Monitor 19" vs 21" - (Is 21" too big?)

Farcear

So, I have my new i7-860/HD4890 build but I'm still using my old Dell 14" flat panel which is just a shameful waste of my system! (and the tower makes it look comically small! )

I want something bigger than 14" but for the last few years I haven't used anything bigger than a 15" laptop screen so I'm not sure what kind of size I should be looking at or how big is "too big".

It is used a lot for both gaming and office work.

From a gaming perspective, I would of course love the opportunity to get 1080p resolution but I'm concerned that it might make day-to-day office and web browsing more difficult/awkward (having to scale stuff up/down on a big screen).

Is a 21" monitor too big?

Randomly looking at this one: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=462326

Solitaire

Most affordable 22" monitors are only 1650*1080 anyway I'm not blown away by Full HD as its a pain compared to simply maxing out the settings on, oh, almost anything at sub-1080p if you have a half-decent GPU IMHO 1080p is still a bit of an unneccesary luxury more suited to the HTPC crowd than gamers :P

Anti

How about:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=506793

1" bigger, and 50€ cheaper.

dazberry

You could try this from argos believe it or not, coming in at a hefty €149.99.

D.

Farcear

Anti wrote: »

How about:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=506793

1" bigger, and 50€ cheaper.

Do I even want it to be that big is my real question at the moment.

Anti

Do you need to, no. Do you want to....Damn right you do. There really is no point having a system like you do and wasting it on a small screen. While i agree with solitare the whole HD thing isn't as "amazing" as peopel make out for pc monitors. a nice 20/22" monitor at 1680*1050 will blow you away, especially for gaming. For office work you will notice a huge difference too. Myself i run 3 x 20.1" monitors in work and i dont know how i would live with out them. And at home its a 24" with 2 x 22"'s either side for some eyefinity schmexyness !

Do you have a friend or a family member you can rob a bigger monitor on for the evening? Try it out and you will love it.

Big Lar

Ah yeah get a decent monitor, Its worth it.

Or two 22" babies if you can afford it

slowlydownwards

We men (well, most of us, including moi) can only do one thing at the time. Multitasking... noooo way!!! HOWEVER, there is no denying it that it looks "kinda kewl " to have two office apps opened side by side and 1920 horizontal pixels will do it comfortably.

When dell's 2405 came out few years back, you nearly had to re-mortgage to get your hands on it. Now you can grab 1080p for 150 yoyos (well maybe not in the same league with dell's "ultra sharp" dazzlers) + the option of hdmi input for consoles.

Got this thingy only last week.

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/ViewSonic_VX2260WM_VX2260WM/version.asp?PID=1095

Very bright and sharp, vga/dvi/hdmi + speakers (tiny) for a tad over 160 delivered.

Just one little caveat. Pixel size on 22" 1080p tfts are quite small. That makes it look even sharper, but good vision (eyesight) is a plus.

swirlser

Size matters

Leman_Russ

swirlser wrote: »

Size matters

It's not how big it is, it's how you use it. :P

Personally, I use two 19" monitors, and am getting a 3rd once I upgrade to a smexy new ATi Card

AlmightyCushion

Get a 24" and another monitor or two if you can afford it. Your graphics card can handle it and 24" screens are brilliant.

Farcear

Have any of you guys used these new 3d monitors?

leninbenjamin

Farcear wrote: »

Have any of you guys used these new 3d monitors?

No, but i've seen a demo of the tech and it seems utterly pointless tbh.

Effluo

My friend has a 22" 1050 screen and my 1080 screen playing the same games at the same settings... My screen really kicks his screens ass!

I'm not talking about the colour(which i suppose has nothing to do with res), but the detail. You can really tell the difference!

Also i find them to be so functional, i use two windows side by side all the time now. and you can see everything! Football game/music on one side and web browser on the other. It's so handy not having to flick through windows anymore!

I'm just speaking from my own experience... (which isn't huge)

This is pretty sweet for the price, but i remember some not so nice reviews about it!
http://www.onestoppcshop.ie/products.asp?recnumber=24541945

Or you could go for a slightly more expensive,
http://www.onestoppcshop.ie/products.asp?recnumber=30383743

I have something similar to the latter and it's awesome

I'd recommend having a digital input for your screen, as the colour difference is quite big

Jonathan

As someone who runs dual 22" 1680x1050 monitors, I can confirm that one 21" monitor won't be too big :pac:

ED E

Hijack:

I'm looking at 1080 at 5ms for ~150 or 1050 at 2ms for 185....for FPS games I think the response time would be good, but is there any need to go lower than 4ms?

/hijack
Lethal

Pacifico

Farcear wrote: »

Is a 21" monitor too big?

[/url]

Are you mad?!

Get a 24"

Farcear

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

Hijack:

I'm looking at 1080 at 5ms for ~150 or 1050 at 2ms for 185....for FPS games I think the response time would be good, but is there any need to go lower than 4ms?

/hijack
Lethal

5ms is fine. In fact, response time isn't really a fantastic measure of performance in and of itself.

What monitors are you looking at?

ED E

Farcear wrote: »

5ms is fine. In fact, response time isn't really a fantastic measure of performance in and of itself.

What monitors are you looking at?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=431103 Aesthetically great IMO.


On the 1080 front, just browsing around right now, no specific models in mind yet.

This was linked earlier: http://www.onestoppcshop.ie/products.asp?recnumber=24541945 Nice price.

For some reason I still like the Lg....

noodletop

Is a 21" monitor too big?

the bigger the better when it comes to gaming have two of these and well worth every penny.i have one for pc and one with x box and ps3 connected so when son wants to play a game i can still be on pc

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-025-OK

Farcear

noodletop wrote: »

Is a 21" monitor too big?

the bigger the better when it comes to gaming have two of these and well worth every penny.i have one for pc and one with x box and ps3 connected so when son wants to play a game i can still be on pc

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-025-OK

I already have a 32" for TV and Xbox -- looks great -- but far too big for what I want to use it for with my desktop.

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=431103 Aesthetically great IMO.

For some reason I still like the Lg....

That seems quite nice; I might even go for that -- haven't been able to find any expert reviews about it though.

Pacifico wrote: »

Are you mad?!

Get a 24"

Yes, yes. +1 for me being mad.

Anti

TBH, stay away from anything LG monitor/tv wise. Not only is there pixel policy a load of crap, but they have huge issues with their internal pcb's at the moment. Pay the extra few bucks and grab a dell monitor. 3 Year standard next business day warranty, yes please !

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=308725

179€ Full Hd loads of connectors, cant go wrong with it really. And best of all free shipping.

ED E

Anti wrote: »

TBH, stay away from anything LG monitor/tv wise. Not only is there pixel policy a load of crap, but they have huge issues with their internal pcb's at the moment. Pay the extra few bucks and grab a dell monitor. 3 Year standard next business day warranty, yes please !

http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=308725

179€ Full Hd loads of connectors, cant go wrong with it really. And best of all free shipping.

Drool! I would have expected dell to be dearer...

Dell stuff gets to me next day from experience(Big smiles), and I like their screens. The 4:3 15"s in the TechGraph room are lovely, as is the one on the desktop beside me, and this lappy aint bad, even if its only 1280 wide.

Thanks Anti:D

Farcear

I thought I read that Lg had a good returns policy.

I was thinking about the slightly more expensive SX2210 -- http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=274817 -- reviews seem mostly positive, although a few people seem to complain about the screen being too glossy.

Anti

Farcear wrote: »

I thought I read that Lg had a good returns policy.

I was thinking about the slightly more expensive SX2210 -- http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=274817 -- reviews seem mostly positive, although a few people seem to complain about the screen being too glossy.

They are fine to deal with, but their policys are confusing as hell. And they seem to either change them at no notice, or the staff make them up on the fly. Ran LG 3 times in a week not long ago, and the policy was different all three times.

dotsman

Farcear wrote: »

I thought I read that Lg had a good returns policy.

I was thinking about the slightly more expensive SX2210 -- http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&sku=274817 -- reviews seem mostly positive, although a few people seem to complain about the screen being too glossy.

Sorry to slightly hijack your thread, but searching for SX2210 brought me here! I too have just built an i7-860 and now want to replace my old monitor (Dell TFT 19" - believe me; 19" is small!). Have read several good reviews of the SX2210, but have a few questions about it if anyone has any experience in this.

It appears to be the only "Truelife" available on the Dell website. But I thought glossy monitors were becoming very popular now, so would have expected much more choice? Do they have other monitors that are glossy, but not referred to as "Truelife" (I was under the impression their "Truelife" brand was supposed to be their best!)? I'd use the monitor for web-browsing, some development, gaming and the odd movie.

AlmightyCushion

Last time I checked, truelife was just their name for a glossy display. If it's glossy it'll be called truelife.

ED E

Just ordered the ST2210.....we'll see how it goes. Hopefully getting another at the end of next month

PS: Was gonna get the Samsung of Komplett but they wanted 25 for shipping vs free from dell.

MartMax

Is the 21" too big? Me think it depends on how you use it.

My 3 years old 20" Dell widescreen still works fine for what I use it for, internet browsing, Photoshop and the likes, Office, etc. -> 1680 x 1050

When it comes to SF4, NFS:Shift and watching videos, my Panasonic 42" plasma does the job. -> 1280 x 720

It's probably a bit of work but dual output on the HD4850, 10 meters HDMI cable across the room and Xbox 360 Wireless controllers seem to be the ideal solution all I get at the moment.