Widescreen -- used often?

[Aus_Snow]

My PC is really old. So, I'm upgrading soon, including getting rid of the CRT and maybe going for a 22" [or so] widescreen LCD.

Is it worth it though, if I'm not going to be watching movies on the PC, pretty much ever?

How many games actually run in widescreen modes anyway? What types of game do this, generally speaking?

Also, how useful is WS in other ways, for general computing, i.e. multitasking and stuff?


Any tales of unadulterated bliss? Horror stories?

 

[John Crichton]

I can't speak very much for games, but more screen size is always better.

As for everything else - I do a good deal of word processing, the usual web surfing, spreadsheets and Photoshop work...

Once you go widescreen, you will never go back.

 

[Vascant]

I have to agree, I enjoy it greatly especially for productivity type applications.

It did take me about a day to get used to but this is coming from an old man who has looked at normal monitors for over almost 3 decades

 

[drothgery]

I'm almost completely convinced the default 'three-column' look in Outlook is designed for a widescreen monitor; it's certainly a lot easier to use with one. You can leave your favorites pinned open in IE. I'm convinced it would help me almost as much for coding as dual monitors would (mostly because I'd have a 'normal-sized' main area and tools off on both sides), but I don't fire up Visual Studio much at home.

 

[GlassJaw]

Once you go widescreen, you will never go back.

+1

WS rocks, and you'd be surprised how many games coming out now support WS. Even if never play games, WS is still great for general usage.

 

[DMFTodd]

Be careful of the maximum screen resolution of the LCD. Some LCDs don't support the higher resolutions that a CRT does. You could buy an LCD that, though it had a larger screen area, had a lower resolution than your current monitor so you'd actually end up seeing less (though it would look nice and big).

I also find a LCD to not be as sharp for text as a CRT. My old eyes can barely see at the end of a day on a LCD but have no trouble looking at the CRT. Haven't heard many other people complain about that one though. Maybe it's just me.

 

[ThirdWizard]

A lot of new games are wide screen compatible, or at least the ones I've played are. If you want to check games you currently play, go to the graphics menu and see if they have any of the wide screen resolutions listed.

And, I have to agree, once you go wide screen, you don't go back!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Gee, looks like I'll not be going back, or so I hear.

Thanks for the info and anecdotals, guys. Any more like (or unlike) that?


FWIW, it'll be either a mid-range AMD64 x2 or a Core 2 Duo of likewise humble rating, 7600GT PCI-E w/256MB DDR3, 2gb DDR2, 250gb SATA HDD, 18x or 20x dvd burner.

Yes, that's an upgrade. I get round to these things eventually. . .

 

[Caliban]

Soon you won't have much of a choice. Nearly all LCD screen manufacturers have switched to widescreen as their default production. Widescreen is (or soon will be ) cheaper than non-widescreen.

 

[DaveMage]

I have a Dell 24" Widescreen.

It's awesome for reading .pdf files becasue I can get 2 pages on the screen. Also, I work with a lot of spreadsheets, so the added size lets me see so much more of the spreadsheet than my previous 19" standard monitor.

I wouldn't go back either.