What are some good 22" suggestions?

[Publicradiohead]

All my new parts should be here tomorrow -- WOOT! Now I'm thinkin' that this ratty 5-year-old 19" crt aint gonna do right by my new build.

So what kinda good gaming monitors are out there... I was hopin to spend maybe $250-$275?

Any suggestions?

[The Wise Monkey]

This Samsung is so nice, even when it is turned off:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001268

Plus with the rebate, it falls right next to your price range. :)

[MinGraphics]

I'm with wise on this one, when I built my computer I got the 226BW and I love it...I just gave it to my Husband and bought the 2243BWX, I wanted one that the height could be adjusted. My Husband loves the monitor.

[volsfan0911]

Grrr - I wish I'd ordered that instead of the viewsonic I got. Well, I may use this as a TV in the kitchen and order one anyway. The viewsonic's not bad, but it's $300 and didn't come with an adjustable base of any sort nor the DVI-HDMI cable I thought I was getting. Newegg has the Sammy with a $20 MIR currently, dropping the price to a very attractive point.

[chzlchp]

Just bought a 22" Dell (it's beautiful and works, well--well...) but I think I bought into technologies I don't understand (nothing new there!).

What I bought was an S2209W, the "W" being what I understand to mean "Wide". And so it is.

This monitor was hooked up to my existing box to replace an old, wheezing CRT. Some detail on its' new (albeit temporary) home:

--Mobo: Abit NF7-S2
--CPU: AMD Athlon 6400+
--Graphics: ATI Radeon 9600

And some other stuff (all of this is about four years old). I hooked it up with the (only available on this box) VGA connection.

Problem is, now this new monitor is spreading everything out sideways, way out of perspective, and I can't get it right. The resolution I was using, 1024x768, had a 75% vert/horizontal ratio. I tried that, and many other combinations of 75% (e.g. 1280x960) but to no avail. The "native" resolution for this monitor is 1920x1080, which is a 56.3% ratio.

Now, the good news is, I've got the parts for a new computer waiting to be cobbled together (over at my son's house--gotta wait 'til the Ravens game is over this afternoon), and this new box will house:

--Mobo: ASUS M3A78 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX
--CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Dual-Core
--Graphics: EVGA 512-P3-N860-TR GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express

So, will I be able to correct the perspective problem with the new computer? Or have I misunderstood the application, and bought a 'wide-screen' format that I just won't be able to make right? Do I have a new $250 paper-weight? Will Best Buys take it back? Can I sneak in and replace it with something better (which would be--what?) when no one's looking (that's one advantage of a brick-and-mortar store!).

Help me out here, gurus. (I know, I know, all of youse is also glued to your favorite team on the 'tube' this afternoon.) Well, hey...this is desparate stuff here! :eek:

[The Wise Monkey]

What's wrong with widescreen? The standard resolutions are 4:3, while widescreen is 16:9 as ratios of length:height.

Things shouldn't be stretched out, but you will just have to use a 16:9 resolution e.g. 1680x1050.

[chzlchp]

What's wrong with widescreen?

Things shouldn't be stretched out, but you will just have to use a 16:9 resolution e.g. 1680x1050.

I have tried numbers on both sides of my original 1024x768 (75%), where the scale was 62.5% to 80%. Nothing's different.

What's wrong with widescreen?--everything that displays is now distorted out of scale sideways; pulled and stretched. Pictures, etc., etc.

This screen is taking what is offered to it, and using the entire screen to display, with a scale that is proportionally wider than my original screens dimensions. The (VGA card) cannot make sense of the different proportions. Hence, all images are distortedly wide.

[The Wise Monkey]

That shouldn't be happening...

What resolution are you using at the moment?

[chzlchp]

What resolution are you using at the moment?

Right now...I'm resolving to get out the door on time to work (sun's not yet up here on my side of the pond). I'll get back to this when I get home tonight. Thanks.

[zburns]

Looking carefully at Dell, there is a Ultrasharp 2208WFP 22" monitor but no number "S2209W". Also, 22" monitor native resolutions are 1050 x 1680; 24" monitors are native res 1200 x 1920.

Your old Radeon Card came out in 2003 or 2004. Widescreen monitors showed up in late 2006 at the earliest, I think. Even tho the aspect ratios and resolution numbers are relatively close, they are different. I just wonder if you can assume the older product will work fine on a monitor design that did not exist when the card was designed. The older card supported specific resolutions that are not the same as the widescreen resolutions -- close but not the same is the point!

The new build should work fine; do not worry!

[chzlchp]

Looking carefully at Dell, there is a Ultrasharp 2208WFP 22" monitor but no number "S2209W". Also, 22" monitor native resolutions are 1050 x 1680; 24" monitors are native res 1200 x 1920.Yup, they exist. Got the box sitting on the couch behind me, and the screen protection paper has "1290x1080" in bold print on it.


Your old Radeon Card came out in 2003 or 2004. Widescreen monitors showed up in late 2006...I just wonder if you can assume the older product will work fine on a monitor design that did not exist when the card was designed. The older card supported specific resolutions that are not the same as the widescreen resolutions -- close but not the same is the point!

The new build should work fine; do not worry!

That's very reasonable thinking, and it's where I'm gonna let things fall. The box I'm using now (shudder... Windows XP) will loose its' dual-boot (Mandrake Linux), inherit another [spare] CRT monitor, and live on happily, when I need it for legacy apps. There's no compelling reason to force this new monitor on it, so why bother. And, you're exactly right, as soon as the new machine is up and running, all will be fine.

Was gonna make them work together just to prove a point, but that point began to involve upgrading the kernel to accept the newest [ATI] downloads. Trust me...that wasn't gonna happen!

Anyway, when the new box is up an' running, I'll come back here and share the success story.

[zburns]

I found it. Dell Model # S2209W. It is shown on several non-Dell websites and with scant information about it. The Dell on line store site shows "shadow images" and no details. BUT--- BEST BUY -- has a decent write up and details. The native resolution is 1920 x 1080 for a 22" monitor. This is a 14.3 % improvement in 22" monitor horizontal resolution; maybe a new trend. Time will tell.

The horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels is the same as the current native resolution for 24" monitors. This would appear to mean a "new and higher res panel", which may mean a new round of higher resolution panels for all monitor sizes.

Let us all know your results and comments.

[zburns]

NOTE: TODAY, Tuesday October 21. Here is the link to the Dell page for the new S2209W monitor. It is a "normal" Dell monitor page with a second "spec" page. Dot pitch is 0.248 which is very good.

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/prod...p&sku=320-7438