[LiveBrianD]

So I was at frys yesterday, and ended up getting a new monitor since they had one on sale (apparently 23" is enough, you can't notice much difference from 24") - Acer S231HL for $130 (usually $160 on newegg, so I jumped on it). 23" LED. It's surprising how thin this is, though it has a tiny power brick. It's matte, but the bezel and stand are glossy (the back is also matte). I'm probably going to mess with the colors a little - I had to adjust the brightness using the nvidia settings a bit to make it look right (whites are too bright otherwise). Also, the OSD on this is a pain to use, and lacks gamma settings. Still, it's not a bad idea. Now, I have quite a bit more desk space compared to 2 19" 5:4 monitors (besides, now I can use all the monitor space for a game, something that dual monitor setups don't work well with). The stand has NO adjustments - can't be moved up and down, can't be tilted, so I put it on top of a little container to get it to eye level. On the other hand, my old monitors made little creaking noises occosionally, which doesn't quite help when my desk is in the bedroom, and this doesn't do that. Shockingly enough, they actually included a HDMI cable, as well as DVI and VGA. Man, and stingy samsung only includes VGA! It seems like no one includes HDMI cables with stuff (not as bad as only including a composite video cable with a bluray player, which sony does, but still). The connectors go out the back, unlike most, which helps with cable connection it seems. I use DVI on the desktop and HDMI when I connect the laptop at times, and I unplug that cable when not using it. I might want to mess with the color settings a little though. Now if only I can find a way to disable that stupid ugly Acer logo that appears when you turn it on... One other oddity - if you put the PC in sleep or shut it down, it goes searching through all the inputs (DVI, VGA, HDMI), says there's no input, and then shuts down. I don't recall it does that if the PC tells the monitor to turn off but keeps running though (the display timeout thing due to inactivity) - it just turns off. It seems to automatically select the input.

Well, I don't think I'm going to be buying anything else this christmas season. Unlike coastie... (new cheap laptop, expensive PSU....)
Pic

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 11 December 2011 - 04:51 PM

[coastie65]

Big Jump from 19" to 23". Enjoy all that real estate. My Samsung came with both a VGA and DVI cables + an adaptor. That laptop was a bargain for the price. It has that fancy touch pad that does all that stuff that wj was talking about with his Lenova ( two finger stuff ). The i3 is Dual core, but has HT, so essentially 4 Virtual cores. Has a few expansion ports too and will run up 16 Gb of ram. Come with 6 Gb 1066 mhz of ram, but with run 1333 Mhz. also that intel HD3000 Onboard graphics. All in all, not bad for $399.99. Oh yeah, a 500 Gb Hdd too. I also ordered a ram upgrade for the other laptop. It has 2 Gb installed at 533 Mhz and running Vista Home Premium 32 Bit. I ordered 4 Gb of GSkill 800 Mhz ram for it. Now, if I can only get that BiOS unlocked in the Gateway Desktop, I'll install the 1600 Mhz stuff in there ( Crucial Ballistix Tracer ).

[LiveBrianD]

This is definitely better for movies (no letterboxing) and games. Uhh, coastie, all laptops made within the past 3 years have multitouch (whether they have decently performing drivers is a completely different thing). On my x120e, two finger scrolling is unreliable and half the time, as I move my fingers, does nothing, then suddenly zooms down to the bottom of the page.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 11 December 2011 - 04:57 PM, said:

This is definitely better for movies (no letterboxing) and games. Uhh, coastie, all laptops made within the past 3 years have multitouch (whether they have decently performing drivers is a completely different thing). On my x120e, two finger scrolling is unreliable and half the time, as I move my fingers, does nothing, then suddenly zooms down to the bottom of the page.

If I am on the laptop, I use a mouse as I don't even like the touch pad. I got that other laptop in May '09 and as far as i know, it doesn't have that although it is a Gateway P series lappy which was the top of the line. I remember when I went from my 19" ProView to this 22" Samsung and it was like WOW!!!! with all the real estate. I know it makes gaming a lot more fun.

[LiveBrianD]

On my laptop, I either use the pointing stick or an external mouse, but rarely the touchpad. At least the pointing stick's scrolling always works, unlike the touchpad, which as I said rarely does.

[LiveBrianD]

Hey Compnovo, I was wondering, since you have a few acer monitors. With this, when I put my PC in sleep or turn it off, it says DVI (which is what I'm using), then VGA, then HDMI, then 'No cable connected' for about a minute before turning off. When the PC is on but tells the monitor to time out, it scans all the inputs, but I forget if it says 'No cable connected', I think it doesn't. Also, when turned on, it fades in an ugly green Acer logo for a moment before showing the PC's input or searching for it. Do yours do these things?

[compnovo]

LiveBrianD, on 12 December 2011 - 07:06 PM, said:

Hey Compnovo, I was wondering, since you have a few acer monitors. With this, when I put my PC in sleep or turn it off, it says DVI (which is what I'm using), then VGA, then HDMI, then 'No cable connected' for about a minute before turning off. When the PC is on but tells the monitor to time out, it scans all the inputs, but I forget if it says 'No cable connected', I think it doesn't. Also, when turned on, it fades in an ugly green Acer logo for a moment before showing the PC's input or searching for it. Do yours do these things?

I'm not seeing those behaviors, but that may be because I don't use sleep mode. What your monitor seems to be doing is searching for a signal after your PC is shut down. I don't know if there's a way to disable that --- do you have the Acer drivers installed? Windows update usually finds them.
Also, when turned on, it fades in an ugly green Acer logo for a moment
Mine does the same thing, I guess the monitor doesn't want me to forget the brand.

[LiveBrianD]

Actually, when windows tells the monitor to turn off (after a few minutes), it also does that. Gee, most monitors just go to sleep when they have no signal, but say 'cable not connected' if really not plugged into a video card. In the upper right, this says "HDMI, VGA, DVI" and then says 'cable not connected' (btw I'm using DVI, it doesn't matter if I use the provided video cable or a spare I have).

I have the acer driver installed - "Acer Incorporated - Display - Acer S231HL(Hdmi)". Maybe I should check their website?


edit: odd, in device manager it shows that thing above, (digital), and (analog), as well as 'Generic PnP Monitor'. I changed it to 'digital', so let's see if that changes things.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 15 December 2011 - 03:38 PM

[LiveBrianD]

Hmm, I put the older Sony SDM-HX93 I have right next to it and everything seems to look a bit yellowish on it, compared to the acer which seems to have better whites.

[web2u]

I have a HP LP2475w and i'am very satisfied

[axe40]

With the way monitors are popping up this time around with great apps and beautiful features, it is hard to determine which brand is really great.i'm still wondering about the latest Samsung LED monitor and that of Sony, but can't really make the best choice. any help please?

[LiveBrianD]

First, it's a good idea to start your own thread. Second, I didn't think Sony made PC monitors anymore. Or are you talking about TVs?