What will be your next upgrade?

[Judge Hades]

Well, what is going to be your next upgrade for your PC. My next upgrade is going to be a moniter which I shall be getting this Friday. The problem is I can't decide if I should go for the 19" Widescreen LCD flat panel moniter or the 20" LCD flat anel monitor.

[Deraldin]

Well, lets see here... My next upgrade will be the graphics card, the processor, motherboard, ram, monitor...

 

Come to think of it, my next upgrade will probably be a new computer.

[LadyCrimson]

I've upgraded this one about as far as I care to, since the motherboard has no capability for the post-AGP vid tech - so the next thing will be a new computer for me, as well. Probably not too soon tho.

[angshuman]

With my brand-spanking new Toledo X2 4800+ (which I have yet to install), I believe my system has finally come to a stable and balanced state and does not have any significant bottlenecks anywhere. I don't think I'll be upgrading this system again. About six months to eight months down the line, I'll try to sell the whole thing off - monitor and all - and build a new system from ground up.

[taks]

another gig of RAM, a dual-core athlon (4800+, maybe 5000+) and a new hard drive (250 GB sata @ 3.0 Gb/s). the HD is on the way, and the cpu/memory will be over the next couple months.

 

oh, and linux (fedora core 5). i'm going to dual boot with winders on the current HD and linux on the newbie.

 

taks

[Kaftan Barlast]

19" Widescreen LCD flat panel moniter or the 20" LCD flat anel monitor.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would go for the 20" without a second thought. Widescreen is for televisons, not monitors, because the only thing theyre good for is to watch widescreen films and film on an LCD screen is badness because it completely screws up the quality unless the film happens to be in the exact same resolution as the screens native resolution (which it wont)

[angshuman]

19" Widescreen LCD flat panel moniter or the 20" LCD flat anel monitor.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would go for the 20" without a second thought. Widescreen is for televisons, not monitors, because the only thing theyre good for is to watch widescreen films and film on an LCD screen is badness because it completely screws up the quality unless the film happens to be in the exact same resolution as the screens native resolution (which it wont)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd go for the 20" too, although I'm a big fan of widescreen. A 19" widescreen, however, is way too small. If you are used to a regular 19" display, you might find the height of a 19" widescreen a little too small.

 

As for the LCD native resolution thingy, I feel it doesn't affect live-action movies as much as it affects video games and anime movies. This is especially true if you use software postprocessing. A decent set of scaling filters (Lanczos resize via FFDShow + some fancy AviSynth sharpeners) can work wonders if you have the processing power to run them in real time. Once you software-resize the videos to native resolution, they look absolutely stunning. This is for up-scaling; I've never found down-scaling to be an issue at all. 1080p videos appear *perfect* on my 720p monitor without any processing.

[Pidesco]

This card. Ordered it today. I was going to wait for the 7300GT with GDDR3 memory to come out in Portugal, but I was tired of waiting. No more onboard graphics card for me.

 

And this gamepad. Just 11 euros, and will allow me to play Guilty Gear properly.

 

 

 

By the way, for anyone who's thinking of getting a bigger computer monitor just for gaming, don't do it, unless:

 

a) Your current monitor has gone to meet its maker;

 

b) You can poop money;

 

 

The problem is that larger monitors are always added pressure for you to upgrade the rest of your hardware. 1024x768 looks a lot better in a 17" CRT monitor than in 20"LCD, which means you won't feel the need to upgrade your hardware for a much longer time.

In fact, the only reason I have a 17" CRT now, is because my 15" CRT went dead last year.

[WITHTEETH]

I just put my last upgrade lastnight in to this machine.

 

A 3.4Ghz Northwood 478 pin Processor i bought on ebay for $130, not to bad.

 

I would have really liked a Core2Duo but my machine isn't anywhere near obsolete yet.

[Kaftan Barlast]

...if you use software postprocessing. A decent set of scaling filters (Lanczos resize via FFDShow + some fancy AviSynth sharpeners) can work wonders if you have the processing power to run them in real time. Once you software-resize the videos to native resolution, they look absolutely stunning. This is for up-scaling; I've never found down-scaling to be an issue at all. 1080p videos appear *perfect* on my 720p monitor without any processing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

CrystalPlayer or whatever its called has some of those built-in, I think?

 

 

Anyway, I got quite the shock when I plugged in my old 21" CRT so I could watch random filmclips and things on it while I "work". The quality of the image on that compared to my LCD screens was absolutely stunning! I tried it with three of them (an old 17", my acer 15" widescreen and a HP 19") and it looked like an amateur dvdrip on them but godly on the CRT

[SteveThaiBinh]

Well, lets see here... My next upgrade will be the graphics card, the processor, motherboard, ram, monitor...

 

Come to think of it, my next upgrade will probably be a new computer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me too. I mean, have you seen what people have been putting in the POST YOUR SPECS thread? I'm embarrassed to put my humble machine in there. Happily I do have the money for a new computer, and a fairly decent one at that.

 

Unfortunately, though computers and computer parts are generally cheaper here, the latest and even semi-latest stuff isn't available. The fastest graphics card I can find is the nVidia GeForce6600, one of which is already chugging away animating my Oblivion grass puddle, thanks. I think I'll buy in the UK and bring back with me.

Edited August 8, 2006 by SteveThaiBinh

[Dark_Raven]

A graphics card. Come to think of it, these 17" CRT monitors are rather dated.

[Pidesco]

A graphics card. Come to think of it, these 17" CRT monitors are rather dated.

 

Haven't you read what I posted? Save your money!

[Arkan]

Probably a new vid card or two, when the next generation hits the shelves. Come to think of it, since ram is usually dirt cheap, I could always max out my ram and get 2 more gigs for a total of 4.

[Dark_Raven]

A graphics card. Come to think of it, these 17" CRT monitors are rather dated.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Haven't you read what I posted? Save your money!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The brightness on one of them is fading away, it seems to show things darker than it should. Plus CRTs are bulky and take up room. I have to push my desk out away from the way in order for the monitor to fit without it falling off.

[LadyCrimson]

I still love my CRT monitor. I'd like a flat panel but every time I shop for one I'm not happy with the way they display images/videos - well, not until they reach the $1000+ price range and I'm not going there for a PCmonitor.

[Arkan]

I don't get it. Videos and video games look great on my 19" flat panel LCD

[Krookie]

I think their talking about a 19" flat panel with w i d e s c r e e n.

 

Does it work well while playing in widescreen?

[angshuman]

CrystalPlayer or whatever its called has some of those built-in, I think?

I hadn't heard about this player earlier, but I looked it up after reading your post. It definitely looks like an interesting project, and it's cross-platform to boot. I read up some of its documentation, and it seems that the only supersampling method they support is Bicubic resampling. The video processing community swears by Lanczos resizing and I can personally attest to its quality (though it is a *massive* resource hog). Start with some noise-removal, do a Lanczos resize, and add a slick sharpening filter like LimitedSharpen, and you've achieved some really high-quality upscaling. The best part is that pretty much all of the software you'll need for this is open source (GPL/LGPL). In case you're interested in giving it a shot, let me know and I'll post links to some excellent online tutorials and fora.

Anyway, I got quite the shock when I plugged in my old 21" CRT so I could watch random filmclips and things on it while I "work". The quality of the image on that compared to my LCD screens was absolutely stunning! I tried it with three of them (an old 17", my acer 15" widescreen and a HP 19") and it looked like an amateur dvdrip on them but godly on the CRT.

Quick question (and I know mkreku will say I'm nuts ): Did any of the LCD's you tested happen to have TN panels? TN panels will kill your color, contrast and viewing angles *and* give you the scaling-to-native problems, but a true 8-bit panel (PVA, S-PVA, S-IPS) will at least get the richness of your colors somewhat close to a CRT, and the only things left for you to deal with will be the aliasing and native-resolution issues.

 

Bottomline: 8-bit LCD panel + FFDShow + AviSynth + a fast CPU = excellent video quality. I will admit, however, that I have absolutely no idea if the end result actually gets anywhere close to CRT quality.

 

I don't get it. Videos and video games look great on my 19" flat panel LCD

Games appear sucky only if you do not play at your LCD's native resolution (usually the highest resolution your monitor supports). However, do keep in mind that I am pathologically allergic to "teh jaggies". Several of my friends do not find teh jaggies distracting, and a lot of them aren't bothered by non-native LCD resolutions either. Me, I feel as if every atom in my eye is being excruciatingly plucked out one-by-one when I am looking at a screen full of teh jaggies. An LCD panel running at non-native resolution, to me feels like teh jaggies with quad-damage.

[alanschu]

I still prefer my CRT over various flat panel monitors I have tried.

[Pidesco]

The brightness on one of them is fading away, it seems to show things darker than it should. Plus CRTs are bulky and take up room. I have to push my desk out away from the way in order for the monitor to fit without it falling off.

 

Oh, OK then.

 

But buy a tiny one. 15" inch, if possible. Unless of course you have money pooping abilities.

Edited August 9, 2006 by Pidesco

[LostStraw]

I still prefer my CRT over various flat panel monitors I have tried.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was the same way until I received a nice 19" wide screen LCD as a present. The image quality is much (much) nicer.. granted it was an older CRT though, and I just love the extra space to work with.

 

I wasn't able to really tell the difference until I saw them side by side. But now I can't go back to the CRT without noticing all the little flaws. I don't think I'd switch back to a CRT now, even though I know there are CRTs with better image quality (especially for professional uses). I've gotten used to the expansiveness that didn't exist on my old CRT (also 19").

[alanschu]

I use flatscreens at work, and have seen my fair share of NWN on those flat screens. In the end, I still prefer the image quality of my CRT when I come back home.

 

Space is not an issue for me, so that aspect has little appeal for me.

[Rosbjerg]

Well, lets see here... My next upgrade will be the graphics card, the processor, motherboard, ram, monitor...

 

Come to think of it, my next upgrade will probably be a new computer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

ditto!

[LadyCrimson]

I've seen flat panels that impressed me somewhat intially, but the more I'd play with them the less I liked them. Things like photographs just aren't...well to me it's like the difference between a glossy photo and a matte photo (even when the flat-screen itself was covered w/smooth and glass like material), where the glossy photo is much better at rendering dark contrasts and smooth textual lines than matte. My eyes are also much more aware of the 2D nature of the screen on the flat panels. There's something about flat panels that flattens the illusionary dimmension.

 

I'd like the less/no eye-glare aspect of the flats, but my eyes just don't like their screens yet.