The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

ASUS have an excellent display very vibrant and crisp, way to go.

 

I've been rockin my 21" ASUS for over a year now with no complaints! It's the main monitor for my dual screen setup.

 

I don't know if I'd give the credit to Asus Everybody buys the panels from distributors. And the Asus monitor I bought my mother may have a tough road ahead of it. I got her the 23.6 monitor. I recently input the command to have the monitor sleep after 10min of inactivity. When it comes back on, the backlight acts funny. It flickers. My samsung does not do that. Or perhaps I'm nitpicking. Don't get me wrong though. There are manufacturers out there, that seem to sell some pretty dire lcd monitors. No doubt they get the last pickins from the distributor?

Hey russ, remember that Thermaltake Sata dock you recommended and I bought? Oops! LOL! I'm housesitting my brothers house, and I had the device sitting on the floor in front of their HDTV. On top of their entertainment stand is a Scented wax contraption, that heats the wax, allowing scents to fill their home. I decided at one point last night to check if it had anything in it. I was almost certain it was empty given the length of time that had transpired. Nope! I tipped it toward me, and a substantial amount poored out of it, and on to my poor hard drive and sata dock. Thankfully it cooled so fast, it didn't cause any damage. Freaked me out big time though. I had my "Zoe" hard drive with me. That would have irritated me big time. Thankfully it wasn't scented oil. Would have wrecked it for sure!

 

Estuansis,
That depends on which 23.6" you get. If you buy the ML series, the 21.5" and the 23.6" are all 0.248 pixel pitch, while the others are 0.272. That's a big difference in clarity! This is the one that should be here Thursday.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236099

2MS, LED Backlight, 0.248 Pixel Pitch. Asus also has a 23 with a 0.262 Pixel Pitch

Russ

 

I updated my post russ.

 

Oman7,

You would be surprised. Most oils are non conductive, so you could fill it with oil if you wantrd to and it wouldn't hurt it. Remember that big clear tower that was cooled by Vegetable oil?

As far as credit for the picture quality goes I think you more or less credit the monitor manufacturer, because they are the one's that choose what panel goes in what monitor.

Hey, I just inherited half a laptop! LOL!! A HP DV6809wm. A friend gave it to me because he didn't want to spend the money it would take to replace the entire lid and screen assy, that was broken beyond redemption! I told him that the only thing cheap I could do with it was make it into a poor man's desktop by removing the whole lid and screen. I put win7 on it and this baby is fast. He offered me the laptop instead of paying for what I did. This is not a cheap bargain computer, and it's not that old either. Here's the specs.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...8926&cc=ca&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_CAEN

This one has 4GB Ram (2x2GB) and a 250GB HDD. I would rather have it than the $50 it cost me, which was nothing but time! LOL!! I'm probably going to restore it back to a full laptop! Sweet!

Russ

 

Well, at least some of us have good fortune My ebay luck has been less than fortunate Oh well.

 

oman7,
Tell you what, the only thing I don't like is the media Center controls are super sensitive, but the sapphire blue lights on it are sure purty! Hell, it's a $1000+ laptop! It even burns DL media! Nice and thin too!

Russ

 

It is true that there are 5 monitor makers for companies to select from however that is a mood point really. Any manufacture may use one or all of them to build their flat panels so I'm not sure what the relevance is in that statement.

There are bad Sammy's too, just like ViewSonic can make a great monitor and have a shatty one as well. Also pixel size, contrast/brightness, and so on… specs don't always determine that a display will be good or not. There are other factors involved so if you have a high quality, let’s say larger pixel – less resolution, flat panel it can still look better than a low quality, smaller pixel – higher resolution, display. Just like statistics specs don't always tell the whole story. This is really true in the Audio world!

I use to buy Scepter monitors too, I had the Komodo 19", several models, and they were good while they worked. The screen was sharp but not as vibrant as a better quality flat panel. Still the price was right and they worked well for the short time of their life span, mine were around 4-5 years too. I also have an old NEC MultiSync LCD1830 - LCD display - TFT (Active) - 18.1 that is over 10 years old now, the resolution is much less than today’s monitors but it is still a very nice monitor and will probably work for another 5 years. Of all of my many monitors Scepters’ died out first and I have one value line ViewSonic that is acting up too. My 24” (16:10/1920x1200) Sammy is my nicest monitor but my cheap Auria 24” (16:9/1920x1080) is pretty darn nice too even though the speakers on it suck. So again what’s on paper doesn’t always matter and it is always better to test drive a monitor before buying it, just like in the audio world.

 

The Sceptres just seem to me like the low-end of the market. They're cheaper than other displays, but they don't seem to last as long. Image quality is almost moot as within the same market most panels cost about the same, the real issues you get are with how they're fitted, how well the backlights work and so on. Most of the problems with cheap monitors aren't the panel, they're with everything else, i.e. the stuff the brand on the bezel had to do.

 

Mr-Movies,
The point I was trying to make is it's all on the monitor manufacturer to decide what panel they want to use, and what price point they are looking for, along with the quality level they choose. They are the ones responsible for the quality you get for the money you pay. The cheapest monitors are TN panels, the most expensive ones are S-IPS. From the cheapest to most expensive they are TN, MVA, S-PVA, H-IPS and S-IPS.

My Sceptre X20 Naga III uses the S-PVA panel, and has a very small Pixel Pitch of 0.242, and it's picture quality and color reproduction is quite good. Not quite as good as an S-IPS, but it also costs a lot less. My Sceptre lasted 4 years, and died. I took it into Sceptre and they said it needed a new Panel and offered me a complete rebuild for $100. Since I couldn't buy a comparable monitor for $100, I let them go ahead and rebuild it. Keep in mind, my monitor usage is about 3 times the normal amount because I'm usually on the computer from 14 to 17 hours a day (Retired). now my monitor is doing the exact same thing the original did. Run for a few minutes and then shut down. like the original, I can fiddle with it and get it to finally work all day, as long as I don't shut down or reboot. I'm going to take it apart tonight and see what I can find out.

You don't have to have great specs to have a quality picture, because as you say it isn't just Pixel Pitch or Contrast ratio that determines the picture quality, but rather a good combination of all the factors involved. It's possible to have a large Pixel pitch and still have a quality picture, but only if the monitor delivers better color rendering to begin with. The picture quality with the X20 Naga III is excellent, and no one has ever failed to notice how great the picture quality is, especially when watching HD content.

Unlike most 8-bit IPS/VA based panels, TN is only 6-bit and unable to display the full 16.7 million colors available in 24-bit true color. They can mimick the 16.7 million colors of 8-bit panels using a technique called dithering, but the results are unimpressive. I don't know if this still applies to current TN panels today, but it was a big reason for me to avoid a TN panel monitor 5+ years ago. I do know that there are at least 2 other monitors like mine on this forum and everybody has been happy with them. Mine has seen about 12-15 years of typical use, because I'm on line so much. It's been a good monitor, but I don't know if I would buy another Sceptre. I'm disappointed that after Sceptre replaced everything but the front and back covers, that it didn't last longer than 4 days past a year. I feel that the new Asus ML228H will be a nice step up in size and video quality. I already know that a 23.6" or 24" is too large for my desktop. I had a 24" NEC here for about a month and it was beautiful, but again too large. It was also an $1100+ monitor. I've used the Asus before, and the picture quality is outstanding, so I'm expecting to be very happy with it, and hopefully I can put my XFX HD-467X-DDF2 Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 video card back in my 6 core. It wouldn't recognize my monitor and while I could force the proper resolution, it wouldn't always work on bootup.

BTW I do agree with you on Audio specs. At best most are misleading, and many manufacturers simply lie about them and make claims that aren't true. If I had a Dollar for every one I ever tested that failed it's published specs, I would have a tidy sum today!

Russ

 

Well I've tried 2 different Drives, 4 different USB PORTS ...ALL to No Avail, it still wants to list my BlacX as a CD Drive..The only one out of 8,.Why this particular one, just don't know.I've just D/L the drivers from THERMALTAKE have to wait till morning to reboot and see if that works
THANKS EVERYBODY FOR YOUR HELP
Hey Russ good luck with your NEW Monitor, let us know how you like it..I just,last week got my 23.5 ASUS LED Mon and am luving it...VERY CRISP

 

Thanks Rick. Glad you like the Monitor. I knew you would!

Russ

 

Thank you very much ddp

 

LOL, I already understand

Perhaps you remember Rawstyles.

 

Oman7,

I was going to ask him if he planed to cook hot dogs and burgers with that 5.5GHz i7! LOL Then I was going to be really crass, and ask if it was air cooled! ROFL!

Russ

PS Check your hotmail!