I dream of a 22-inch LCD and multidisplay. Am I realistic?

[DetConan]

I have a Nec Multisync 75 (17 inch). I would love to get a bigger screen and said to myself : why not a 22 inch monitor ? One of the problem is that I have a lot of old games that I would still like to play (Starcraft, Baldur's Gate) but I dont want them to be stretched over a big widescreen screen.

So I would like to know, is it possible to keep my old monitor on another desk, near my computer, with a second keyboard and a second mouse. The idea is not to use the monitors at the same time. It would be just to use 1 monitor for certain games and applications and the other for other games and applications. Is this setup possible and easy ?

Is it possible to plug a USB keyboard in the USB port of a monitor ?

Another example of the use of this setup would be : if a new game is too taxing for my system to be played on the new LCD monitor at native resolution, I could easily play it on a lower resolution on my old monitor (and eventually, play it on the LCD when I would upgrade the system).

Would it be a good idea to do such a setup ?

Would it be crazy to buy a 22 inch LCD with the following system :

AMD 3200+ (single core)
XFX 7600GT XXX edition
2 X 512 DDR RAM

Thank you for your advices

 

[jaguarskx]

If you do not want the graphics to be stretched out then you need to look for an LCD monitor that has 1:1 pixel mapping or aspect ratio (sometimes called zoom) options in the OSD (on screen display menu). Not all monitors have these features.

1:1 pixel mapping only uses the exact number of pixels necessary and will give you the best image quality. If you play a game at a resolution of 800 x 600, on a 22" LCD monitor, then the viewable area will be in the center of the screen with black borders.

Aspect ratio stretchs out the image, but it will maintain the aspect ratio. Therefore, playing a game at 800 x 600 will fill up the entire screen with black borders on the left and right. But this is not what you are looking for.

If the monitor has a USB hub, then yes, you can connect your keyboard & mouse to it. However, you need to connect the hub to a USB port on the motherboard.

The 7600GT is still a good card, in fact it is a little faster than the 8600GTS when it comes to DX9 games. You shouldn't have any problems playing games with it. But it depends on the game. Oblivion is a good example where the 7600GT will choke if you tried to play it at native resolution and max eye candy. Lowering the eye candy to "medium" should make the game "playable".

Click the following link for some good info on LCD monitors. There are also some reviews as well.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/features.htm

Here's another good link for LCD monitor reviews and info:

http://www.behardware.com/html/cat/22/


I can't recommend a 22" LCD monitor since I'm not in the market for one. I prefer something a bit larger.

 

[DetConan]

That answers raises other questions in my head.

Suppose I want to play a game on a 22 LCD monitor but my video card is not powerful enough to run it at the native resolution of the 22 LCD. If I use the "pixel mapping" feature of the monitor to lower the resolution to 1280 X 1024, will the game runs smoothly or does the pixel mapping process taxes the videocard ?

In your opinion, what is more annoying : having a game stretched over a widescreen to fit a resolution that the game was not made for or playing a game in a boxe surrended by black borders ?

What would be a great LCD monitor, 20" or above, that would have good quality pictures, fast response time for games and pixel mapping options ?