can i use a 26inch monitor as a standard desktop monitor.?

Question

I'm thinking of replacing my 17"LCD monitor with a 26". However, i'm worried 26" might be a bit too big and i'd have to sit as far back as possible. the monitor will sit on my desk and will be used for normal every day tasks such as web browsing and word processing. I'm also looking to connect it to my xbox 360 every now and then. is this a practical size? if not what would be and what featuresshould i look aout for apart from obviously pc input and HD(for the xbox)? thanks

I'v just checked, my graphics card is a radeon 9600 256mb with DVI. however, i'm not sure what the RCA (composite is - I dont think i have that) The max resolution i can get from the card is 1280 by 1024 pixels. thats not good is it?

Answer 1

It would seem big at first but you would get used to it. You would need a decent graphics card to output at the native resolution. Preferably get something with DVI but VGA would be fine aswel.
I think it would be awesome hooking your x-box up to it!
I already have a 20inch widescreen monitor at 1680 x 1050 running through a geforce 8800 GTS 640mb, games look amazing but you'll need something more powerful if you want to run games on a 26" resolution with full graphics.
To read some reviews on different monitors go to www.tomshardware.co.uk
I personally recommend something like the 24" or 27" Dell monitors as they are more expensive but have brilliant colour and response rates, dont get them through Dell's website though lol, go to somewhere like www.scan.co.uk or www.ebuyer.co.uk
Hope this was helpful :)

ADDITIONAL:
You'll need a more powerful graphics card to be able to run at the monitors native resolution, let alone play games in a higher resolution.
RCA isn't very common on graphics cards and to connect a monitor your better off with DVI anyway.
Unfortunately I think your graphics card will only be AGP which has been replaced by PCI express, the best card you can possibly get will therfore be a geforce 7900 which will set you back around £100.
Personally I would look at the cost of a new computer as you probably won't pay much more for a whole new system which will be alot more powerful than the one you currently have.
Hope this helps

Answer 2

With a monitor that large, you would need to set the resolution to a very large numer. Resolution is the number of pixels (dots) displayed across the screen. If you set it to 640, everything would be huge. If you set it to 1600, everything would by much much smaller, and look about right on that larger of a monitor. I have seen 26" (and larger" used as day to day computer monitors.

To use that large a monitor, you would need a video card that is capable of display 1600 (or better) resolution. Most standard video cards can not. You would also want the video card to include a composite (also called RCA) output. That will give you a better picture then the standard VGA output.

So you would probably be looking at replacing both your monitor and your video card to do that.

Answer 3

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