I have used lots of Dell monitors, most of them are good, but I have not used widescreen ones really. My old one is a Dell Ultrasharp, and I heart it more then any of the new ones I have looked it. I wish I could just magically add more pixels to the sides to make it widescreen.
Stupid monitors, it was a gift and now its costing me money screwing up everything. 
So, I picked this up today at Best Buy:
LG E2441
I’m using it now on the old computer. So far it looks pretty good!
My new PC arrived in a wooden crate.
Now thats what I’m going to call a real “unboxing” heh.
Picture?
lb
I’m a little bandwidth limited on the ship. We only just got access to netscape 9.0! Before that we only had IE6 and the site wouldn’t work for me on it.
God I can’t wait to use a modern browser again…
Anyway I’ll upload the crate box picture if the internet speeds up here sometime.
More on topic though, I have an Alienware (dell) monitor with my old computer from last deployment. Its a widescreen LCD, do not remember the make and model off the top of my head. I’ve never had any issues with that one.
Actually Alienware might have been a good place to look for monitors, but its too late now. I think I am going to stick with this LG.
I’m doing some BIOS optimization now. I finally got my SSD, so I should be installing Windows in the next few days. Looking foward to finally getting to do something with this besides standing next to it and loving how quiet it is.
Update on the computer?
It is built and running Windows 7 Pro. Had to install windows twice, due to confusion about the license.
Note to near future computer builders: If you have the “upgrade” edition of the Windows 7 install disk, and you have a legit non-upgrade version of a prevous edition of windows, you still can not do a “clean” install, only an upgrade on top of the previously installed OS.
I belive this rule to be bullshit. It makes the upgrade disk basically useless.
Moving on, I installed Avast anti-virus, Mozilla, Ad-aware. Did all windows updates and service packs. Still doing some other optimizations. Will hopefully get to do some fun stuff with in the next few days.
Good to hear!
I’ll have mine up and running about 18 days from now when I get home.
Have to get the old computer started up and some files transfered over to SD cards though first.
Got to crack that things case open and dust it out…I figure 7 months it might have some dust in it and I should get rid of that before I power it up.
Been almost a week. How’s the replacement monitor?
Its pretty good. I had it hooked up to the old computer for a week, and just hooked it up to the new one today. For whatever reason it looks better on the new computer then the old. I experimented using the HDMI vs. the DVI plug, they don’t look much different, but the HDMI might look slightly better. Still trying to find a good balance between getting it not to be too bright and not having all the color look washed out. Also still trying to find the right angle to sit and position it so that the top parts don’t look dimmer than the bottom parts.
I’m mostly done with optimization. I installed Crysis today and played around with it a bit. I looks really good. I ran it at 1920 x 1080 and very hight details for everything, with 8x AA. Still ran smooth, at least through the first couple maps.
So far my only real complaint is with system restore. All of my restore points were deleted. No idea what caused it, but aparently it is a knownissue. It does bother me that it was one of the few extremely reliable and extremely usefull features of XP that decides to not work as well in the new version.
Nuts. Had a blue screen but couldn’t read the screen before it rebooted. Then, it said to insert a boot disk. I went into bios and the SSD wasn’t visible. I shutdown the pc, touched the power supply to discharge myself, and unplugged the PSU after shutting it off.
Then, I checked the cables to the SSD to make sure it was connected, re-attached the power cord, and went back into bios. The SSD was visible. Yay!
Started booting windows, but after a minute, the windows start up screen was up. Booting normally take 20 seconds…
sighs
Edit: I checked the cables to the mobo. One moved when I went to make sure they were secure. Running Startup Repair now and the drive seems to work so far.
Edit Edit: It booted, but I do not trust it. Taking in to Best Buy tomorrow to get the motherboard replaced finally.
Ugg, tough break. I’ve had some minor problems, luckily software only, no hardware broken thank Crom.
A toast to backups! cheers
I dropped it off with the Nerd Herd…I mean Geek Squad. I didn’t see Jeff or Lester, but there was a guy bearing a passing resemblance to Chuck. d:
He said the turn around would take 5-7 real days. ):
After spending 10 minutes explaining various issues and what I think were the culprits, he asked me whether I brought the power cord. They had extras, but I went home and brought one back anyway. On my second trip, they told me they were already working on it and may hear back tomorrow. 
Ah well, we’ll see.
I got my PC back. Running into Windows activation problems though. I went through various steps, but Windows says it’s not Genuine. Note that the motherboard is the same make and model, but something it different enough to set it off. Have to wait until Monday to call and remedy that.
Couple of Geek Squad guys spent time convincing me to buy a special heatsink fan because I have the 2600k and a Nvidia 470 which is known for heat issues. They were all but drooling over my system. (: They said the weakest point is using the stock CPU fan. They suggested I get a $20-80 heatsink fan. But, I’ll also have to spend another $50 for them to install it (I’m not good with that specific hardware category).
I’m running the motherboard’s temperature reader and everything is blue (27-44 degrees C) now where the use to be red (85 degrees C). So, they must have done something good where I messed up.
Yeah, you’re probably good. I’m using the same stock fan and its been good so far. Quiet and cool.
Turned out when I put my PC together, I put the PSU upside down. I’m use to it being at the top of the case instead of the bottom. I had it oriented like it would be at the top. This is why I’m seeing drastic reduction in temp.
I reinstalled Windows, put in the key, and it’s not complaining. I even installed Service Patch 1.
I did some research on heatsinks and decided on:
Noctua NH-C14
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608020
Reviews
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2562
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/noctua_nh-c14_review
Because I have the Sabertooth P67 with the heat shield, it would seem to work better with a top-down cooler.
Would still cost me $50 to get it installed after I buy it. ): So, I’m gonna hold off on it.
So what do you think of the Sabertooth so far? I considered that one way back, but ultimatly went with MSI instead.
I like it. I don’t overclock and the 5 year warranty is great for me. Reviewers seem to agree that the thermal armor works even if they don’t agree whether it looks good. No complaints now with the replacement board.