[Ashrak]

Get a monitor with a 2ms refresh rate.

All the 2ms monitors use TN panels, which means you compromise on image quality to get that speed.

It's an LCD monitor, you know.

My mistake on the use of the term 'refresh rate', though. 

• Get a monitor with a 2ms refresh rate.
• Never buy anything from Logitech (and now, sadly, from Labtec).
• The mainboard has only one PATA connector, which appears flimsy.
• The mainboard has a mere two PCI connectors, which is a bad thing.

, i dont agree on 3 and 4 either...

you dont need pata connectors for anything these days

and what do you need PCI slot for, tell me 3 things that you could use a PCI slot for that would ustify a 3rd NORMAL PCI slot on the mobo.

Sound card, TV-tuner, Debug cards, MIDI connector, Suicide Detonation Package, Airflow, etc. sound card and midi = same slot, dont really need debug cards since the invention of LCD POSTers and also bios error codes do miracles, so your pretty much narrowed down to 1 MAYBE MAYBE on a bad day 2 PCI slots

Buy a mac 

No.

[CP5670]

, i dont agree on 3 and 4 either...

in the age of SATA DVD drives and SATA HDD's you really dont need a PATA port at all.

You can still use all your existing hard and optical drives with PATA. DVD drives haven't changed a whole lot in the last few years and hard drives can stay in service for a long time and last through a couple of system upgrades. I have a perfectly good PATA DVD drive and an older hard drive that I use as a secondary.

Although at the same time, there are signal converters available that let you use PATA stuff on SATA, so one port is probably good enough.

[Asuko]

Yeah, I figured the same as IDE/PATA is being more or less phased out. The one connector is basically there for legacy support. I didn't know there were signal converters though. Neat stuff.

I decided to upgrade the video card a bit and put in a better monitor. Here it is. 800:1 contrast, 2ms response, and it stayed within my $200 constraint for the monitor. I know Acer makes terrible computers but ...oh wait. I just looked at the customer reviews of it and the timings for response time are done in GTG, not BTB. This is apparently a bad thing. Now I'm a bit confused about what monitor I should get.

[CP5670]

You can mostly ignore the numbers they publish. The response time and contrast ratio can mean just about anything. Look at reviews and user opinion threads like this one. That Acer is definitely better than the other one, but is still a basic TN and would be inferior to the ones I mentioned earlier.

As I said earlier, the monitor is the one thing you don't want to go cheap on. It's arguably the most important part of a PC. I would suggest getting a cheaper case and motherboard to have about $300 left for the monitor, which will give you a lot more options.

[Asuko]

I looked through the reviews of the Acer. There've been around three reviews of it saying it had ghosting problems so that part confused me.

[Asuko]

Ah, bug it. I'm going with the Hanns-G monitor that I originally chose. It has lots of good reviews and I can live with a 5ms response time. The whole purpose of my rig is to have replaceable parts for later on while also being pretty good in terms of performance. Either way, the Hanns-G would be great as a second monitor when I do feel like getting a better one.

[colecampbell666]

CP is saying that the response times/contrast don't mean anything. Every company has their own way of measuring those things, and they exaggerate a lot.

He's right about not skimping on the monitor.

[colecampbell666]

My suggestion:

Case: Anything 60-80$ (or cheaper) 110$ is too much for that PC.
Mobo - Same - 115$
CPU - Same - 190$
HDD - Same - 105$
Choose any 4 GB memory you're comfortable with - 80-90$
PSU - The one you chose - 110$
Video Card -

I'd suggest a different monitor, the rig you have looks pretty good. I'd say get a cheaper case and 4 GB of RAM.

[CP5670]

I'll add that Newegg reviews on anything are notoriously unreliable, and most people will give something 5/5 as long as it's not DOA. The only thing they're good for is to find information on specific problems or compatibility issues that you may have heard about elsewhere. Newegg also censors some of the overly critical reviews, although they aren't consistent about it. Also, many of the people choosing their tech level as "high" are actually complete morons.

[Asuko]

I dunno. It's a bit reassuring to me when there are at least 1000 reviews of the product and more than 75% are 5 eggs. I dunno, I'll just go with it for now.

[Ashrak]

id get a 226BW in your shoes, one helluva nice monitor

[Admiral_Stones]

BW like... Black and White monitor?
That soo eighties, dude.

[Hellstryker]

Acer Doesnt make **** computers if you take care of em... mine lasted for only 2 years but thats because the CPU overheated from being filled with dust >_<

[Ashrak]

BW like... Black and White monitor?
That soo eighties, dude.

nublet:

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=computersperipherals&type=monitors&subtype=lcd&model_cd=LS22MEWSFV/XAA

[colecampbell666]

I've also heard good things about the BW. I'd suggest that, as well as the 4 GB RAM. You don't need the expensive case, and you could probably manage 30-50$ extra.

[CP5670]

The 226BW is a somewhat older LCD, and has a particularly bad panel lottery now as well. There is better stuff available in the 20-22" range.

[Asuko]

I sort of can't manage the extra money. Still have to ask my parents for $1000.