How important is the monitor?

[Srobertson1956]

I am ready to take the plunge and upgrade from my all in one old iMac to a dedicated (mostly) PC, the Alienware Aurora R16:

Intel® Core™ i7 14700FWindows 11 HomeNVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070 SUPER 12GB GDDR6X16 GB DDR51 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD ( I may also upgrade to one SSD drive and one storage drive). (I may go to the model with the RTX 4060 that is about $400 cheaper).

However, I need to also purchase a monitor. In order to interface properly with my new computer are there some minimum specs I should be looking at to get the full benefit of my new hardware? I am not a gamer and do not plan on using this for other games so I do not need curved screens and other bells and whistles I assume are not necessary for just viewing Trainz. I would also like to keep the monitor relatively inexpensive (around $200) if extra stuff is not needed. Dell has this 25” model for $209:

Dell 25 Gaming Monitor - G2524H - 24.5" monitor with up to 280Hz overclocked refresh rate on a Fast IPS panel for a smooth gaming experience. Resolution / Refresh Rate Full HD (1080p) 1920 × 1080 at 280 Hz, Adaptive Sync, VESA Adaptive-Sync, NVIDIA G-SYNC . Is this GOOD ENOUGH?

Regarding the twin drives, is there anything that I need to do to take advantage of this opportunity, or will the program recognize each and know where to place the boot up program versus just storing data in the other drive.

This is all a bit new to me since I have been a Mac user for so long. Thanks for your advice.

 

[JCitron]

That Dell display is quite nice. I have their older 27-inch one and it works well. 1980 x 1080 may seem "small", but for us older people the so-called lower resolution works well because it makes the text bigger. I also have their 32-inch display that replaced an ancient Samsung that finally croaked. That display was 15 years old and was also only 60 Hz.

You will want to turn off adaptive-sync because it doesn't work well with Trainz. I would still run the monitor at its highest frequency because it's less taxing on the eyes. You'll also need to turn off G-Sync in the NVidia control panel for your video card. The reason is, this causes micro-stutters that will give you a headache.

Other than the Adaptive-Sync (AMD's term) and G-Sync (Nvidia's term), the display is very nice.

 

[wilts747]

A monitor for gaming not only needs a good refreshing rate but also a good response time, i.e. the time it takes to change the colour of a single pixel. Ten millisecond is respectable, 5ms quite common, and top end below 1ms these days (I wish). Don't forget the cable either, a poor quality cable with cheap connectors can make a top end GPU and monitor perform worse than that you are trying to replace. Peter

 

[wreeder]

Regarding the twin drives, is there anything that I need to do to take advantage of this opportunity, or will the program recognize each and know where to place the boot up program versus just storing data in the other drive.

Yep, the computer will know the difference. Windows will come already installed on the correct drive but it will run a short version of a install for you to customize a few simple settings which will include creating a Microsoft account as the account you will use to login with when you start the computer. Although it is possible to bypass creating the Microsoft account I recommend you do it as it is free and it keeps things simple.

 

[johnwhelan]

Yep, the computer will know the difference. Windows will come already installed on the correct drive but it will run a short version of a install for you to customize a few simple settings which will include creating a Microsoft account as the account you will use to login with when you start the computer. Although it is possible to bypass creating the Microsoft account I recommend you do it as it is free and it keeps things simple.

Technically I'd add a local user account and do everything in that. Microsoft accounts tend to be set up as admin and by working in a user account Malware will find it more difficult to install.

Just say you don't have their details when setting up the account and decline setting up an email account for it.

Cheerio John

 

[wreeder]

While I would agree in principle, all the tech channels have been complaining that the May update of Win 11 now requires the creation of a Windows account even if you don't use it. Given that the OP is a Mac user coming to Windows for the first time. I think that the simple route is best at least until he gets more accustomed to how account management works.

 

[ricomon35]

@Srobertson1956 - This is the monitor I use > Sceptre Curved 30" 21:9 Gaming LED Monitor 2560x1080p UltraWide Ultra Slim HDMI DisplayPort Up to 85Hz MPRT 1ms FPS-RTS Build-in Speakers, Machine Blue (C305W-2560UN)

It's 199USD right now, but when I bought it, in Nov. 2019, it was 149USD. The company is relatively new, but has garnered a good reputation for quality, in the last few years.
As of today, the monitor still runs perfectly. Not had any performance issues of any kind with it.

The only thing about it I do not like, is the location of the HDMI and sound ports. They are on the rear panel, but face down, at about a 20 degree angle, and located about 3/4's of the way down the rear panel, which makes connecting cables somewhat annoying. A small issue really. There is a 360 degree view of the monitor on the Amazon page, where you can see the location of the ports.

Rico

 

[JCitron]

@Srobertson1956 - This is the monitor I use > Sceptre Curved 30" 21:9 Gaming LED Monitor 2560x1080p UltraWide Ultra Slim HDMI DisplayPort Up to 85Hz MPRT 1ms FPS-RTS Build-in Speakers, Machine Blue (C305W-2560UN)

It's 199USD right now, but when I bought it, in Nov. 2019, it was 149USD. The company is relatively new, but has garnered a good reputation for quality, in the last few years.
As of today, the monitor still runs perfectly. Not had any performance issues of any kind with it.

The only thing about it I do not like, is the location of the HDMI and sound ports. They are on the rear panel, but face down, at about a 20 degree angle, and located about 3/4's of the way down the rear panel, which makes connecting cables somewhat annoying. A small issue really. There is a 360 degree view of the monitor on the Amazon page, where you can see the location of the ports.

Rico

I looked at that monitor but ended up with the Dell because I had reward points. The Dell 32-inch monitor cost me $20.00 including tax and shipping.