[SOLVED] Help Picking Additional Monitor

[Hadrienlbb]

Hi Guys,

Giving this another try after doing some more research. I'm looking to add a monitor to my home office, which I run from a Surface Book 2.

Specs:

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz 2.11 GHz
• 16GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050

What Is Your Country Of Origin? USA, would buy from bestbuy.com or amazon.com
What do you plan to do with this monitor? Mostly OFFICE work, a bit of movie watching and gaming
What resolution and screen size do you want? Ideally, 1440p if that's possible
What refresh rate do you want? Ideally, 144Hz+
How much are you looking to spend? Ideally, under $300
Preferred-size? +/- 24", I think 27" would get too big for the type of work I need to do
What Port Do You Want To Connect To? I will need to connect from my Surface Dock, which is a mini-Display Port

Thanks!

 

[Math Geek]

you can push 1440p for office work with that but you're not gonna be gaming on it with a 1050 and expect 144hz or more.

you can save yourself a good bit and just get a solid 60/75hz screen unless you find a killer deal on a better model. there's just no need for a high end monitor connected to a surface book.

also at 1440p you generally end up with 27" or bigger. they make some 24" but they cost just as much as bigger screens really.

take a look at pcpartpicker to get an idea what is available and at what price. i've filtered it to 1440p or better so you can see what options cost what.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/monitor/#sort=price&r=384002160,344001440,256001440

i only see 2 of them at 144hz under $300 but you should look up some reviews t see how they perform

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/pkWBD3,ndZzK8/

 

[Hadrienlbb]

you can push 1440p for office work with that but you're not gonna be gaming on it with a 1050 and expect 144hz or more.

you can save yourself a good bit and just get a solid 60/75hz screen unless you find a killer deal on a better model. there's just no need for a high end monitor connected to a surface book.

So if I'm understanding this right, my config can't push things too hard, so I'm better off looking for a 24", 1440p and 60ish Hz? Like I wouldn't reap the benefits of 144Hz anyways.

I guess I can live with that haha. Any recommendations that comes to mind?

This Dell looks great, but a bit pricey.

This BenQ looks good on specs although the frame is a bit ugly / old-fashioned.

This Viotek is much cheaper but I don't know the brand that well and no height adjust.

This Acer is also cheap, at 1080p, 144Hz with 1ms and no height adjust.

This Asus looks similar to the Acer, but with height adjust which is nice.

 

[Math Geek]

if you're willing to stick to 1080p, there are plenty of good options well below $300

for instance, this spectre is 165 hz and $179

https://www.amazon.com/Sceptre-FreeSync-DisplayPort-Speakers-E248B-FPT168/dp/B088VMY23M/

same price for this AOC and it has height adjust and so on but 144 hz

https://www.amazon.com/AOC-24G2-Frameless-Adjustable-Guarantee/dp/B07WVN6CWT/

i have the g1 version of the AOC and love it. it is my main monitor and i use a basic 60 hz screen as a second monitor.

honestly 1440p for office work makes it a bit small which means you'll likely zoom everything in so you can see it. may as well go with 1080p and just not have to zoom as much
i do a lot of office apps, vm's, web browsing and so on on it and have no issues with it. and when i turn on a game, it gets to break a sweat and man does it look good.

 

[Hadrienlbb]

if you're willing to stick to 1080p, there are plenty of good options well below $300

for instance, this spectre is 165 hz and $179

https://www.amazon.com/Sceptre-FreeSync-DisplayPort-Speakers-E248B-FPT168/dp/B088VMY23M/

same price for this AOC and it has height adjust and so on but 144 hz

https://www.amazon.com/AOC-24G2-Frameless-Adjustable-Guarantee/dp/B07WVN6CWT/

i have the g1 version of the AOC and love it. it is my main monitor and i use a basic 60 hz screen as a second monitor.

honestly 1440p for office work makes it a bit small which means you'll likely zoom everything in so you can see it. may as well go with 1080p and just not have to zoom as much
i do a lot of office apps, vm's, web browsing and so on on it and have no issues with it. and when i turn on a game, it gets to break a sweat and man does it look good.

Man thanks a lot for the input, I really appreciate it.

I think I'm sold on sticking to 24", 1080p with higher refresh rate. The AOC you link to looks perfect with the height adjust, but it's out of stock for me haha 🙁

I can get this Acer Nitro (or this Asus) today which looks very similar. It's also a Freesync (and I have an Nvidia), but I guess it's mostly marketing so I shouldn't care about it. Aside from the fact it's more expensive, any reason I should stay away from that monitor?

Last question, I can hook to an external screen either from my laptop's USB-C, or from my dock's mini-DisplayPort. Any preference, and should I go for an HDMI or DisplayPort hook into the monitor?

 

[Math Geek]

i try to avoid adapters if i can. so a straight hdmi out to the monitor or dp mini to dp cable would be preferred for me.

as for the specific models, you'll want to read a couple reviews on each. i'm not well versed in monitor speak so i rely on reviews myself. if a couple pro reviewers like it, then that's usually good enough for me. i follow their calibration advice as well as i can't ever seem to do ti myself.

freesync is fine since nvidia added the capability to the newer cards, though i am not sure if the 1050 has that ability or not. my 1650 super does and i use it with the aoc monitor

 

[Hadrienlbb]

i try to avoid adapters if i can. so a straight hdmi out to the monitor or dp mini to dp cable would be preferred for me.

as for the specific models, you'll want to read a couple reviews on each. i'm not well versed in monitor speak so i rely on reviews myself. if a couple pro reviewers like it, then that's usually good enough for me. i follow their calibration advice as well as i can't ever seem to do ti myself.

freesync is fine since nvidia added the capability to the newer cards, though i am not sure if the 1050 has that ability or not. my 1650 super does and i use it with the aoc monitor

Amazing! I'll do mini DP to DP then. I found some redditters comment on the Acer and overall they seem very happy, aside from the fact that it's not super well factory calibrated lol. So I think I'll need to find that calibration advice.

 

[Hadrienlbb]

Maybe I should reopen a thread for that, but I went ahead and got the Acer Nitro today. The setup was okay. I realized that I can't push 144Hz from my Surface Dock otherwise there is no image showing up on the monitor. I can set it at 199.997Hz in Windows, and then it shows up. I also need to let Windows push 1080p max, otherwise I can't push the refresh rate above 30Hz haha.

Overall everything looks okay except the audio coming out of the monitor crackles, whether I'm playing at high or low volume. I got a mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable and tried both HDMI port on the monitor as well as both mini-DisplayPort on my Surface Dock.

Any idea how I can troubleshoot that?

Thanks!