New monitor advice?

[Huguenot]

I am looking into buy a new monitor -- a 17" LCD flat panel from LG. (the L1720PQ) With rebates and a gift certificate from Best Buy it's only $229 for a well-reviewed product.

Question: Will it matter that my desktop is several years old...an 833MHz Dell Dimension, with 384 MG of RAM? Biggest issue is a very small hard drive but I just got an 80 GIG external HD. Win XP Home is running.

And will the new screen enable me to see the live races better? Will the quality really improve? Also, I really can't afford the extra $125 for the 19-inch screen but do I need 19 inches?
Besides watching races, I might someday watch TV shows (not movies tho) on my desktop. I'm not into gaming so don't need THAT sophisticated a monitor.

[Rick]

You should not have any trouble hooking that monitor to your system.

I finally went with 19" and many times I still wish they were bigger than that. :D

[Donnie]

Andi-
Concerning performance you are going to have to probably change your video card (or add a video card) to something a little more robust, especially if you want to watch TV on your system. Be sure to get a card that utilizes on-board memory (the memory chip is right on the card) otherwise it will use your system ram and all around performance may suffer. I don't think just adding a new monitor will enhance the video playback of races....this is where a video card update comes in. As Rick pointed out, don't skimp on size because of the price. The larger the screen the more applications you can have open at the same time and comfortably see. I have one window with youbet running and HTR in another window. I use 21 in monitors in my basement and I don't have to squint to see any of the info in either window.

I installed a new video card with 128 Mb onboard and then added a tuner card to get cable TV on my system. It comes with a program called Snapstream which is just like TIVO....we can watch one show while recording another. You can pause live TV and go back to it anytime. It has a fast forward that skips the commercials as well. My intent is to use it to record the race replays from PRM this coming meet. They air them at midnight, which isn't very fitting for my schedule.

[Huguenot]

Thought I might need a new video card....something else to research.

thanks.....

[Snagaltooth]

Huguenot, if you have the Dell I think you do, the video chip you have at present is on the motherboard. Adding a video card is the best way to go.

I did that and really enjoyed the improvement. There are two different type of cards. Be sure to get the right one. Some stores don't take back these type of cards once the package is opened..that's the voice of experience.

[Paladin]

If you want to go a little more expensive, there's a 20" Flat Screen Monitor on sale at Costco.
You can check it out here :

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11104098&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=

[Huguenot]

thanks..interesting the ad doesn't give the specs on response time. That's suspiciously cheap for a 19-inch screen.

I'm leaning toward the Samsung 930b 19" -- with rebate and my $50 gift certificate should come in at $325 with tax at Best Buy, and it got good reviews from people at amazon.com

Donnie,

A Dell rep swore I didn't need a new video card, but we'll see. Some posters on Amazon said I would need to buy a $15 DVI cable and a graphics card to fine-tune the video, but that's probably true for most of them and I can get that later.

[Paladin]

"the ad doesn't give the specs on response time. That's suspiciously cheap for a 19-inch screen. "

Hugue,

The costco ad says " ClearMotiv 8ms video response time with Dynamic Structure Technology"
Is that the spec you were looking for?
Also has duel digital/analog inputs. Stereo speakers./duel full page displays. 20"screen.
I saw it at Costco, looks pretty sharp.
I'd better stop before I talk myself into it !

[William]

While certainly not meaning to insults anyone's intelligence, I am thinking that perhaps many ae not aware of the dual screen capability that one has available with Windows XP. And using 2 screens sure comes in handy when doing the races real time.....like having the tote board on one screen and HTR on the other.

[Snagaltooth]

Go ahead and insult me. :D I don't how to do that. I have an extra monitor. Tell me how to do it please.

[Rick]

You have to get a video card that will handle multible monitors.

www.newegg.com is a good place to shop but not the only place.

You also need to know what kind of connectors you have. There are two basic types, analog and digital. Analog is the D-Sub and digital is the DVI plug. You will probably find both types of connectors on a digital display.

I just ordered an XFX Geforce 6600 with dual DVI connectors. Fan is louder than I like.

Having more than one monitor is great. Having more than one larger monitors is better.

[William]

When it comes to computer savy, I probably am at the low end of the totem pole. All i know is i have a Toshiba Satellite laptop that is almost 3 years old and once when talking to a customer rep at Toshiba sevice center he found out i was using an external monitor in place of the laptop monitor. The rep asked me if i knew i could used both screens at the same time......and i didn't. He then had me to change a setting in the Display function at the Control Panel. Then it is just a matter of dragging a browser window or HTR window from one monitor to the other and then maximizing it. Maybe the Toshiba laptop comes with the necessary video card, but i thought the dual monitor capability was a function of Windows XP.

[Rick]

You are right about the laptops.

I am talking about desktops. The video is built into the motherboard or they have a video card. Most only have one connection to hook the monitor up to.

I had thought about hooking a 19" monitor to the laptop but I never thought of doing it as dual screens. Nice way to add more screen space.

You could probably get several versions of HTR2 going at the same time on two screens.