Need new monitor fast!

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2006
Posts
3,900
Location
Swindon
Argh, after several years of service my Benq monitor is no longer displaying a picture. I have connected an old 15" monitor to my PC so as to isolate the problem and on this I can see the startup screens before it gives me an 'out of range' message. The Benq doesn't show anything at all, including its logo, 'no signal' message and menu screens, so it must be the monitor which has failed and not the graphics card in my PC.

Anyhow, I now need a new one and pretty fast too as I go to uni in a week! I notice most monitors are widescreen format, I know that my graphics card will output widescreen resolutions but I have concerns. What will happen when trying to play an old game (Quake 3) on a widescreen monitor? Will I get edge bars or will it strech? I'm fairly certain the game won't display in widescreen. With web browsing it appears you just get either filler bars or a wider web page, neither is too bad. For films the wide is an advantage (though I normally only play TV DVDs on my PC, futurama etc). I also am not sure how much space my uni desk has for a really wide one.

I'm looking for suggestions up to around £100. Primarily excellent picture quality and fast response, but also an in-built power supply would be nice, speakers are not required or desired. The Dell IN2010N 20" Widescreen seems like a good deal but is going to be very broad on the desk. I also came accross the Fujitsu E19-9 19" LCD TFT Monitor which is standard format 19" and on specs should be good, but is quite elusive in terms of customer feedback.

Any suggestions? 17-20" should be possible to accomodate :)
 
Are you certain that space will be such a massive issue, have you had a chance to see your room yet?

I ask because you can get 23in 1920x1080 monitors for not much more than that 20in dell, and imho the extra screen real-estate provided by the higher resolution is well worth it - especially if you do a lot of work or internet use on the machine.

as for playing quake 3 in widescreen - I believe you can, and quake live definitely supports it.

For internet use, many websites don't make use of the extra width and just have a blank area at the sides. However, many more websites are making use of widescreen these days, as widescreen PC monitors have almost become standard in the past few years.
 
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Thanks for your reply! Sounds like widescreen might be worth embracing then. I think a 23" would just be overwhelming for most up close use? Great for films i'm sure!

It's not that the desk couldn't take it, but I built some rather wide speakers and with them both it makes up quite an extra width. I had naturally intended them to be used with my 4:3 17" Benq! I can take a little more width though I reckon.

What do you think about LED backlit screens? I ask because there's a nice looking 18.5" widescreen Benq one in budget, the BenQ G922HDL. Seems a good idea in theory, though perhaps not that essential on a computer monitor?
 
My pleasure, happy to be of help.

As for the really big screens, I know what you mean about how they can look overwhelming. However, if you work with one up close for an hour or so you honestly get use to it and probably decide never to go back :)

When I first started uni I had a 19in 4:3 BenQ and i thought it was great (first LCD), however I am now using a 27in 1920x1200 screen and I could never go back - I simply couldn't do the same kind of work on the smaller screen. As for how close you sit from the monitor -to be honest I sit almost as close to the 27in as I did my 19in - there is just much more to see and the computing experience is much more immersive.

When you compare the size of a 20in widescreen and a 23in widescreen, the 23in is only 2.6 inches wider - which shouldn't be too much in the grand scheme of things. However, at the same time the 23in has 32% more viewing area than a 20in.
 
Ok, I have estimated the width of the desk (from a photo, with CD for scale!) as 120cm. Take away 56cm for the width of the pair of speakers leaves me 64cm maximum monitor width, roughly. This is actually quite large I guess.

So, I can have any realistic size I want, if budget allowed, but I still feel like 17" is really sufficient for me.

Some other concerns. Some of these wide monitors seem to have less actual resolution/detail than what I might be used to. The standard format 17" gives 1.3mp of detail, whereas that 18.5" Benq for instance gives about 1mp. The extra size combined with this lower number of pixels could lead to an indistinct picture? On the other hand, if I went for a screen with a much higher native resolution (22" for instance) then will the extra load to 'run' it slow my machine down at all? It's quite a capable GFX card, (512mb DDR3 memory).

BTW, if I wanted a larger monitor, the BenQ G2222HDL seems like a really great deal? LED, good resolution and it's on offer too.
 
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Have you considered ordering the monitor after you get to Uni? This would allow you to make an informed decision about the monitor with the size of the desk known. If you order from somewhere like OCUK then you will have the monitor at your halls the next day (so long as you order before 4pm).

As for number of pixels - yes a standard 4:3 monitor like the BenQ will have a good deal less pixels due to the low resolution. In general this will mean that large images will either be too large to fit all of one on the screen at once or have to be scaled down to fit the screen (which does reduce the quality considerably). For this reason alone you would be much better off going for one of the widescreen monitors (the 1080p ones dusplay 2 megapixels).

As for your graphics card, what is the specific card model? Quite a lot have 512MB DDR3 memory these days, some are excellent, some are pants.
 
I could do with the monitor beforehand, just so I can use my PC in the meantime. We have that spare 15", but as it stands I can't get it to show the desktop until I downscale my output resolution, and of course I can't do that without getting to my desktop! Perhaps if I can start in safe mode or something?

My GFX is the ASUS EN8600GT SILENT 512MB GDDR3 card. I've never really pushed it, Mafia (the first!) is as far as it's been, but I've been told it's quite decent.

I am definately considering the BenQ G2222HDL though still can't quite imagine it! Does such a large monitor tire your eyes more? It's basically just that the price difference between a standard 17" 4:3 and that Benq (or similar) is a mere £20 or so, so it seems like I'm missing a track by not going for it :confused:
 
In normal desktop usage that graphics card will be 100% fine for 1920x1080 resolution output. Even in older games (including Mafia 1) it will be fine. However, for newer games it won't be able to keep up. That said, this will be the same for a 1920x1080 resolution or a 1280x1024 resoution - it simply doesn't have the pixel pushing power for newer games.

As for tiring your eyes, not at all. So long as you have it close enough to you (so the text isn't to small) and set the brightness for your usage then it is no less comfortable than using a smaller monitor. In fact, I find it more comfortable as you can display more on screen and not have to mess about so much with opening and closing different windows (especially when using windows 7 where you can set two windows side-by-side with a quick flick).

It may be worth going to a high street electronics shop and having a go with a large high resolution screen in-person. I'm sure you will find the experience enlightening.
 
Cool, thanks for all your help! I've got the old 15" (mabye 14"!) monitor connected up now (had to boot in safe mode with VGA enabled to adjust my resolution), so at least have a day or two to think about it. It's a pretty unpleasant viewing experience with this though :(

It's really between the 22" Benq LED screen and a basic 4:3 17" screen, but I've yet to find a smaller one for such a lower price that it is justifiable by comparison.
 
Ok, I'll probably go with the BenQ 22" then. Appears well reviewed online. Thanks :)

Odd question on DVI cables. I have a short one but I swear using it instead of VGA (actually via DVI-VGA adapter block on GFX card) interferes with my wireless internet. I've not experimented thoroughly with it but it runs right next to my Wi-Fi antenna and I notice the cable (it was cheap) has no ferrites on it. Is that actually possible? I'll probably need a longer one anyhow but just wondered :)
 
Cool, looks like a good monitor- hope you enjoy it :)

If you are worried about your DVI cable, a new one should be very cheap (less than £5). Anyway, if you are going to uni I imagine you will be connecting to the net via Ethernet - so wifi interference shouldn't be an issue.
 
I have had the BenQ a few weeks now. It's a nice monitor, can't really fault it myself. Quake 3 does fun in full 1920x1080 resolution, which I think is awesome for a ~10 year old game! Using DVI cable, single link, no issues :)
 
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