A few things, theonejrs: Firstly, do you game a reasonable amount? If you do then you'll perchance want to use that monitor's native 1600x1200 resolution. Unlike with CRTs, you'll suffer inage degradation if you don't stick to that resolution. I must warn you however, that the 6600GT is totally unable to play certain games at 1600x1200. I've no idea why, but it can happen. If you do game a fair amount, I'd recommend (if you can) stretching to an X800GTO or similar. Not only will that be faster, but will also play games at 1600x1200, and a fair amount of them too. There's an article at Tom's hardware, something like "don't throw out the x800" or something to that effect. Generally, with monitor specs, higher is better, with contrast and brightness, as you can turn a bright monitor down, but not a dim monitor up. The contrast is the major key, since for proper rich colours (especially gaming, in particular dark gaming such as Doom 3, or any game in a tunnel, cave etc.) you really want a high contrast ratio. The X800GTO is available in PCIe and AGP in the UK, but only PCIe in the US for some reason. If you can't find one, try an X800XL and the likes.
theonejr, The 6800GS would be a better medium range card if you must have Nvidia http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150126 Or pay less for the 6600GT. $129 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130001
theonjrs Contrast Ratio is the differences between white and black. Some screens don't produce very bright white or deep dark black colors. When your whites appear with a slightly beige color and your blacks lean toward a charcoal gray then you have a screen with poor contrast. Contrast gives picture quality a greater since of depth. This was a point that I made in a debate with uncasMS regarding CCE versus Porcoder. His contention was that procoder had less mosquito noise. I rebutted that claim by stating that procoder had poorer contrast than CCE and low contrast can mask mosquito effect by smearing it out. Sammoris is right regarding picture quality. CRT's are still better for gaming and video editing becuase it produces a truer picture. That's why I went with a 22" viewsonic P225f instead. I'm waiting for the LED screens to come down in price and then I'll move to a flat panel.
Me too. If I do have a flat panel eventually, it'll be something along the lines of a Viewsonic VP201B. Now that I've had a high-resolution screen I'm not all that keen to move too far backwards. Besides, normally the monitor isn't going anywhere, it's not as if I have to carry the PC around with me. May I also add that the 6800 standard also suffers from the 6600GT's inability to run certain games at 1600x1200. It's either got to be a 6200 (no thanks!), a 6800GT (a bit on the expensive side) or an FX series (nah). If you can find an X800GTO in AGP in the US< you'll reap the benefits. This of course assumes you do have an AGP motherboard (I'm assuming that since you're currently running an FX5200, do tell me if it's otherwise!!!)
To All, Thank you for the input. Based on your explainations I'll probably go with the Sceptre monitor. I've seen it demoed and it is awsome. The AG Neovo is a little smaller at 19" but the contrast ratio is much lower at 500 to 1. Whether my present video card can handle it is another thing but video cards that do, are reasonably cheap. I very rarely play games and all I really want a widescreen for is watching movies. I was looking at AGP video cards and found this one. ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XT 100-714200 Radeon X800XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO AGP 4X/8X Video Card It seems to do everything I want for a home entertainment center, which is what I plan for the P4. It has a tv tuner, vivo and 16 pixel pipelines. It's $299 (USD) right now at Newegg but I have seen it on sale for quite a bit less. Is this overkill or am I on the right track? Happy Computering theonejrs
I'd say you're on the right track, I would've bought an all in wonder too but I went with the ATI off the air high definition TV card instead. Computer and TV displays are 2 dimmensional so your old card should do OK for just your monitor and basic 2D work for now. It's 3D that makes the most demand on a vid card.
Tom's hardware guide on the X800XT vs 6600GT (AGP) from http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/05/vga_charts_vii/index.html Unreal Tournament 2004: 4-142% Faster Half Life 2: 5-258% Faster (Wow!) Doom 3: 27-108% Faster Chronicles of Riddick: 42-100% Faster Pacific Fighters: 18-106% Faster The Sims 2: -9 to 15% Faster (well, how relevant is that?) And all the high scores (142, 258, 108, 100, 106) are from 1600x1200 full AA berries, which is high-def gaming, which is where it counts, which is good.
sammorris, O.K., O.K. You made your point. You've convinced me. I don't give a rat's behind about games. Mostly I play Delta-Force II and some Colecovision games. Both AG NEOVO and Sceptre are top quality monitors. I've seen both demoed. The Sceptre picture quality is absolutely beautiful. Rich, deep color. Watch a movie like "Madagascar" on it and you will be gassed. I was!!! It's a nice looking monitor, as well AG NEOVO used it's own technology to set the LCD TV world on fire in Europe because of it's extremely high quality and very low price. I'll probably buy the Sceptre first for use now and then get the Neovo for this computer when I finish the new build. The next closest to the Sceptre in performance costs $160 more at $529. You have to spend around $900 to find something that has a better contrast ratio. I figure that with the x800xT and it's specs, combined with the Sceptre and I'll have a winner! Happy Computering! theonejrs
I don't play games much so the video card is unimportant to me. Buy only what you want. For what you do.
sammorris, Sorry about the GT. It sohould have been this: ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XT 100-714200 Radeon X800XT 256MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card. It's a little pricey at $299 (USD) but it has a TV Tuner which makes it fit in with my scheme of turning my P4 into an entertainment center when I get the new Dual-Core built. Considering the price difference, I may just get 2 Sceptre X20G-Naga III monitors instead of 1 Sceptre and 1 AG Neovo. $600 isn't a bad price for the 2 of them. Happy Computering, theonejrs
To All, I've had an interesting development in my quest for speed. I've discovered a glitch at 3.70. I was encoding a DVD the other night with RB and got an error window. I tried it with DVD Shrink, same thing. I tried DVD Xcopy and again got the same thing. I backed the FSB down to 240 (3.60) and it worked perfectly. I haven't seen any other problems but I'm going back to 3.60. Besides, it improves my memory bandwidth. An interesting note. The CPU runs cooler at 3.70 than it does at 3.60 by about 5C. Strange!!! Happy Computering, theonejrs
Stable with a 20% OC on a Prescott isn't bad. I noticed that 800 XT you're interested in at about $280 including shipping at PageComputer and MWave. The Newegg price after shipplng is about $304. You can do the math and if Newegg's service is worth the $24 extra for the single item...
brobear Could you supply links to those cards? And in my case we were only talking about $6.99 and that is worth paying for faster shipping and better service.
Brobear, Yea, I know but the thing that drives me crazy is why do the temps run lower at 3.70 than they do at 3.60. Maybe it's the voltages. They are set on AUTO in the BIOS. Maybe the voltages go high enough to make it run cooler and the very slight glitch gets caused by the higher voltages. I'll copy the settings from the manual with my scanner and get back to you. Maybe you can give me a clue as to what settings to use. Thanking you in advance, Happy Computering! theonejrs
theonejrs I have the same board and I think that the thermal sensor is having a problem. My guess is that your cooling fan slows down at the lower setting.
