teh Forum

Ahoy - I dreamt last night that a friend asked me to set up a forum for him. I am taking that as a sign that I am neglecting my own forum. I apologize. I have been hard at work for the past week and a half training for my new job as Assistant to the Head of Physical Production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. The old assistant is now gone and I am on my own - fully trained. The job is great and I am really happy to be working right out of school - doing more or less what I would like to be doing.

While the pay is far from great, I am sitting at a desk quite a bit so I should be around teh intarealm more often than of the last few months - at least once I get more into the swing of things.

On the housing front, Emily and I are subletting an apartment in West Hollywood for the summer. We will be looking for something a little more permanent (well at least a year) towards the end of Summer. I am hoping I will be able to make a visit to the NW sometime towards the early Fall and maybe bring Emily along for y'all NWers to meet. In the mean time, definitely let me know if anyone is down this way. We surely have room for crashers.

Oh the PC woes. Now that I have bonafide free time and a paycheck I can think a bit more about the long overdue PC upgrade. The 865 board is acting up and I need to get the hell into PCI-e. Keep me in mind for any kind of up/downgradem deals. I would really love to get an LCD. Moving has reminded me how much I hate lugging around that 21" Sony CRT. But my desperate need for a good TV is keeping that upgrade on the back burner.

So there. That should satisfy the forum dream gods. Congrats to McNevin on the new, much better paying than my, job. What else is goin on??

20.1 inch LCDs are going in the $300 range these days. I use a 4:3 20.1, and McNevin uses a 16:9 20.1. Either way they look nice, and are getting very affordable.

Doin some LCD research...

Here is a rather recent Tom's article on the world of 20" 16:10 LCDs. Not a whole lot of great news there.

In the final analysis, we have to say that the video performance of 16:10 monitors still falls short. Progress has been made in that area, but they're still far from what the best of the current crop of 19" monitors can do.

The only one that seems okay is the ViewSonic VX2025WM - $330 at Newegg.

Here is my problem. Right now I have a 21" monitor that has a very very comfortable 1600x1200 resolution. If I decide to buy an LCD, it seems I have to reduce my screen real estate. Even these 20.1" widescreens are 1680x1050. Not a gigantic diference - but still a reduction.

ExtremeTech has some good things to say about the The Dell 2007FWP ($370 from Dell). McNevin - is this what you are rocking? (notes on earlier banding problem)

On the 4x3 front - the only thing I would consider would be a UXGA or better panel. Sorry, but I am not gonna run 1280x1024. So what are the options...

The Samsung 204B is rated at 5ms and an attractive $355 at Newegg. I can't seem to find any worthy reviews of the sucker though.

Dell has their 2007FP that they want $415 for. Again nothing out there from the main review sites, but the rated 16ms response isn't too impressive.

Viewsonic weighs in with their VP2030b for $430 at Newegg. Rated as 8ms with a 1000:1 contrast ratio (most rate at 800:1) this could be a great screen. No one seems to have reviews of this one either (what the hell??) but Tom's loved the 19" VP930 when the reviewed it last Nov. If the stats for the 20" version are similar this is a powerful monitor.

Well this is where I am so far. It would seem there is no huge favorite. To the widescreeners out there - how was the transition? Once you go 16, can you never go back, or is it just a gimmick? Any words on latency? Do you miss the big bulky CRT for gaming?

Thoughts? Links?

I found some actual stats on the 20.1" LCD screen size on HardOCP and compared them to actual CRT measurements for my monitor:

Actual screen dimensions of my Sony G520 21" CRT
400mm x 300mm (15.76in x 11.82in = actually 19.7in monitor)
Total viewing area = 120,000 sqmm (186.28 sqin)

Actual screen dimensions of Dell 2007WFP 20.1" LCD
433.4mm x 270.9mm (17.08in x 10.67in - actually 20.13in monitor)
Total viewing area = 117,408 sqmm (182.24 sqin)

Guess we aren't dealing with too much of a difference here.

I use the Dell 20.1" 4:3 1600x1200. Couldn't be much happier. It looks excellent. No complaints in games either. I decided that since I don't watch movies on my computer at all, that 16:X was not necessary, or even desirable. I like having more vertical space. I suppose if I had a 30+ inch widescreen that would cease to be an issue, but in the 20s I think 4:3 is better on a PC.

This site is where i found the deal for my 2005fpw:

http://techbargains.com/