Intel P4 vs AMD

I have the Bfg 6800 Ultra and a NEC Multisync LCD 1700v and my refresh rate is 60 @800x600 (desktop). if I drop it to 56 there seems to be less clarity. if I go to 70 I get blured spot in some places in the text. Is this normal please let me know. All in all everthing looks great games included. Games played at a higher rate.

 

To All,

Actually, I am turning the Intel into a home entertainment system. It will be used mainly for watching DVDs, T.V. and music along with an occasional game (Ancient Stuff, Mostly Colecovision). I just want the ability to see my widescreen movies in their native mode on a quality widescreen. The Sceptre's viewing angle is 179 degrees any direction so it should be great for group viewing. When I saw the Demo of the Sceptre we also watched The Incredibles, the entire movie. I was very impressed as I own that one and had seen it a couple of times on my 19". I moved around a fair amount to see where the picture dropped off (I wasn't aware of the 179 degree viewing angle). Since I couldn't get any closer than about 5 feet on a line from the screen, it never did drop off. No hot spoting and no color shift as you moved. The colors were rich and deep with no noticable flickering or bleeding. After about 2 hours of watching the movie I didn't notice any eye strain even though I was a good 10 ft. from the screen most of the time. They said that the movie was running at it's native resolution which filled almost every bit of the screen. They gave us a questionaire after the movie and I crossed everything out and wrote "Magnificent" on it! Back then it was over $700. I wanted it then but I had enough brains not to buy it at that time. Now it's half that price and I want it.

I'm presently waiting for responses from XFX, ATi, nVidia and Saphire as to their video cards capabilities as far as 1680x1050 goes. So far the X800 XT is the only quality AGP card I've found that has this specific resolution. It's about $300!

By the way, they may have been able to do a lot of things to make their monitor look good in demos but I don't know of any way to fudge a DVD. I've had some experience with LCD monitors in the past. My last build for a customer had a 17" and I was impressed with the DVD quality on it. The Customer supplied the monitor so I know little about it. I do remember that it was made by an electronics firm that manufactured quality monitors for other companies .

I want to thank everyone for their help in sort of pushing, shoving and kicking me in the right direction. All the links were helpfull and very usefull. I learned a lot. If I there was such a thing as a widescreen 20" or so CRT that had high quality, I would buy it! But since that CRT doesn't exist and probably never will, the Sceptre will be my choice.

Happy Computering,

theonejrs

 

Theonejrs
Your Newegg search may have shown only one 1280x1024 LCD monitor at 20.1 inches, but there are 92 listed at 19 inches. Does the 1.1 inch difference matter so much?

 

Brobear

Pixel Pitch .255 = 20.1” vs .294 = 19” (Some are .255 now) and 16:10 Widescreen vs 4:3 Aspect Ratio

 

If it's for a home theater and you're not going to be playing in fast paced games then why not go larger?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TR12=&ATTR13=&ATTR14=&ATTR15=&ATTR16=&ATTR17=

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TR12=&ATTR13=&ATTR14=&ATTR15=&ATTR16=&ATTR17=

 

Sophocles,

Because they are not widescreen!

Happy Computering,

theonejrs

 

These are:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TR11=&ATTR12=&ATTR14=&ATTR15=&ATTR16=&ATTR17=

 

The larger monitor makes for better viewing of videos. I still don't see using a PC monitor for a home entertainment center though. If I'm going to spend big bucks, it's going to be for a large screen TV. To each his own I guess. Here's a big 32" monitor that might change my mind and it's on sale. http://www.pcvideoonline.com/productdetail.asp?level=81&catid=224&productid=4420
More reasonably priced is the 23" NEC. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824002281&ATT=24-002-281&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r
ZipZoomFly has it for $37.99 less. If an inch or 2 on the monitor makes a difference, then these should get snapped up.

 

Brobear,

The first one is a lot more than I am willing to spend and the second has a terrible dot pitch (.039). Besides, it's more than twice the price of the Naga III. But I appreciate the input.

Happy Computering,

theonejrs

 

ScubaBud
Pixel Pitch and Aspect Ratio doesn't depend on screen diagonal size. I've seen widescreen 19" monitors, http://www.directron.com/al1916w.html . And as you noted, some 19" monitors now have a pitch of .255 (not sure on the widescreens though), the ACER is .298. If I was going to get a large LCD monitor, I'd probably go with ViewSonic. If I had the extra bucks, this one might be fun. http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/st...category_name=15g15c114s460&product_id=803325

 

theonejrs
I know what you're saying. It's nearly impossible to find anything else as cheap as the Sceptre monitors.

 

In fact, none of those deals there are really as good as that sceptre one, but it's hard to get a good deal on a 20" W LCD because they're not the sort of monitors that are often any good.

 

Brobear, you asked the question of theonejrs...

Forgive me since I assumed that when suggesting [bold]92 19" monitors[/bold] would usually mean a 4:3 aspect ratio on a typical 19" monitor and not a selected few 19" widescreens, (never even knew they existed for that matter <G>.) My response was suggesting that theonejrs is looking for an excellent quality LCD monitor with one of the best pixel pitch's available such as the .255, not the norm of .294 of almost all 19" LCD's with a few exceptions and of course the fact he was looking for a widescreen monitor as well. <G>

Let me also correct my statement above commenting on 19" LCD's having a .255 PP. They do not. Some of the 19" LCD's have a .264 PP instead of their usual .294.

 

Actually there's no need to be doing any corrections. We've really gotten a long way from AMD and Intel systems, though we can say they use monitors. Theonejrs pretty much has his heart set on the Sceptre and likes the price. It boils down to personal preference on the LCD monitors, like most other things. If we like the price and the accompanying quality of a particular item, we have a tendency to go with that choice unless we're shown some drastic reason not too. Drastic as in big bucks cheaper or an extreme improvement in quality with a marginal price difference. As for myself, I'll stick to the CRT monitors for the better quality. Lower cost is secondary, but doesn't hurt.

Besides, watching widescreen on the CRT monitor leaves the black segment of screen on the top and bottom. That's where the player controls go. So, I have no problem watching widescreen on my CRT monitor. If it was a tiny monitor, then the images might be too small. Since my monitor isn't microscopic, size isn't a problem. As I mentioned earlier, the larger size of the CRT isn't a problem for me either.

 

Brobear,

I wouldn't buy the Samsung for 2 reasons. first is the resolution. 1366x768 would be horrible on a 40 inch screen. There is just not enough pixel coverage for the amount of real estate involved. Second the pixel pitch is very poor at 0.6737. On a 40" widescreen. you would be able to take target practice at the gaps between pixels. The physical space between pixels would more than likely wind up giving you very poor picture quality. At least in terms of clarity. If you have ever seen a .39 or .42 dot pitch CRT, you know what I mean. The whole picture is there but it is not very sharp and sort of murky looking, blurry and indistinct. The closer you get, the more indistinct the clarity gets. Also, it's very tough on the eyes!

The Sceptre Naga III has a pixel pitch of .255, which should be pretty good. The earlier models suffered from tearing problems and a lot were RMA'd back to Sceptre. A lot of that had more to do with the quality of the video cards than the monitor itself. I read all the reviews and I noticed that the people that had good quality video cards had no problems at all! The biggest complaint was (of all things) the blue light behind the "Sceptre" lettering at the bottom of the monitor. Seems like it annoyed a lot of people when the monitor went to standby and blinked on and off.

I've done a lot of research on LCD monitors and this one seems to be an excellent balance between price and performance. There are better widescreens out there but you have to spend more than $900 to find one with better specs. There are also some great widescreens available as well but at $1500 or so It's just not worth the difference in picture quality to me. I can't wait to get it! If money were the total issue I would buy the AG Neovo AGM CW-19 Black 19" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor for $299. As far as I am concerned, both are great bargains. I'll let you know when I get it.

Happy Computering,

theonejrs

 

Well, seems like you've found your ideal partner then!

 

Am i Being ignored?
Thanx,
Triock

 

To all,

It seems that the only response I've gotten on the video card resolution question is from XFX. at least so far. Here is what they had to say about the 7800 AGP: It really depends on the kind of connection you are going to use with your LCD monitor. If your are going to use the regular 15 pin mini D-sub (VGA) connection then you will be okay as that connection can display up to 2048x1536 at 85Hz. They also went into an explaination on DVI connections.

They also recomended using 1600x1024 with my present 5200 as I will only lose a very small amount of picture area top, bottom and sides and the aspect ratio would remain the same as the native resolution.

Someone was having a problem with WMP with the video stopping and then continuing. I was watching a DVD the other night an my computer did the same thing. I noticed that the hard drive light came on bright at the start of the pause. It seems that in the display properties, screen saver in the Power settings that the hard drive was set to shut down after 20 min. When it shuts down the memory handles most everything but after the shutdown if a call is made to the hard drive, everything pauses while the drive comes up to speed. I changed the setting to Never and no more problem! Hope this helps.

Happy Computering,

theonejrs

 

theonejrs
what did xfx say about the dvi vs vga. Which one is better to use? My vidio card only has dvi out (2) but comes with an adaptor to use reg vga. I always wondered which is better. I assume dvi, but by how much if I am correct?

 

Theonejrs,
Guess you weren't paying attention. I wasn't trying to talk you out of purchasing the Sceptre Naga III. You've already been sold and it sounds like a decent purchase. As I mentioned before, a lot in selection depends on user preference.

BTW, I haven't been in the market for one of the big screen LCD monitors, so I'm not up on the specs. However, I have seen some of them demo(ed) and the video quality was decent. I still haven't seen a LCD that can outperform a CRT yet. So, I'll probably do like you and buy a cheap model when I go to get a LCD as a space saver and for portability. A CRT will remain on my main desk.