monitor options revisited...computer geeks help needed

[Cubswin]

Ok... i have purchased my first of two 17 inch LCDs and will be buying my 2nd very soon (im charging it to party). Anyway, im currently running my monitor off of my laptop because my laptop backlight works only when it wants to. I am thus in the market for a CPU. The main use of the computer will be internet poker and the occasional download of adult content for kazaa. When playing poker I plan to use one monitor for games and the other for tracker and surfing. I assume i will need to load the machine up with RAM and buy a second video card for the 2nd monitor? Any suggestion on what I will need and where I might find a good system at the right would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

regards
cubswin

[SirFoldsAlot]

You should get a Video card that supports multiple monnitors. Basically you plug the two monitors into the one card and now you can have two monitors connected to one machine. Its fun to drag the mouse betweeen the two of them, it freaks out non computer people.

[tiltboy]

I would answer your question but then by definition I would be a geek.

I don't have space for 2 monitors so I bought a used Dell 21" monitor (P1110) on ebay for < $300 including shipping. In a word, it is FANTABULISTIC!

[aces961]

A good amount of video cards will come with the ability to hook up two monitors to them. If you want help finding a specific card or pc to buy post or pm me with what your budget is.

[Cubswin]

Id like to try to do the whole computer for under $700. I was think of buying this cheapie and installing the extra ram and video card myself http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1055388016482&skuId=5650173&type=pr oduct&productCategoryId=cat01172 I found a video card, the GeForce FX5200 128MB, that supports 2 monitors for $63 on pricewatch.com . Does it sound like im headed in the right direction?

regards
cubswin

[jasonHoldEm]

Sounds like you have a good plan...I'd avoid compaq like the plague though...I've had two compaq's in the past (both laptops) and had nothing but trouble with them (since HP bought them out it's been even worse). I purchased my first dell about six months ago and plan to buy from no other company ever again...their sales staff was excellent in helping get exactly what I wanted and when the "button" that ejects one of the modular drives broke they had someone at my doorstep the next day to fix it...and it was covered under the warranty...no cost to me at all.

Just something to think about.

Oh yeah, and I'm not affiliated with dell, nor am I an intern for dell, nor am I Steven the "dude you're getting a dell" guy.

peace,
jHE

[Cubswin]

My laptop is a dell and the monitor went after having it for only 13 months and it was only covered for 12 months. They wanted $500 to fix it and i told them "go to hell.. i'll never do business with you guys again". I am a man of my word an refuse to give them my business. I also will never do business with sprint PCS because of poor quality phones and them calling the police on me after i smashed my broken cell phone on the floor of their store. Im working on my anger management. My tao poker book is helping a little at the tables.

regards,
cubswin

[Glenn]

"I also will never do business with sprint PCS because of poor quality phones and them calling the police on me after i smashed my broken cell phone on the floor of their store."

LOL...I used to call Alltel once a week and just yell at them until they hung up on me...after about 8 weeks, I got a helpful representative who admitted to me that EVERYONE else I had talked to had been straight out lying to me and just making up things as they went along... If they had a store, I would be strapped to a table with a needle a few inches from my arm right about now /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[slavic]

If your LCD's support DVI make sure you get a duel monitor DVI single card. They aren't that expensive and you'll be very happy with the performance. Get at least a gig of ram, video memory won't be important to you once you get over 32MB.

I run duel 20" LCD's (thank you paradise) with a Radeon 8500 card. Running 3 games and 3 gametime trackers is no problem. It would be nice if Pokertracker windows were 800/600 but I can't complain.

[Cubswin]

Ok...whats DVI?

[SomeTimesIWin]

DVI is a new standard for monitor cables and connections. It provides a digital signal and doesn't convert the signal from a digital one to an analogue and back again at the monitor side. This gives theoretically a better picture (some claims theres a difference some not) on lcd-monitors and avoids hassle with adjusting the picture size and position on the screen. In order to use DVI you need a DVI output on your graphics card and also a DVI input on your LCD monitor.

[Miah]

Check these websites daily for good prices on computer stuff:

www.slickdeals.net (http://www.slickdeals.net)
www.techbargains.com (http://www.techbargains.com)
www.techdeals.net (http://www.techdeals.net)

Its not uncommon to see a dell inspiron laptop on one of those for around $599 every so often. There is a kick ass 2+ghz Dell listen on slick deals right now for around $400 I believe.

[aces961]

A few things,
If you get that compaq make sure it has an AGP slot. You will need this to ugrade the video card, and I could find no mention of it having one on the best buy website. Seocnd 512 MB of memory will be fine for playing poker and surfing and/or watching a movie or something on the other screen.

If you do not have problems ordering a computer online I would suggest www.abspc.com (http://www.abspc.com) . They have had several computers ranked by the magazine PCWorld and you can see how those do on their reviews. They are first in both power and value categories of desktop Pc's ahead of entries from Dell, HP/Compaq, and others.

For your budget concers I would suggest getting an AMD processor instead of Intel. THey are for the most part equally reliable now and in either case both warrentied by ABSpc. The AMD chip will save you about 100 bucks for equal performance.
THe following configuration from the ABSpc website will probably work for you. I can't provide a link to the exact computer because it is neccesary to make 2 configuration changes to customize the amount of memory and video card you will be getting, but here is the best I can do.

From www.abspc.com (http://www.abspc.com) choose home/home office computers. Then choose the Sensation PC AMD based systems. Under the Sensation 1000 choose configure and buy. Under procsser I would suggest upgrading to the Athlon XP 2500+/333 FSB 512K Barton for the extra 23 bucks however this is optional.
For memory you are going to want 2 256 MB chips. Upgrade the hard drive to 120 gb. Change the video card to the ASUS V9180TD.
If you want a CD burner add the Lite-On one in. Decie on what you want for speakers.
The Motherboard comes with a Ethernet port so if you need a telephone modem add that option in.
Also add in the mouse and keyboard if you need that.
And finally decide what warrenty you want.

After shipping prices varied from 720-800 depending on the cdburner/mouse/keyboard.


Also if you can provide a link to the LCD's you got so I can make sure they will both work fine with this video card at the same time.

[Poker Advantage]

I may not be the best web site designer in the world but I can get computer parts below wholesale.

Once upon a time I was a Microsoft Certifed systems engineer. I did all the parts buying and I still have access to that source. Let me know either by email pokeradvantage@yahoo.com, private message, or just here on the forum.

Josh

[Poker Advantage]

A couple things you should know cubs. The reason that computer is the price it is is because it has a celeron processor. It is basicly the equivelent of a 1 gig P4.

I can get you that same exact system not compaq of course, brand new for 425.00 NO TAX! Compaw is not a good computer anyways.

[kdog]

that should answer whtever questions you have

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/

[Grivan]

[ QUOTE ]
A couple things you should know cubs. The reason that computer is the price it is is because it has a celeron processor. It is basicly the equivelent of a 1 gig P4.

I can get you that same exact system not compaq of course, brand new for 425.00 NO TAX! Compaw is not a good computer anyways.



[/ QUOTE ]

The Celeron is not going to perform that poorly. It will be a little worse then a P4 but nothing noticable unless you are into gettign the most FPS out of Doom 3. Playing internet poker you will not need the higher cache size or higher bus speed. Which are what is different between a Celeron and a P4.

[Deadbuddha]

definitely try www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com)
its the best place i've found for buying computer parts.

[crockpot]

you should know to speak in an advantage that the reader will understand. try "Compaq is the Shawn Estes of computer companies."

CUBS!!!!!!!