Monitor size and viewing distance?

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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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Alright so I plan on building a new computer this summer. I will also be purchasing a monitor, but I am unsure of what size to get.

The monitor will have a resolution of 1920x1080.

The most typical viewing distance for me will be just a little over two feet. This is the distance I will use for all of my school work, gaming, youtube, etc.

Occasionally, when I don't want to watch movies on my tv in the living room, I will watch movies and tv shows from my bed, which will be about 4-5 ft. away from the monitor.

My question is what is the best monitor size for my uses? A 24" monitor was the absolute biggest I would go, but I was wondering if a smaller size would be better when most of my viewing is only a little over two feet away. I would really like the picture to come in as clear as possible, especially when I am gaming. 21.5" is the smallest I would go, as they don't make too many monitors with full HD resolution that are smaller than that.


Any help would be appreciated. Also, if you know of any good viewing distance calculators
here on the web, that would be helpful.


BTW, price is not really a factor here. Most of the monitors I am looking at our made by Asus/Hp. The difference in price between the biggest and smallest sizes is anywhere from $50-$80. That's not really a big deal to me, thought saving money is always nice. However I would rather get what I will enjoy the most.

Also, I am currently using a laptop with a 17", 1680x1050 display. Any of the monitors in the range listed above should feel like a sizeable upgrade, no pun intended :)
 
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Niklas_13
Yes it would be good 2 feet away, and yes i have that same one. As for the quality everybody's eyes are different, so what looks good to one may not to another. For the price its a grate monitor ( its by no means a monitor you would use if you are a professional photo editor ) IMO its a grate monitor for gaming and everyday use.

It would IMO be a good idea to go down to a local store and see them in person.

hope this helps
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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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Ha that's funny because that is the same exact monitor I have in my newegg wishlist for my summer build.

So you don't think a 24" monitor is too big when I will only be sitting 2 feet away then?

That was my main concern. Also, do you have this monitor by chance? I was wondering about the quality.
 
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Niklas_13

Niklas_13

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Yes it would be good 2 feet away, and yes i have that same one. As for the quality everybody's eyes are different, so what looks good to one may not to another. For the price its a grate monitor ( its by no means a monitor you would use if you are a professional photo editor ) IMO its a grate monitor for gaming and everyday use.

It would IMO be a good idea to go down to a local store and see them in person.

hope this helps
 
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tom thumb

tom thumb

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I got a 24" at 1920x1200 a few months ago, I recommend this resolution over the 1920x1080, especially for games. You'll get used to the larger size pretty quick. I've never felt the monitor was too big or too close to me.

If you're planning on gaming, make sure your video card can handle the extra load.
 
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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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Thanks for the help guys. I'm a bit more confident about going with the larger monitor, which is what I wanted to do.

As for the resolution, I think I will stick with 1920x1080. I definitely see the advantages to going with the extra pixels, but those monitors are becoming scarce (at least on Newegg) and their prices/size are a bit out of my range. $250 was really around the max I wanted to spend on a monitor.

As for the video card, I am currently planning on using an HD5850. It should handle that resolution just fine in most every game.
 
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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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It's really funny how close my Newegg wishlist looks like your build. The components are the same except for the case. I was planning on going with the Lian Li Lancool PC-K60 or K62.
 
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Niklas_13

Niklas_13

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Yeah its a grate system, just make sure if you go with a gigabyte mobo to get the P55A. I bought this when it first came out, the P55 i mean

 
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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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Yeah that's what I plan on purchasing. I'm hoping that the prices of the 5850's will come down a bit due to Nvidia releasing their new hardware. It would be awesome if they came down all the way to their original launch price, but I doubt that will happen any time soon.
 
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Niklas_13

Niklas_13

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Yeah i would like that also :) so i can xfire, i just cant see paying 300 bucks for a GPU i paid 260 for when it was first released.

Got my i5 750 for 149.99 @ microcenter before the i3 and the other i5s came out.


There was news about Nvidia supply shortage on the new GPUs just like ati had, but with the GTX 470 at 350 and the GTX 480 at 500, i don't see ati lowering the prices anytime soon :(

I guess that's just the way the cookie crumples
 
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touchdowntexas13

touchdowntexas13

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Yeah that's the problem I saw too. And until Nvidia can efficiently produce their new chips, I think they will stay in short supply.

There is a microcenter about 35 minutes from where I live. Hopefully there are some good deals goin on when I start purchasing all of my components. Otherwise I will just buy it all from Newegg.
 
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