good 19" TFT offer (page 12)

on one side of the grill there is this little cut-out area, leading me to believe that a fan does go inside here, and the cut-out is for the fan's wire to come out of the grill. do you think this could be right?



but then again, even if it doesn't go in there, and goes in the front metal casing instead, the wire still needs to exit somewhere, so who knows.



also, my monitor arrived today:











easy to attach the base, just 1 screw, and working within minutes. height adjustment is a nice smooth motion.

looks much better and saves so much room, compared to before:

(the pig-stye i call my room)
[img.photobucket.com]

[img.photobucket.com]

i've currently attached it with the normal vga ports, but is it worth getting a DVI cable? what advantages does that give over vga connection?

also, with my old crt, i was using 800x600 res, now with this i'm using 1200x900. i tried 1280x1024, but everything looked too small, so i stuck with 1200x900.

it'll take some time to get used to the size, but i'm happy with it so far.

speakers are very tinny, but you can't expect any better for the price, so i've disconnected the audio cable and stuck with the 2 desktop speakers and the connection to my stereo.

and no dead pixels as far as i can see

oh and do i leave the refresh rate at 60Hz?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2007 02:54PM by Muks_C.

Refresh rate stays at 60Hz with TFTs, yeah.

DVI provides a clearer picture, and sets everything up, while over a VGA connection the monitor has to auto-adjust to resolutions and you can tune the monitor - using both on mine DVI is much better in terms of setting up, but I personally can't see much difference in the picture quality. Grab a cheap one when you're ordering something else later on, don't go out looking for one specifically.

I'd highly recommending using it at it's maximum resolution (the native resolution) - picture quality will increase quite a bit, and you will love the extra space. I know it's hard to adjust at first, but it really is worth it unless it's giving you headaches or the likes.

And yes, that's a fan bracket. The fan should just clip into it (assuming it's like any other bracket), and the cable comes out of that little slot, as you said.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Refresh rate stays at 60Hz with TFTs, yeah.
>
> DVI provides a clearer picture, and sets
> everything up, while over a VGA connection the
> monitor has to auto-adjust to resolutions and you
> can tune the monitor - using both on mine DVI is
> much better in terms of setting up, but I
> personally can't see much difference in the
> picture quality. Grab a cheap one when you're
> ordering something else later on, don't go out
> looking for one specifically.

Isn't VGA cable analog, and DVI cable digital, is it? And that would mean that if you use the VGA cable the digital signal is first converted to analog on the video card, and then again to digital on LCD monitor. And when DVI cable is used it actually saves two unnecessary signal conversion, which affect the image quality, as video signal isn't converted to analog on any stage.


My photo gallery: [viltzu86.deviantart.com]

cheers Gav. i've set it to 1280x1024, will see if i can get used to it.

might just bring the monitor closer to me if the text is too small, as i've currently got it right back on my desk, enjoying the football-pitch-sized space i have gained (edit, i just increased the text size on Firefox, and it's more comfortable now)

took some pics of the fan bracket, you can see it just clips in and out easily:







the internal dimension is 85x83mm, so i assume an 80mm fan will slot right in?

can you recommend any?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2007 04:04PM by Muks_C.

IMO (and Gav will probably say different) a fan's a fan. You might appreciate a speed adjuster to throttle the fan speeds and stop the case taking off, but I'd just go to your local computer store, see what 80mm fans they have. I have used Q-Tec without any hassles, just so's you know......

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

villej Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Isn't VGA cable analog, and DVI cable digital, is
> it? And that would mean that if you use the VGA
> cable the digital signal is first converted to
> analog on the video card, and then again to
> digital on LCD monitor. And when DVI cable is used
> it actually saves two unnecessary signal
> conversion, which affect the image quality, as
> video signal isn't converted to analog on any
> stage.

Yup, exactly. Though I believe the reason for the quality loss is that the monitor has to auto-adjust the placement and size of the image, and as such the pixels the computer is trying to display never really matches up to the pixels in the monitor. Any decent monitor is just about capable of masking this, but some aren't as good at it (mine both at work and home seem fine on VGA, though some others I've seen are pretty awful).

Muks, I've spent a fortune on fans in the past trying to get good cooling with next-to-silence. There are good fans. There's an Ebay seller selling Yate Loon fans (I think he's called Silenco or something). Yate Loons are awesome fans - very quiet, while not being incompetent in terms of cooling. Save that, get a Nexus: [www.kustompcs.co.uk] - it's a Yate Loon but badged, and a bit more expensive. One of these Akasa's will give you decent levels of noise while giving a touch more power: [www.kustompcs.co.uk]. Personally I wouldn't install a fan any faster than that.

If you've got one lying around though, try it. It might be quiet enough for you.

Personally, I use Sharkoon Golf-ball 1000 fans throughout my system. They're really silent, but don't provide much in the way of airflow, so the rest of your cooling system needs to be top-notch. The heatsink I use for the CPU measures roughly 14cm tall by 12.5cm wide and 8cm deep. It's a biggun.

cheers Gav, will research Yate Loon/Nexus and Akasa fans.

i switched my pc off and came back to it, the res changed back to 800x600, so i had to change it back to 1280x1024. do you know why it would change back and not stay as i set it?

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

No idea at all. What's the graphics card? Does the monitor have a driver disk you can install?

it's a Sapphire Radeon 9600Pro Atlantis, bought in 2003. yes i have the driver cd, but have since downloaded and used Omega Catalyst drivers.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

What version Catalyst?

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> it's a Sapphire Radeon 9600Pro Atlantis, bought in
> 2003. yes i have the driver cd, but have since
> downloaded and used Omega Catalyst drivers.

Don't use the Omega unless you've got a good reason to do so. The benefit is limited and usually outweighed by the rewards. Strongly recommended to use the official ATI Catalysts (the latest (6.12) from the ATI (AMD) site).

And I meant the driver for the monitor, sorry. They usually don't have a driver, but some like to use a driver to get the best out of them.

ah yes, i have a cd with the monitor. haven't used it though as it worked straight out of the box. will switch off and on again to see if it still happens, then will try installing the drivers if it does.

will look for the latest ATI drivers also.

---

RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ah yes, i have a cd with the monitor. haven't used
> it though as it worked straight out of the box.
> will switch off and on again to see if it still
> happens, then will try installing the drivers if
> it does.
>
> will look for the latest ATI drivers also.

Try Windows Update. If I reinstall Windows on my PC and do a Windows Update before installing my drivers, I get a driver result for my monitor.

As for ATI gfx drivers [ati.amd.com] is the latest drivers, 6.12. I don't bother with the first option (34.6MB download). I consider the Catalyst control interface crap and bloated so I just download the actual drivers (11.9Mb) and use ATI Tray Tools which is a much cooler interface and I reckon uses less memory.

[www.guru3d.com]

i had downloaded half of option 1, but cancelled it and am now getting option 2 and Tray Tools, cheers.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

Muks_C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i had downloaded half of option 1, but cancelled
> it and am now getting option 2 and Tray Tools,
> cheers.

Wise are you padawan young. The force must you seek.

lol.

just installing the new ATI drivers seems to have stopped the res changing back, it's now staying at 1280x1024 after resetting, and switching on and off.

at the post screen though, it seems about half an inch of the left of the screen is cut off, but that's not important i don't think. it's fine after that as it loads up.

thanks.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

The half-inch or so being cut off is the monitor not calibrated right for that resolution. But it doesn't matter, since you'll not spend any time in the BIOS or DOS, right?

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

MarcLister Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As for ATI gfx drivers
> [ati.amd.com]
> tml is the latest drivers, 6.12. I don't bother
> with the first option (34.6MB download). I
> consider the Catalyst control interface crap and
> bloated so I just download the actual drivers
> (11.9Mb) and use ATI Tray Tools which is a much
> cooler interface and I reckon uses less memory.

It does use memory. An entire 5mb of it

It gets unfairly treated to be honest, as when it came out it was very buggy and extremely slow. It's good stuff, and I think in this instance, we'd want as bog-standard as possible. Adding 3rd parties into the bargain can only complicate things.

Personally, I'd be using the Control Center, then in a months time or whatever, if everything's still good, switch to Tray Tools if you wish.

Don't get me wrong - I use Tray Tools myself sometimes (depending on what my PC is doing), and it's good, and there's no reason to suggest it would cause any issues, but it's not really geared at older cards such as this, and like I said, just keeping things simple and basic is probably for the best.

I like Nexus fans a lot. I have a 60mm one, anyone who has used standard small fans knows 60mms make a racket, very high pitched! But the Nexus is actually silent! Also use Akasa Ambers because they're quiet, and push a lot of air. Nexus fans don't push nearly as much, but are quieter - its a tradeoff.

Oh, nice monitor mate, congrats

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

Or use the best of both worlds: The ATI drivers and their original control panel and not the terrible CCC
[www.ngohq.com]

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I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy