Technical > PC Hardware Discussion/Reviews > Need monitor and video card recommendation

Need monitor and video card recommendation

reply to roztaylor
Move up to a x64 OS and increase the RAM.
Get this card.
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···14161284

Not 21" it's 23"
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···24009201
--
In need of a Vegas vacation.

reply to roztaylor
Firstly I think it is a mistake to pay attention to the claimed contrast ratios. There is no consistent way of measuring this and numbers can be all over the place. The best way to buy a monitor is to use ones own eyes. Of course even looking at them in a store can be difficult because the viewing conditions can be drastically different than the work environment. It is still better than buying them on specs like contrast ratio.

As far as the card a new one might not be needed depending on what is presently being run. One doesn't need a powerful graphics card for what he is doing, just one that supports the resolution his monitor is running at and has the proper outputs. It also wouldn't hurt to know about the power supply(brand and model) or the brand and model of machine, so we can look up the psu info.

reply to roztaylor
I want to add a bit to my post.
I think if he goes out and looks at options at local stores he will probably be able to find something he likes.

If, on the other hand, he really demands a high end panel that is designed for photographic work he is going to run into problems with his monitor size requirements. Most high end panels will be expensive and they will be big. It won't be easy to find smaller panels that are high quality because the market has moved on from small panels and most of what remains is designed for the low cost segment.

Now I don't believe that the vast majority of photographic work really requires such panels. If one is serious about it then the monitor needs to be properly calibrated with a colorimeter no matter how much money you spend on it. Spending a lot of money buying a monitor and then not calibrating it is pointless.

Everyone wants to have the best but if this is for personal use a calibrated reasonable cost TN panel should be acceptable. In fact, for personal use, such a monitor visually adjusted manually to bring the brightness down and change the color temp away from 9K toward 6500K would probably be fine. Keep in mind that most monitors are set to be far too bright and far too blue from the factory. People who are not used to calibrated monitors often find a properly calibrated monitor looks yellowish and muddy for a while precisely because people are so used to ear searing brightness and high color temps that give a very cool looking white. Ones eyes adjust over time.

reply to roztaylor
He would probably do well to check out an LCD that has 1920X1080 resolution. An AGP card and current hardware specs will work, as is.

Might be better in this case than NVIDIA.

»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···-Product

reply to VegasMan
When did getting a new monitor ever require an OS as well as a VGA upgrade?

I am sorry, I am totally lost. Perhaps I am a bit out-dated and out of touch with the current technology trends. Please fill me in.

reply to asdfdfdfdfdf

reply to Chrno

said by Chrno:

When did getting a new monitor ever require an OS as well as a VGA upgrade?

I am sorry, I am totally lost. Perhaps I am a bit out-dated and out of touch with the current technology trends. Please fill me in.

reply to Chrno

said by Chrno:

When did getting a new monitor ever require an OS as well as a VGA upgrade?

I am sorry, I am totally lost. Perhaps I am a bit out-dated and out of touch with the current technology trends. Please fill me in.

reply to roztaylor
Ok the 5200 can be made to support some widescreen resolutions but one has to fiddle with custom resolutions and it may not work with dvi. If he wants to try to play around with his present card to see if he can get it to work first I'll try to help him where I can.
If money isn't a pressing issue I would go ahead and replace it with the 8400gs listed below.

Here is a relatively inexpensive 8400gs pci card:

»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···14133245

I recommend pci rather than agp so that he can reuse it in a later machine. If he buys agp it will have to be scrapped if he replaces the machine since agp is dead.

This has about the same power draw as the 5200 card so should be a pretty safe replacement.

Chances are if he did any upgrade, that card would also go, rather than applied to a new system. He is looking for a filler and I have run his setup in the past, so my reccommendation is based on an actual system configuration. It's extremely unlikely that any filler card for this setup will be kept for an upgraded system.

reply to VegasMan
what program(s) does your friend use? that might be his biggest issue. if using a newer version of Photoshop, it would probably be more economical to get a new system, minimum dual core.

otherwise I think you should be able to get a Nvidia 6800 card for a decent price, but I don't think it is really going to help them all that much if they are concerned about the slowness of photo editing.

I'm not a pro, but just my .02

reply to roztaylor
What are the space restrictions in width, height, depth? Will a 22" wide fit possibly? Dell 2209WA is a 22" IPS LCD for around $240. It has a matte screen.

If he can find one, the NEC 20WMGX2 is a 20" IPS with glossy screen. It is arguably one of the best 20" LCD and somewhat highly sought after. It has been out of production for a while but I managed to pick up a refurbed one about a year ago for about $200. In 2007, I think these were more than $600 each.

reply to roztaylor
My friend says "thanks to all who offered assistance"--he has decided to not upgrade his current computer system, but to figure out what he wants in a new system and buy a new system--he is even thinking of building it himself.

Also, since he is an avid gardener, living in the Carolinas, he won't be building it anytime soon. His days and evenings are being taken up by landscaping and gardening.

Since I've introduced him to DSL Reports "support" system, when he can stay awake long enough, he plans to read more and maybe even ask for help "on his own."

Thanks, again from both of us!
--
Choose to make it a good day... don't wait for something good to happen!

reply to roztaylor
for pro editing you need an good monitor S-IPS panel like the U2410 from dell for video card really any thing will do a 5670 is a good all around card with support for 3 monitors at the same time

nice price on the monitor 5670 is a good card to pair it with now you just need 2 more U2410s and you really get some work done >.> or you know also get a 5970 and... not... get... some... work... done...
i have a 2407WFP atm love it got it for 250 new last summer