus' monitor/video card thread

[narlus]

aren't you an apple slave?

i'm looking @ monitors too, as my 17" panel isn't quite cutting it for photoshop anymore...not sure if i want to do widescreen or 4:3...another thought was to keep my present monitor, get a new vid card and run two monitors, w/ the photo on one and the palettes on the other. is that hard to set up?

[Transcend]

Widescreen is much more pleasant on the eyes, and much better for palette layout etc I find.

Apple monitors have issues right now with backlight bleed through. The dells are close to having the same issues unfortunately.

[narlus]

Widescreen is much more pleasant on the eyes, and much better for palette layout etc I find.

Apple monitors have issues right now with backlight bleed through. The dells are close to having the same issues unfortunately.

looking on a few photog boards, the monitors they recommend were exceedingly pricey (Eizo?), and i don't need that sort of quality to be honest (ie, matching screen to print). so what size works best? any brands to watch out for? like tvs, are things like contrast ratios very important?

[spincrazy]

All depends on how picky you are about color. As Transcend said, the new ACD have backlight bleed and the Dell's are the same monitor, just rebranded. Isn't NEC set to put out something really nice? I remember reading somewhere else about them. I've yet to check what you posted btw.

I'm a huge fan of the Eizos. Have two at work. I'd not use anything but them or a Lacie 22IV (crt) right now - home office.

[Transcend]

The eizos are amazing, but ridiculously expensive unless you need perfect match to print work, which even then, will not be perfect due to reflected vs projected light.

The current crop of gateways are nice surprisingly, and LG has one or 2 really high end ones as well.

http://www.gateway.com/home/products/hm_dis_catalog.shtml?cmpid=index*home*tab_consumer *displays*catalog_displays

I have a pair of the 24s now and am very happy. My 21 was fantastic. Added bonus is that they serve as 1080p displays with various inputs.

[spincrazy]

This may help you out. http://shop.colourconfidence.com/section.php?xSec=154&jssCart=c65479967b14e1a24bbe01e746e3652f

Can't remember where, but at one point recently I found a great review page/site on professional monitors. Searchi it out bitch. ;)

[spincrazy]

The eizos are amazing, but ridiculously expensive unless you need perfect match to print work, which even then, will not be perfect due to reflected vs projected light.

The current crop of gateways are nice surprisingly, and LG has one or 2 really high end ones as well.

I do need pefect match, he probably doesn't. LG is fairly new to the market and I think I read something not so flattering. NEC is generally a good bet and I hear the pro series of ViewSonic is pretty good.

[spincrazy]

one more thing, Eizo should have something not ridiculously priced for him. They have a wide range of monitors.

http://shop.colourconfidence.com/section.php?xSec=168&jssCart=4e62479d2b9892906cd7ef683b683a3b

[Transcend]

I do need pefect match, he probably doesn't. LG is fairly new to the market and I think I read something not so flattering. NEC is generally a good bet and I hear the pro series of ViewSonic is pretty good.

Ya, I need an exact match as well, but I am guessing the OP probably doesn't. I had a viewsonic pro series LCD - it sucked. Many issues. The 22" crt was amazing tho.

[spincrazy]

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a?category=Monitors&topic_id=1701

[narlus]

so i clearly don't need to spend over $500 for what i am doing...under 400 would be nice.

if i do get a larger monitor, will i also need to get a new vid card? here's what i have now:

SAPPHIRE 586L Radeon X300SE 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card

[Transcend]

As long as you have a DVI output, you should be good to go until you hit the 30" monsters. They need DVI-D x 2.

Just be aware that at native rez, any games you might wanna play will probably need everything shut off detail wise.

[narlus]

well that card probably doesn't have DVI...it was a pretty middling vid card w/ no gaming aspirations.

[binary visions]

well that card probably doesn't have DVI...it was a pretty middling vid card w/ no gaming aspirations.

Yep, it doesn't have DVI. If you get a nice monitor, you'll need a card w/ DVI. Doesn't have to be particularly special or expensive, but it needs DVI.

A GeForce 7600GS can be had for about $100 and would serve you well. It's not a screamer for games, but it'd run most games with middle of the road detail settings and would be plenty fast for any of your graphics needs.

[Transcend]

well that card probably doesn't have DVI...it was a pretty middling vid card w/ no gaming aspirations.

Ah ya, you will definitely want DVI. If it's only for photo display/editing, you don't need an expensive card at all. $100-$125 will do you fine.

edit: beaten like a red headed stepchild.

[binary visions]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125028

$89.99 after rebate and no loud, buzzy fan (I've been on a kick lately trying to cut the noise of my computer, have a do-it-yourself heatsink on my video card right now, different heatsink on my CPU and a couple of very low speed fans cooling everything).

[binary visions]

Undeleted and moved posts, not sure why Opie insists they should be shot into oblivion.

[narlus]

maybe he didn't appreciate the hijacking. :pirate2:

oh well.

thanks for the advice so far; i've got that vid card in my wishlist.

the only issue about widescreen is the 1050 pixel vertical resolution...for the 20", anyway. if i go larger, well, the price goes up...

[Transcend]

maybe he didn't appreciate the hijacking. :pirate2:

oh well.

thanks for the advice so far; i've got that vid card in my wishlist.

the only issue about widescreen is the 1050 pixel vertical resolution...for the 20", anyway. if i go larger, well, the price goes up...

1680x1050 is plenty big, I find. On my 22", 1600x1200 crt, i wasted at least 200 px near the bottom and top of the screen anyways. The rez won't go up until you hit 24" usually.

[narlus]

i imagine you do a fair bit of portrait orientation work? if the 1050 works for you, it should be fine for me (esp since i find that i resize jpgs to 1000 px on the longest side).

[Transcend]

i imagine you do a fair bit of portrait orientation work? if the 1050 works for you, it should be fine for me (esp since i find that i resize jpgs to 1000 px on the longest side).

I shoto almost everything in portrait, in fact it is a habit i am trying to break! I just drop things down to 25% if i need to see the entire image at once. I can fit the image at about 30% on screen all at once. (1dmk2 image, 8.2mp).

If you need to see more than that, you will definitely want to step up to a 24". Also, the new breed of LCDs are almost as color accurate as CRTS (almost). Black levels are good and they are much sharper - easier on the eyes for reading and doing detail work. Your mileage may vary, but that is my experience.

[spincrazy]

hmm. I enjoy having a pallette monitor, but at home that isn't an option (real estate). If you do go the two monitor route, keep in mind that you most likely will not be able to calibrate (with a device, i mean you can, but your comp won't recognize the profile) both screens. If you go wide, you'll gain a bit of extra side space for editing pallettes and whatnot anyway.

If it were me in your shoes, I'd go wider and just use the one monitor, but bigger o/a than 20"

[narlus]

higher resolution than 1680 x 1050?

the cheapest 24" monitor is the Acer #AL2423Wdr Silver/Black 24" 6ms GTG and that's $600. definitely more than i want to spend.

i think i'll stick in the 20"-22" range.

[Transcend]

20/21 are usually 1680x1050, and then 24 will be 1920 by whatever it is. I worked just fine on a 21" for the longest time. I like having the 2 x 24s so that i can run PS, C1 and Iview all at once. 2 screens also works really well with aperture if you use that (it handles 2 monitors in its own special way).

$600-675 sounds about right for decent 24s. You can't really go wrong with 1680x1050 at 21" though, especially at current pricing.

[narlus]

any particular good or bad choices from this list?:
http://tinyurl.com/3ex5dd

[Transcend]

Oh forgot to ad - the gateways I have can be flipped for portrait work.

I know nothing about those particular monitors. Viewsonics have been known in the past for quality, but lately it has been slipping. I haven't tried anything from the other brands. BUt then - gateway isn't known for making monitors either and they are fantastic.

[spincrazy]

I know nothing about those monitors. I only recognize the VS name. Monitor quality has come a long way when it comes to personal computers for the lay market, but there is still a surprising amount of crap out there.

[binary visions]

I wish I knew more about it, but that Sceptre has absolutely outstanding specs. Contrast is awesome, tons of connectors. Their televisions are generally praised as being great budget TVs, but I don't know anything about their monitors.

FWIW, Dell's digital flat panels are very nice screens for the price.

Some consumers are absolutely amazing:

Cons: The DVI connection never worked. I got this monitor to use for a docked notebook with larger monitor as a desktop computer replacement. After trying 2 docking stations, 2 known working DVI cables, and reloading the Spectre drivers, all I got was a blue screen with vertical columns of dashed characters - some kind of a sync problem? So I hooked it up to VGA and was very disappointed by the poor picture quality - very "fuzzy". Based on other reviewers poor experience with Spectre's tech support I didn't even bother to contact them. I replaced the monitor with another vendor's 22" and it works like a charm - crisp and clear ;-) Best of luck to those who have a working one but my advice is to steer clear of the Sceptre x22wg and look at one of the other 22 inchers. There are several good ones to choose from here at Newegg.

The guy got a dead DVI port out of the box, never even BOTHERED to contact the manufacturer about an obvious warranty issue, and recommends you steer clear of the monitor? What a moron.

Seems like a couple other Sceptres have had dead DVI ports... and some other QC problems. Might depend on if you want to potentially deal with a warranty situation.

[narlus]

well i decided to go w/ this :

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16824116060

viewsonic's product line is a bit fuzzy between the "X" and "G" lines...the "P" (pro) line is clear enough, but i couldn't find much useful info between the x series and graphics series. the price was pretty much the same, so i went w/ the G line and it's got a DVI cable included.

also got a new vid card (the one BV suggested), and a hard drive replacement for my old and dead toshiba (http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146336&highlight=laptop+hard+drive)

cool.

[syadasti]

I know its not widescreen, but a good budget high quality LCD is the HP LP2065 (http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__HP_Hewlett_Packard_LP2065_20_1_LCD_TV,__1711228 4/search=HP%252BLP2065/sort_type=bottomline) about $400 delivered.

Its better for image editing than the panels in you list as its the best LCD technology available (S-IPS - LG.Philips LM201U05) vs the TN, PVA, etc. You can check dpreview's forums for more info on it.

Edit: BTW, all current 22" LCD panels are the cheap TN type LCD panels. They suffer from very limited viewing angles thus aren't well suited for image editing (image changes depending on viewing angle) or dual/multi-monitor usage

[narlus]

well the deed is done, and i've placed the order for the viewsonic...that monitor does look nice, and i know the IPS is better for graphics work (newegg should make that a parameter you can search for...), but in the end i really don't need super accurate color profiles and i think i will like the widescreen aspect a bit more.

[binary visions]

Apparently, for $20 more, you could have gotten your monitor with an iPod dock from buy.com ;)

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203477213&adid=17662

[narlus]

Apparently, for $20 more, you could have gotten your monitor with an iPod dock from buy.com ;)

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203477213&adid=17662

it's an X series, not a G series monitor. plus, i wanted single vendor sourcing to cut down on freight (which was a measly $7 for a big monitor :monkeydance: )

and why in god's name would i want or need to dock my iPod to my PC? where do you think all the mp3s reside?

[binary visions]

What do you mean? I figured one of our resident music buffs would just leap at the chance to listen to music out of half-inch speakers built into a monitor base.

Was I wrong? :confused:

[narlus]

my iPod is giving me an iAche

[binary visions]

But... I thought everything made by Apple was so incredibly intuitive and easy to use that it practically operated by mind alone?

[narlus]

that's what they want to believe:
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/images/psychology/cult_applewhite_trans.gif

[narlus]

monitor arrived today...that's some speedy service...and for my $7.73 shipping fee, that covers both the monitor, and the other stuff i ordered (hd and vid card, coming from CA; the monitor shipped from NJ).

my current vid card doesn't support 1680 x 1050, so i've got it in bastard mode until the card comes in. then i'll calibrate and be on my way.

the only thing i miss is the old Dell monitor had some USB ports, which were nice for my mouse and card reader.

[SkaredShtles]

Just pulled the trigger on a new 22" flat monitor:

http://www.amazon.com/W2207-Widescreen-Flat-Panel-Monitor/dp/B000OK6T9W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1197563041&sr=8-1

Hopefully the wife is impressed. :D

[H8R]

Just pulled the trigger on a new 22" flat monitor:

http://www.amazon.com/W2207-Widescreen-Flat-Panel-Monitor/dp/B000OK6T9W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1197563041&sr=8-1

Hopefully the wife is impressed. :D
Nothing makes a chick moist like a big nerd-window.

[syadasti]

Nothing makes a chick moist like a big nerd-window.

Works most of the time these days with a big HD idiot-window though:monkey:

[SkaredShtles]

Nothing makes a chick moist like a big nerd-window.
Suppose it would be even better if I ran Ubuntu? :monkey:

[H8R]

Suppose it would be even better if I ran Ubuntu? :monkey:
.Yes.