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widescreen monitors

post #1 of 12
7/31/06 at 6:23am
Thread Starter 
hi,

im in the process of buying a new pc, and would like a little help with screen size.

i currently have a 17" flat panel 3:4, and i thought it was great at the time, but nowadays, it seems a little old. i can imagine playing some games on a 20" widescreen monitor, and i think it would be great. ( quick question : if some things arnt widescreen, do you get a bigger image of the normal image, or do you get the normal size image, not using the whole screen ? )

really, what i would like to know is, if you have a widescreen monitor, and you did have another one does the widescreen make a huge difference for you ? im mainly thinking games, office applications, webpages.. etc.

i dont want to waste my money on something that isnt needed, it does seem awefully nice to have a nice huge picture up, and multitasking effiecinently,

blue
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post #2 of 12
7/31/06 at 6:36am
Almost all newer games have ws support, the ones that don't you can usually force to run at a ws resolution. Someone else will have to tell you if it makes a big difference having ws, I still use my 17" crt.
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post #3 of 12
7/31/06 at 7:16am
Thread Starter 
ok, thanks. ive just read some reviews aswell, and they all seem to the the widescreen is definatly alot better. i think ive sorted that. Now, just a few last things before i know what to buy!

ive configured 2 computers, both very simliar, except these :

1: 6600 core 2 duo, and a much better warrenty.

2: amd 64 x2 4600 am2, and 800mhz ram compared to 533mhz.

both are very similarly priced, i cant decide. obviously, the core 2 will blow awy from performance, but will the ram at a higher clock make a big impact ?

and, considering technology alays advances, is it better to get the am2 ? it will still have a high performance, but it will most likely be alot more futureproof, with amd bringing out there new tech soon enough.
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post #4 of 12
7/31/06 at 8:10am
Thread Starter 
oops, sorry. i forgot one more thing.

i am a little over my budget, and i need to get it down somehow.. im £90 over. and i still need to buy a keyboard and mouse..

heres my options of what to do :

norton av : £33
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card , ( going from this to integrated.. is integrated alot worse, i will be listening to music, playing games on it. ) £60

speakers :Creative Labs I-Trigue 3330 - 2.1 Surround with Subwoofer ( have to drop down to some crap logitech ones. this will make a huge difference, wont it ? ) £45

a sony dvd rw, donw to a normal dvd rom ( this is my second drive ) : £20
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post #5 of 12
7/31/06 at 8:34am
Don't get Norton. As for integrated/X-Fi, the X-Fi will be a lot better. As for speakers, I've got GigaWorks 7.1 surround and never use them. I just use my headphones for everything.
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post #6 of 12
7/31/06 at 9:32am
Thread Starter 
i thought about headphones for a laptop, but not pc. dont think id like that tbh. headphones on for a long time. would you suggest the better sound card then ? and what about speakers, shoud i get a good set ?
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post #7 of 12
7/31/06 at 9:59am
y2's gigaworks are good, klipsch has some nice stuff, and so does logitech.
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post #8 of 12
7/31/06 at 10:07am
for a soundcard an audigy 2 should be good. not as expensive as an x-fi, but better than integrated. I have Sennheiser HD595 headphones, I've worn them 12+ hours at a time and they are still comfortable. not too big on speakers so I can't really recommend any.
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post #9 of 12
7/31/06 at 10:04pm
Audigy is a cheaper alternative to X-Fi, although X-Fi is superior in some ways. I went Audigy...

Norton sucks and dont even get me started. Yes i OWNED it, and yes it sucks....hardcore.

Creative 3330's are good for basic 2.1 operation. Nuff said. I have the 3340's and they are great for everyday use and gaming.

Widescreen is perfectly fine. Most normal 4:3 images are hardware streached (which i recommmend you turn off), as it looks funky. The best to do is diaplay normal aspect screens, which will add blank space to each side. If your gaming and your game doesnt support native resolution (1680x1050 in my case) and say 1280x768 is offered, just use GPU acceleration to force the image to fit so you dont have the black bars. No reall effect unless your streaching a 640x480 screen to 1920xXXXX resolution.....then it might look bad.
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post #10 of 12
8/1/06 at 1:43pm
x-fi is the way to go i got one and jumped up about 20fps in some games. yes norton isnt good i work for a large international company and we dont use norton at all. all mcafee here. but personally i say AVG. and widescreen is amazing for games i have the gateway 21in widescreen and it is amazing
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post #11 of 12
8/2/06 at 2:41am
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102189
X-Fi Fatal1ty
One Day Sale
Original Price: $279.00
Instant Savings: -$80.00
$199.00
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post #12 of 12
8/2/06 at 10:44am
o wow. wish i had the money for that. those things are crazy.
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