Entry Level Buyer's Guide, October 2005
by Jarred Walton on October 14, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Display Recommendations
The final component left to choose is the display. This is very difficult to do for a budget guide, without compromising on quality. We'd love to throw in an LCD, but without resorting to three-year-old models on clearance - a lot like what you get with many $500 OEM systems - the cost is a bit high. The cheapest decent LCDs (i.e. 17" 1280x1024 panels) start at over $210, so we're going to stick with CRTs. As with cases, you can probably get a better idea of what you're buying if you go to a local store. Larger stores like Best Buy and CompUSA will often have sales as well, and shipping costs on 35+ pound monitors often negate any price advantage of shopping online.
One other piece of advice if you want to get an LCD: you'll really want a model with a DVI connection. The digital signal prevents noise from creeping into the image, and we definitely feel it's worth the added cost. This brings up a second point: none of the current motherboards with IGP (that I'm aware of) have a DVI port. Even if you don't care about graphics performance, you'll have to purchase an add-in video card to get DVI-out.
Before we get to the actual recommendations, we want to offer this advice: your display is what you look at when you use the computer, and if it's a lower quality display, you will notice. You might also keep the display for many years, going through several PC upgrades. More than any other component, we would advise people to splurge on a really nice display. If you gave most people the choice between a really fast $800 system with a cheap CRT vs. a budget system with a nice 19" or even 20" widescreen LCD, the vast majority would prefer a quality display over the faster PC. If that doesn't apply to you, that's fine, but most of us have moved to LCDs now, and old 17" CRTs (as well as the early 40 ms LCDs) are almost painful to use.
Price: $127 shipped
The options for decent 17" CRTs are very limited. There are better models, but they are increasingly difficult to find online, and prices are often higher than 19" CRTs. Envision is a generic brand, and the display uses an invar shadow mask tube as opposed to the preferred aperture grille. Still, it has decent quality output and can run at up to 1280x1024 at 60 Hz, though we'd recommend 1152x864 at 75 Hz instead. (Unlike LCDs, a 60 Hz refresh rate on a CRT is clearly visible and most people find the flicker effect to be irritating.)
For about $20 more, you could "upgrade" to the NEC FE772 model, but you really don't get anything extra. They have the same resolution and features, and while the NEC display might be a bit better, we'd go for a larger display instead. The older NEC FE771-SB was a better monitor, and it used an aperture grille tube. It no longer shows up on most online pricing engines and has been discontinued. The replacement FE772 is a shadow mask like the Envision, and we find the displays to be a little less flat and a little less bright. As we've already stated, the quality of CRTs is on the decline, and "upgrades" like this only further illustrate the point. The majority of CRTs now being manufactured are cutting every corner possible to keep the costs down, and in reality, most 17" CRTs probably cost more to manufacture than even the 19" LCDs. Demand is the only thing keeping LCD prices up, and conversely, it keeps CRT prices low.
Price: $169 shipped
Déjà vu - didn't we already see this monitor? Just as the pickings are slim for 17" CRTs, they are equally poor on 19" models. We ended up with Envision again, based on price and quality. There are no aperture grille displays to be found online (in the 19" market), so the only thing that you can get out of the more expensive models is support for higher resolutions. Anything beyond 1600x1200 on an 18" viewable display is going to be difficult to notice.
Slightly better models are available for about $70 more, such as the Samsung 997DF. Contrary to the manufacturer specs, that actually will run 2048x1536 at 60Hz - at least the one that I own works at that resolution. 1600x1200 at 75 Hz is far preferable, though, outside of running high resolution benchmarks - at least in my opinion. Incidentally, I picked up my Samsung 997DF over a year ago for $200 at Best Buy, which is $40 less than the current online price plus shipping. They might still have some on clearance, if you're lucky.
The final component left to choose is the display. This is very difficult to do for a budget guide, without compromising on quality. We'd love to throw in an LCD, but without resorting to three-year-old models on clearance - a lot like what you get with many $500 OEM systems - the cost is a bit high. The cheapest decent LCDs (i.e. 17" 1280x1024 panels) start at over $210, so we're going to stick with CRTs. As with cases, you can probably get a better idea of what you're buying if you go to a local store. Larger stores like Best Buy and CompUSA will often have sales as well, and shipping costs on 35+ pound monitors often negate any price advantage of shopping online.
One other piece of advice if you want to get an LCD: you'll really want a model with a DVI connection. The digital signal prevents noise from creeping into the image, and we definitely feel it's worth the added cost. This brings up a second point: none of the current motherboards with IGP (that I'm aware of) have a DVI port. Even if you don't care about graphics performance, you'll have to purchase an add-in video card to get DVI-out.
Before we get to the actual recommendations, we want to offer this advice: your display is what you look at when you use the computer, and if it's a lower quality display, you will notice. You might also keep the display for many years, going through several PC upgrades. More than any other component, we would advise people to splurge on a really nice display. If you gave most people the choice between a really fast $800 system with a cheap CRT vs. a budget system with a nice 19" or even 20" widescreen LCD, the vast majority would prefer a quality display over the faster PC. If that doesn't apply to you, that's fine, but most of us have moved to LCDs now, and old 17" CRTs (as well as the early 40 ms LCDs) are almost painful to use.
Click to enlarge.
Price: $127 shipped
The options for decent 17" CRTs are very limited. There are better models, but they are increasingly difficult to find online, and prices are often higher than 19" CRTs. Envision is a generic brand, and the display uses an invar shadow mask tube as opposed to the preferred aperture grille. Still, it has decent quality output and can run at up to 1280x1024 at 60 Hz, though we'd recommend 1152x864 at 75 Hz instead. (Unlike LCDs, a 60 Hz refresh rate on a CRT is clearly visible and most people find the flicker effect to be irritating.)
For about $20 more, you could "upgrade" to the NEC FE772 model, but you really don't get anything extra. They have the same resolution and features, and while the NEC display might be a bit better, we'd go for a larger display instead. The older NEC FE771-SB was a better monitor, and it used an aperture grille tube. It no longer shows up on most online pricing engines and has been discontinued. The replacement FE772 is a shadow mask like the Envision, and we find the displays to be a little less flat and a little less bright. As we've already stated, the quality of CRTs is on the decline, and "upgrades" like this only further illustrate the point. The majority of CRTs now being manufactured are cutting every corner possible to keep the costs down, and in reality, most 17" CRTs probably cost more to manufacture than even the 19" LCDs. Demand is the only thing keeping LCD prices up, and conversely, it keeps CRT prices low.
Click to enlarge.
Price: $169 shipped
Déjà vu - didn't we already see this monitor? Just as the pickings are slim for 17" CRTs, they are equally poor on 19" models. We ended up with Envision again, based on price and quality. There are no aperture grille displays to be found online (in the 19" market), so the only thing that you can get out of the more expensive models is support for higher resolutions. Anything beyond 1600x1200 on an 18" viewable display is going to be difficult to notice.
Slightly better models are available for about $70 more, such as the Samsung 997DF. Contrary to the manufacturer specs, that actually will run 2048x1536 at 60Hz - at least the one that I own works at that resolution. 1600x1200 at 75 Hz is far preferable, though, outside of running high resolution benchmarks - at least in my opinion. Incidentally, I picked up my Samsung 997DF over a year ago for $200 at Best Buy, which is $40 less than the current online price plus shipping. They might still have some on clearance, if you're lucky.
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grimdeath - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
good choice on the samsung 997df monitor, i bought mine for the same price at best buy as well around 2 years ago. its still crips, clean and bright :) im not sure how i hear more ppl voting for other brands after looking at this compared to others(though NEC seems decent)JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I also own an NEC FE991SB that I purchased for $260 or so 18 months back - maybe even two years ago? Overall, I prefer it to the Samsung, but the Samsung has a higher resolution. Both of them cost more now than they did a year ago, though, which pretty much sucks. Sadly, the new NEC CRT models aren't even equal to the old Samsung monitors.IntelUser2000 - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
An entry level gaming graphics card is Geforce 6600GT?? Sheesh. My friends who are "Hardcore Gamers" have Radeon 9800 Pro/XT.JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I look at "Entry Level" gaming in terms of price, not performance. To me, that means $100 to $150 is ideal, and the 6600GT fits that requirement quite nicely. You can play many games on a slower graphics card, but usually with lower detail settings. Why not spend the extra $30 and get a decent performance boost?You can also think about it another way: how much does a current game cosole cost? $150 or so, right? Take a budget PC - because many people will want a PC in the home for other uses - and you can suddenly have a respectably gaming PC for the same amount as a console. The good news is that a 6600GT will play every game currently available at 1024x768 resolution without difficulty. Many games will even handle 1280x1024 or 1024x768+4xAA.
DrZoidberg - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I agree, if u play games regularly the minimum card a gamer should get now would be a 6600gt or 9800pro. A 6600gt is only slightly faster than 9800pro so they both similar cards. Most brand new 9800pro (not crappy se edition) on newegg is selling around $120, so its not much cheaper.