Widescreen or standard LCD monitor?

[rip_1956]

I plan to replace a 17" CRT with an LCD monitor. Right now my vidcard is an nVidia geForce2 mx100/200 32mb. I am not a gamer, so this card is sufficient (for now).

One of the LCD's I was considering is a '19" widescreen'. But I have read of folks having problems with widescreen monitors (distorted or stretched windows, problems with fonts, etc). Some of these issues were in product reviews online, so the problems may have been operator error.

My question: What things should be considered when deciding between a widescreen LCD monitor and a standard LCD monitor?

[slam]

you should check the LCD optimal settings and see if your card supports it. Otherwise you will get the distortion.

[Peter M]

19" widescreens use a rather odd resolution of 1440x900. Install the latest drivers for your graphics card, then, in Advanced properties, turn off "Hide modes this monitor can't display", and browse the "List All Modes" window for this resolution. If not present, then it won't work.

20" and 22" widescreens use a slightly more common resolution of 1680x1050. Same procedure to check for support.

[MadPistol]

I agree with Peter M. The Widescreen is preferred simply because it's cooler and it displays more than its regular LCD counterpart. If your video card supports that res (1440x900) then the 19" widescreen is a winner hands down.

[G]

Samsung SM204B 20.1" 5ms 'Gaming TFT' 800:1 (1600 x 1200) Black DVI ergonomic four-way adjustable stand: height, pivot, tilt and swivel TFT Monitor 3 Years Warranty

Pixel free guarantee:

manufacturer #: SM204BL

The price have come right over £70 in the past week. It was £305 Now about £220. I'm getting two :-)

Newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001225
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226

[fizur2002]

i have the Samsung 940BW and i will say its the best monitor i have ever used. I have no issues with distortion or anything. Reading websites and typing papers is easier now.

[rip_1956]

Thanks for the input!

G - The SM204B looks great, but a bit rich for me right now.

Fiz - I was leaning towards Viewsonic or Samsung. Newegg has the 941BW (replaced the 940bw?) at a decent price AND a $40 mir .

As for the videocard, my old geforce2 cannot handle the resolution, so I'm gonna get a new one. Newegg has a SAPPHIRE 100562L-GN Radeon 9600PRO at a decent price that sounds like what I need.

It has Max Resolution of 2048x1536, so I hope 1440 x 900 is in there somewhere...

[rip_1956]

For what it's worth, I bought the Samsung widescreen 941BW, and a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 256mb vidcard. Tonight I will install the vidcard. The monitor arrived yesterday, so I hooked it up to my old GeForce nVidia card. It worked at 1440x900 after I loaded the monitor drivers. Big difference from the old CTR!

Thanks, all, for the friendly advice...

[G]

Good to hear it's a worthwhile improvement :)

Samsung make lovely LCDs and that’s a good graphics card too. I have the same one : Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB.

[rip_1956]

Maybe I need to start a new thread ...

Just finished installing the Catalyst 6.11 drivers on the new Radeon 9600Pro mentioned above. All seems fine except:

Any web page that has a box to login will not accept any keystrokes. The cursor positioner (?) blinks rapidly, but no typed characters appear. In Google, no search terms can be entered.

I'm off to search for a solution, good thing I have about 4 or 5 PC's to use (that's how i got logged in here; currently typing on my Vector Linux box).

Any thoughts on possible issues with the Catalyst 6.11 driver?

[G]

Try another reboot.

[rip_1956]

Did that, no good, then did a shutdown/power off, power on. Didn't help.

One thing I didn't mention. I d/l'ed the Catalyst suite, but the 'Control Center' install choked on ' .NET not loaded , install it then re-install Control center' . I had to do a hard reset because the installer froze and wouldn't 'Cancel'.

Gonna try uninstalling the Suite, then d/l and install just the drivers.

[rip_1956]

(Hanging head in shame )

The keyboard plug fell out. i must have knocked it loose when I double-checked the DVI connectors after installing the vidcard!

Plugged the keyboard back in.
It's working fine now!

Stupid mistake !

Nothing to see here, folks, move along ...

[G]

Mystery solved ;)

[Baddog]

As the boys in the motorcycle club say....Cut The Gas On!!!!:D