Speaking of monitors .... I just bought the 22" widescreen Samsung Synchmaster 225BW. This is a moderate cost (U$400) LCD monitor with reasonably good parameters, although not considered a high end color corrected type. I was somewhat nervous whether I would like it and whether I would be able to tolerate what I assumed would be the small characters in its native mode.
Well, I have had it a week now and find the native mode to be very sharp as promised (other modes unusable compared with the ease of switching a CRT monitor), and the size is OK because of the large screen size. Yes, it does have issues with scrolling jerkiness and brightness shifts unlike a CRT, but it is something you have to accept. My vision is not so very good, and I almost have to wear special bifocals for using the computer that only have reading and computer distance in order to have large enough viewing in my restricted focus range. Having multiple monitors would be very difficult for me to handle as I would need to have some up high and as you age, your range of focus for a specific focal distance keeps getting more and more limited so that I only have a few inches either side of which things go out of focus:( So one monitor right in front of me is the most comfortable. If I use my "regular" glasses, which are trifocals, I have a limited range "computer" section and I have to tilt my head up to use that range (same with progressive lenses) and can not do this for very long due to severe arthritis in my neck. (Getting over 60 does have its downsides). Because of the increased real estate of the widescreen monitor, I am able to have multiple windows open, such as using Multipsk with DXLab Commander and DXKeeper Logging and some e-mail and maybe a web page. Some overlap of course, but enormously more manageable than with my 19" Gateway CRT that I have had for many years. I am donating the CRT to a senior citizens center where I volunteer to teach some classes in basic computer use. We have a 15" monitor that even I have trouble using as it is not only small fonts, but is not very sharp either. I suspect that there will be some surprised residents this coming week:) Some of my students are around age 90 so it is even more difficult for them. Initially, I thought the real reason for buying the wide screen was for DVD movies:) The quality of DVD's is fairly low compared to what I am used to with off air HDTV. Up close with a 22" widescreen is not the best since you see every imperfection and there are issues with LCD's with moving images and moire patterns, even with a 5 msec response time. But being so very much larger, it is amplifying any imperfection. Some day we will have the HD DVD/Blu Ray and maybe even 1920p or whatever:) But the other huge advantage that I never thought of with the widescreen, is that now I can bring two documents on the screen for comparison and transfer of information. I do this a lot with extracting data from a document and making a table on the other document, comparing two similar docs for their differences (like the ARRL hamband changes), etc. I wish I had this when I was still working with my consulting business. Would have been very nice. But better late than never:) 73, Rick, KV9U Danny Douglas wrote: >Andrew, I dont know the speed of these cpus. But, I am using 2.2 gig cpu in >both my machines here that I built. They will run circles. I have the >whole DXLab suite running, along with my email, and run two or three screens >of IE and Firefox, etc. with no problems whatsoever. It is the memory that >you really need to think about upgrading more than cpu, these days. I have >512(two 256 chips) and the machines have had NO problems doing whatever I >ask them to do. I also have a mother board with three different video >outputs, SVGA, DVI -Digital, and TV outputs (only two can be used at a time) >I would not purchase or build any machine today that could not handle at >least two video monitors at a time. Its great having a 19 inch and a 17 >inch screen setting here side by side. I am even thinking about putting >another video card in two handle at least one more. Many of the cheaper >machines just have one video output, so watch for that. > > > > >
