Yet another help request

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Joined
18 Jan 2006
Posts
180
Apologies if this is cluttering up the board, but i need help!

I'm intending to do another of my regular upgrades to my PC, and the overhaul is going to take in the graphics card and the monitor. My current setup is as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 90nm
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe
2x Corsair 512MB DDR Value Select PC3200
Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA
Antec SLK1650B Case
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro
Sun 21" CRT
Logitech Mouse & Keyboard

I'm planning to change my PSU, my Gfx card and my monitor; and it's the last that I really need help with!

My budget is the limiting factor (isn't it always?), with about £230 set aside for the monitor. I'm set on a TFT monitor of some sort, and see no reason to go for a 17" when my budget will get me a 19" screen. Moving from a the 21" CRT, I'd prefer not to lose too much screen size, and the reviews that I have read sugest that the screens in my price range are fine.

I use my machine for gaming (mostly World of Warcraft currently, but I used to enjoy regular CS games and need the monitor to be capable of playing fps), the usual browsing, but also I often work from home - so I need clear text that won't make my eyes hurt after a couple of hours intensive writing.

I'm not terribly interested in Widescreen, as I've always found the format more hassle than it's worth.

I'd obviously like to buy from OCUK as they have always provided exemplary service. So... my shortlist looks like:

Hyundai ImageQuest B90A 19" LCD Monitor (MO-027-HY)
Hyundai ImageQuest B91A 19" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-035-HY)
Hyundai ImageQuest L91A 19" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-034-HY)
Neovo F-419 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Grey (MO-016-NV)
Samsung SM-913N 19" LCD Monitor - Silver (MO-022-SA)

Faced with these choices, which would you choose and why?

(Oh, and if anyone has any recommendations for a passively cooled AGP gfx card upgrade from my 9600 Pro, that'd be very welcome too!)

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Thanks for that... I'm only running at 1280x1024 atm, and I'm completely happy with it, so no worries on that front.

How bad is the DVD playback? I usually use my TV/DVD player for watching films, but occasionally watch Divx stuff...

As for the gfx card, I'm looking at spending up to £120 on it... it doesn't need to be particularly uber, just able to cope with modern games at an appropriate resolution. I have popped a post in the graphics forum asking for help with it.

Thanks for the info, it's very useful.
 
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