Hey everyone, I was wondering what you recommend as an upgrade (anything in the case of my POS drive, it was a OfficeMax $30 (give or take 10-20 bucks) special they had going on. I have been looking at a Plextor PX-716AL DVD±RW Writer (I want a black faceplate, it may come with it I dunno) Also, I want DL (+/- doesn't matter) support. Speed for the DL disks doesn't matter either. Last, I would need it to be able to let me backup my games (Computer games, new ones such as Doom 3, etc.). The most I want to pay is $200 USD, I assume just about every drive is less, as the drive stated above is $186.98 including shipping from Tiger Direct. EDIT: Also, in about the next 2 months I want to upgrade my monitor, its a CRT from my Dell and its: 1. Heavy, I hate taking this thing to LAN parties!! 2. Screen Res sucks, I can't play in anything past 1152x864 and I have a good video card (Gigabyte 6800GT, not OC'd) What monitor would you guys recommend for heavy, fast-paced gaming? (such as First-Person Shooters) Peace and thanks in advance, Pop Smith
Although Plextor drives are very good, I don't see how you would have any problems with the LG GSA4163 or Pioneer DVR109, both of which are available in black, and are half the price. They do DL at high speed with good compatibility. For backing up PC games you really want some good software, such as CloneCD&AnyDVD, there is no hardware requirement for doing that. For monitors, try a Samsung 17" TFT or similar, 1280x1024 at decent refresh rate and light weight. Myself i use a whopping 19" CRT weighing in at 60lbs but its more than worth it for 2048x1536 and 8ms.
Sweet, thanks sammorris I forgot about the Pioneer drives, at only $46.99 (OEM) or $62.24 (non-OEM, whats the difference?) I could definetly get one of those in a few weeks . As for the monitor, I might get this: http://www.techonweb.com/products/productdetail.aspx?id=B87831&src=PG VIEWSONIC - VX724 LCD 17IN 12X10 ALOG-DIGTL 500:1 BLK / SLVR Res: 1280x1024 Response time: 4ms it depends on what checks i get in the next few weeks. Which brings up one question, will I get a conciderably better picture via the Digital port? (Card to Monitor) Thanks, Pop Smith
OEM comes just the drive thats it, retail will earn you screws, a snazzy box, an instruction manual and probably a cd of some sort. As for a monitor, anything in the viewsonic area is where you want to be, 4ms is an awesome refresh rate but with TFTs, try and balance refresh with contrast ratio, 500:1 is a little low, try and get 800 for the best experience, but of course try not to exceed 12ms for refresh. I'm not sure if any monitor has both these capabilities...
