Please rate this system I put together - good deal?

[kidpokeher]

Thanks Shoe Lace,

I checked out mwave but even their 'build a system' page just adds $80 to the cart. Seems like an ok place to buy a component or two but their website is too much of a PITA to configure and build a whole system with.

So these widescreen monitors don't make pictures and webpages look "stretched"? I'm thinking of my HDTV that stretches the regular size (analog) pictures to fill the screen (looks gross.)

[Shoe Lace]

I wasn't aware of a build a system page. I'd just pick and choose each component (cpu, motherboard, ram, etc), and at the end tell em to assemble/test it for the extra $80.

My time has value, but I can't sustain $300/h. I assumed better parts+$300 savings was worth it to most people.

Computers and TVs are much different.

This is a screen shot of what 2+2 looks like on my 19" wide screen LCD running in full screen:
http://i17.tinypic.com/664xi6v.jpg
(The ratio you see in this screen shot is exactly how it's displayed on the monitor itself)

If I physically shrink the window to make it less wide then the window simply shrinks. It doesn't bunch up and look distorted.

The only time I notice a stretch effect is when I attempt to run a game that doesn't support a wide screen resolution. The LCD will take let's say 800x600 and then stretch it to a wide screen ratio.

This isn't common though. Most LCDs will allow you to put standard black bars (like when you run a wide screen movie into a non-wide screen TV) so it doesn't stretch. Mine doesn't have this feature because it's an older LCD but almost every DVI LCD has a means of doing it now.

It's not an issue in an office environment unless your aunt is hooked on playing older games in full screen mode (playing in window mode would result in the picture looking normal and not stretched).

[kidpokeher]

Thanks again. Since she plays games almost never, it sounds like she won't have a problem with a widescreen. How does it look when you play DVD movies?

[Shoe Lace]

Wide screen movies will look great. You won't have large black bars on top because the ratio is nearly the same as the movie.

Non-wide screen movies will be a little stretched by default (won't look too bad) but video players like Media Player Classic (free, google it) will let you hard lock a ratio so you'll get black bars instead of it stretching. It will look no different than watching it on a non-wide screen monitor then.