I need a new monitor. Are they all compatible?

kuurt · 17 Nov 2018

I need a new monitor for my computer because the old one is dying. It takes 10 minutes or more to load up. But I'm wondering, do I need a certain kind of monitor or will they all be compatible with my computer?

My dying monitor was a 17 in. I tried a different monitor that my brother had which has a wider screen. I used it for a few weeks and then the sound went out in it. But one thing I noticed is that it seemed like the wider monitor used more memory, is that possible? It seemed like I couldn't open as many tabs because the computer would slow down and freeze up if I did.

Also does the monitor I get have to be compatible with Windows 7, or are they all compatible with Windows 7?

Thank you.

Ranger4 · 17 Nov 2018

Generally speaking all computer monitors should work, but the things to keep in mind are what sort of connection is needed, that is is it DVA, VGA or HDMI, most desktop computers will have a DVA & VGA connection point but may not have an HDMI one. Most monitors these days come in the 1920 x 1080 resolution rate. The next thing is size & that really is a matter of choice. If you sit fairly close to the monitor you don't need a huge one & the bigger they are the more they cost. Most are LCD/LED screens that are fairly economical on power. Also keep in mind some monitors have built in speakers & some don't so if you want audio you will need the speaker version.

The best thing is to go into a local computer shop & have a look at various monitors & ask their advice & then buy it there after discussing price etc.. You should also replace the connection cable as well.

I am not aware of larger screens using more computer power as the monitor supplies its own power for operation & the computer only supplies the signal, like in a TV. The reason for the slowness you mention may have been due to the settings & the resolution rate not being set properly.

kuurt · 17 Nov 2018

Thank you.

My computer uses a VGA connector.

I've never seen a computer monitor that had quality built in speakers. I tend to use headphones a lot so I'll need one with a headphone jack.

I do sit close to the computer and I don't really like big or wide screens. So I actually adjusted the resolution on the wide screen so that the viewable area wouldn't be so wide. Could that have been what slowed down my computer? I kind of figured it was that a bigger wider screen would require more data to process since it has more pixels or dots per inch. Seems like that would require more memory.

Ranger4 · 17 Nov 2018

It's better to use the whole screen area rather than adjust it so you end up with black lines down either side or at the top & bottom. The number of pixels is controlled by the monitors built in specifications. The computer supplies the image quality depending on the colour settings you set, I always use the highest saturated colour settings.

Looking at your System Specs I see you are using a NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 graphics card, which is the same as I use. I run 2 monitors off mine & never experience any computer speed variations. However you only have 4 GB of RAM installed & that really is the absolute minimum to run Windows 7 x 64, so it might be worth installing a matching RAM set of 8 GB, which should also improve you overall computer speed.

kuurt · 17 Nov 2018

I pretty sure I'm already using all four of the memory slots.

SIW2 · 18 Nov 2018

You can find information about your machine using the free siv.exe ( System Information Viewer )

download System Information Viewer 5.35

SIV - System Information Viewer