Even More Tempting...

BenQ 22-inch LCD

Last week, my boss picked up a BenQ 22" Widescreen LCD monitor for my desk. It came as a bit of a surprise, but it's been wonderful working on it all week. The monitor itself is quite cheap in comparison to most other larger LCD monitors out there- about $300, which is amazing considering I picked up each of my 2 19" LCD's for 'BlackFlame Hydra' just after Christmas for $300 (I think- maybe it was $200, can't remember- either way, this is a great price for a 22" monitor).

So naturally I've been toying with the idea of expanding and adding this as a third monitor to 'BlackFlame Hydra'- which is quickly becoming the true successor to the old entertainment centre. Unfortunately that means I would need to add a second video card to the system- and since it's an older system, I'm limited to using a PCI card- which, themselves, are difficult to find- especially for something dual-head and affordable. My thinking is that I would add the PCI card and use it for 'non-critical' tasks- likely putting the existing 19" monitors on that card and putting the 22" on my existing Radeon 9800Pro video card for games, movies and TV.

The TV thing is the real kicker- especially now. While fooling around with the monitor sitting on my desk- I came to discover that this monitor has an HDMI input. OMFG! That means this monitor can essentially double as an HDTV out of the box! That means that nifty new HDPVR we picked up a few months back can now finally be used to it's full potential- not to mention the XBOX 360 and the Wii!

Ooh- the temptation just became a little more intense.