Upgrade?: 19" lcd w/ ti4200 or 17" lcd w/ new vidcard

[skgarach]

I'm trying to decide on an upgrade and don't really know how i want to spend my money yet. I'm on a limited budget since i'm a college student. here's my current rig:

everything is running @ stock speeds

amd athlon 1700+
abit kr7a-raid MOBO
768mb pc2700 RAM
Geforce4 ti4200 64mb RAM
160gb Maxtor 8mb cache
17" NEC Multisync CRT


I'm considering upgrading some components. I'm going to spend 80% of my time programming and web browsing. the 20% is probably spent gaming. The options i've been considering are the following:

Buy a 19" LCD, (Samsung 192n) No DVI and stick with the current rig

buy a 17" LCD, (Samsung 172n) No DVI and get a 9800 PRO

another option i just thought of: Jumping on the next dell deal that includes 17" lcd and a new CPU and all that good stuff for around 600ish


I was thinking that having dual monitors would be great for programming and such. I'm in my senior year of college and am expecting a heavy programming load. Any advice or input? thanks in advance.

 

[Excelsior]

I guess you should consider if your current card is good enough to play the games that you want to play. If are interested in playing any new games, Id definitely get a 17" and a new vid card. Otherwise, go for the 19".

 

[cKGunslinger]

What are the resolutions of both monitors? LCD's usually look like *ass* when displaying non-native resolutions, so you'll want to be able to play most of you games at the native res. I would imaging that would be 1280x1024 for both the 17" and the 19." Will your ti4200 play your games that high? I've got a 9600xt that likes playing never games at 1024x768 and not much higher. Older games like WC3 and UT, I can run at 1280x960, but not UT2k4 or FC.

 

[newb54]

Option D: Keep current moniter and save up for new mobo, cpu, ram and video card.

 

[acx]

The more screen real estate you have the better it is for tasks that involve multiple windows. For example, one screen displays the specs and diagrams for a project while the other displays the source code. My productivity increased by at least 50% with two screens when I was doing CMOS layout during senior year. One monitor displayed gate schematics while the other screen displayed layout. It saves on alt tabbing and I could compare schematic to layout a lot faster by glancing back and forth.

Most 17" LCDs have the same resolution as 19"(1280x1024). So you would get more screen space going for two 17" lcds. Gaming wise, it depends heavily on what games you want to play and how much you care about eye candy.

Do you think you will see a real benefit from having two monitors for your programming? Do you alt tab back and forth often because you are looking at reference material while you code? Can you see default size text and icons on a 17" lcd running at 1280x1024? And 1 year from now after you graduate, would you rather have two monitors or one monitor and a slighly dated graphics card?

 

[ss284]

If you program, you will appreciate dvi.

-Steve

 

[skgarach]

Originally posted by: ss284
If you program, you will appreciate dvi.

-Steve

i'd love to get one that has dvi, but i can get these two for incredibly cheap....the 17" for less than 300, and the 19" for less than 450. if you can find a decent lcd w/ dvi in that price range please post 🙂

 

[skgarach]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
What are the resolutions of both monitors? LCD's usually look like *ass* when displaying non-native resolutions, so you'll want to be able to play most of you games at the native res. I would imaging that would be 1280x1024 for both the 17" and the 19." Will your ti4200 play your games that high? I've got a 9600xt that likes playing never games at 1024x768 and not much higher. Older games like WC3 and UT, I can run at 1280x960, but not UT2k4 or FC.

The ti4200 won't play games at 1280x1024, i barely get my games to run at 1024x768...

i guess my question is, does it worth getting a 19" lcd over 17" lcd since you get the same native resolution.

 

[magratton]

Things for you to consider...

I have to say at work I have used a 19" LCD at work and I find that the constant blurryness when scrolling to be annoying. I too am a developer (almost 13years now! EEP!) and find that a very good 19"-21" monitor is excellent, one that displays 1600x1200 very well is what I would pick. 1600x1200 seems to be the magic number with the hardcore developers at work, and from what I rememer most LCD's (if any?) do not display 1600x1200 well at all.

Also, dual proc is very nice, but tough call on whether it will be worth it for you at this stage in your software development career. I would have to say that a A64 or P4 w/HT would be better for you at this point in time.

RAM wise - .Net studio seems to be reasonable with it's memory requirements but IBM WebSphere AD is just horrendous! Factor on at least 1GB of RAM and even as high as 2GB for really large projects.

Lastly for graphics cards, I would say at least a 9800 Pro (<200). A step up from that would be the NVidia 6800 (non-GT, non-Ultra) (<300).

Ultimately, unless you are going the Home-based SWE Consultant/Shareware programmer route, I would strongly consider the fact that lite development, gaming and browsing will become your use patterns on this box, not hard-core development. Even then, I have also found that boxes built for the Gaming crowd also make pretty decent development boxes as well.

Incidentally: none of the people I consider to be hardcore swe's (xcept one out of about 20, and he contributes to a large freeware project) spends more than 5% of their time at home coding. Most of them use their systems for: Gaming, Photo Eding, Video Editing, or not at all as they are sick of computers when they get home from coding all day! 😉

 

[jiffylube1024]

You'd probably be better off picking up a new CPU/Motherboard instead of a new video card; even getting a P4 2.8C and an IS7 / IC7 motherboard would be a big upgrade; you could do the RAM next (after hopefully selling yours).

I wouldn't recommend getting either a 17" or 19" LCD without DVI; get a good 19" CRT instead.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: skgarach

amd athlon 1700+
abit kr7a-raid MOBO
768mb pc2700 RAM
Geforce4 ti4200 64mb RAM
160gb Maxtor 8mb cache
17" NEC Multisync CRT

It looks as if you are interesting in spending about $500-600.

I would get something like:

17" LCD - $300
Radeon 9800 Pro - $200 (or even a used 9700 pro for less)
Athlon XP 2800+ - $100

That will give you a decent CPU boost, and large gaming boost, and give you dual-monitors for your programming and general desktop usage. Keep your 17" CRT as your primary monitor and use it for gaming, with the LCD hanging on as your secondary.